Install R Packages

[#1]

The Install R Packages app provides an easy to use interface for installing R packages to be used with Alteryx. Packages are installed in the user's personal R library folder, which is a folder that R searches for by default to find available R packages.

[Suraj07]

How can i get the download option here?

[Cloonan]

When I load the workflow I am getting the below error. Can someone please advise how I resolve this?

[helpfultoaster]

@CloonanThat error message looks like an indicator that you do not have Predictive Tools installed for this Designer version. The Predictive RTools installer can be found under Alteryx Designer at downloads.alteryx.com

[Darrie8468]

Do I need to be logged in as an Admin to install these tools?

[mjf]

I find it best to specify the contriburl argument in install.packages() because some of the packages in 4.1 aren't compatible with the packages bundled with the latest version of Alteryx. Check out my post on the subject.

[mjf]

This app won't work for every package because it draws from a CRAN that is continually updated by many packages authors (over 18,000 packages), whereas Predictive Tools is not continually updated. The best way for Alteryx to solve this issue is to host your own CRAN - one that is not updated by regular package authors. In other words, provide a snapshot of ALL R packages that were available at the time Alteryx developed Predictive Tools. Then, in this app, change the repo argument in install.packages() to the CRAN hosted by Alteryx. Check out my idea on the subject. Until then, installing new R packages with Alteryx is nothing more than a cause for a bug report.

[sarahvannett]

Can someone please help with this error?

[mjf]

I've never experienced this error code before. What package were you trying to install, please? I did a quick Google search and this error code pops up for all sorts of programs, indicating it might not be R/Alteryx causing the problem.

[sarahvannett]

It is for the xlsx package!

[mjf]

I've got two suggestions, the second one is a bit lame - reinstall - but hopefully the first suggestion will work for you... I have just tried this on my machine, which runs Alteryx 2022.1 (R-4.1.3), and it works. 

Install the xlsx package using R

If there is a problem installing an R package within Alteryx, then you should try installing an R package outside of Alteryx. I'll assume you don't know how to do this, so I will walk you through.

• Open Windows Explorer and navigate to the directory where Alteryx is installed, e.g. C:\Program Files\Alteryx.
• Open the R directory, which should look like R-x.x.x, where the x's are numbers specifying the R version Alteryx uses. For instance, my R directory is R-4.1.3.
• Open R.exe, located in the bin directory, this is the R console and it is what Alteryx runs when you run an R tool.
• Please type the command below - the full-stop/period is important. What you will see are the directories that packages are typically stored in. The very first directory that you have write access to is where your package will be installed. Please note that running this within a R tool may yield different results (we'll come to that later).

.libPaths()

• Now we will install xlsx by typing the following

install.packages("xlsx")

• A pop-up will appear asking you to pick a CRAN mirror. Any are fine, I usually use the top one, Cloud-0 (or something like that). A CRAN mirror is a location where all of the packages are available for people to download and install.
• Issuing this command should install two packages: xlsx (second) and its dependency xlsxjars (first). It will also say where temporary files are downloaded and where the package is ultimately installed (the first writable location in .libPaths()).
• Let's test out our installation by typing this

library("xlsx")

• If nothing happens, then it has installed correctly!

So, now we need to use this in Alteryx! Make a note of the location of the package (ie. whatever R tells you when you installed the package) and pop this command in a R Tool

library("xlsx", lib.loc = "full/path/where/the/package/directory/exists")

For example, if your package is here, C:\Users\my_name\Documents\R\win-library\4.1\xlsx, then type this in a R tool (note the forward slashes - backslashes have a special meaning in R)

library("xlsx", lib.loc = "C:/Users/my_name/Documents/R/win-library/4.1")

Then carry on with the rest of your R code! Please note, if you output .libPaths() in a R Tool, you may find that the location of your xlsx package is already in the list. If this is the case, then you don't need to specify the lib.loc argument.

Good luck!

[sarahvannett]

Very helpful, thank you!

[manuelmoralez]

I received this error when trying to install pdftools via this R package

[mjf]

What version of R is your Alteryx running? If you don't know, place an empty R tool into a workflow and run. The first message output from the tool will give you the R version. You may have to use a different version of R or find an older version of pdftools that works with your current R. 

[ryanwilliams_NT]

I receive this error when trying to run optimiser tool in Alteryx. Finding it hard to work out what the problem is, other than the fact R packages need updating within Alteryx, something I don't have necessary permissions to do. Anyone else experienced this error message and if so is it just a matter of getting IT to update our R packages within our version of Alteryx? (Version used is Info: R (59): R version 3.6.3 (2020-02-29) - x86_64)