R Package Templates • litr

Predefined litr templates make it easy to get started writing R packages of various kinds. The following table shows the package templates available. Click on the “Generated html” and “Generated R package” cells to see what each template produces.

Template name	Description	Rmd source file	Generated html	Generated R package
make-an-r-package	the most basic package: a function and a test	create-rhello.Rmd	create-rhello.html	rhello/
make-an-r-package-with-data	a package with a data set in it	create-rhasdata.Rmd	create-rhasdata.html	rhasdata/
make-an-r-package-with-rcpp	a package using `Rcpp`	create-withrcpp.Rmd	create-withrcpp.html	withrcpp/
make-an-r-package-with-extras	a package with a README, vignette(s), a pkgdown site, and a hex sticker	create-withpkgdown.Rmd	create-withpkgdown.html	withpkgdown/
make-an-r-package-from-bookdown	a package defined in a bookdown	index.Rmd, 1description.Rmd, …, 4end.Rmd	_book/index.html	frombookdown/
make-an-r-package-with-armadillo	a package using `RcppArmadillo`	create-witharmadillo.Rmd	create-witharmadillo.html	witharmadillo/

Once you’ve chosen a template, you can get started as follows:

rmarkdown::draft("create-[name-of-your-package].Rmd",
                 template = "[name-of-template]",
                 package = "litr")
litr::render("create-[name-of-your-package].Rmd")

Here, "[name-of-template]" would be chosen from the first column of the table above. For example, for the most basic template, you would do the following:

rmarkdown::draft("create-rhello.Rmd",
                 template = "make-an-r-package",
                 package = "litr")
litr::render("create-rhello.Rmd")

And to make an R package that uses Rcpp, you would start with the following:

rmarkdown::draft("create-withrcpp.Rmd",
                 template = "make-an-r-package-with-rcpp",
                 package = "litr")
litr::render("create-withrcpp.Rmd")