7 Altering the rendering process

The focus here is to make it so that all the special litr functionality will be active when the .Rmd is rendered. In particular, we need to make sure that setup() has been called before knitting occurs (so that, for example, send_to_package() will be active). We also need to make sure that after knitting certain things occur, such as the litr-hash being written to the package and, in some cases, hyperlinks are added for easier navigation.

We implement two ways for the above to occur, which we describe in the next two subsections:

  1. The first approach is by defining custom litr output formats. When rmarkdown::render() (or bookdown::render_book()) is called with one of these litr output formats, the litr-specific operations occur before and after knitting.

  2. The second way is through the function litr::render(). If a user calls litr::render() with a non-litr output format, e.g. rmarkdown::html_document(), then it adds the necessary litr-specific operations before/after rmarkdown::render() is called. Another thing of note about litr::render() is that it renders the document in a fresh environment, which ensures identical behavior to when a user presses “Knit” in RStudio.

Although these are presented as two separate approaches, we have written litr::render() so that if a user passes one of the litr output formats to litr::render(), it will still work.

We encourage users to use litr::render()1 rather than rmarkdown::render() since in litr::render() we’re able to wrap the call to rmarkdown::render() in the function with_cleanup(). This ensures that, if an error occurs during the knitting process, the special litr hash will still be created. This is desirable since it means that the next time we try to litr-knit, we will not get an error about overwriting a manually edited package directory.

When coding an R package with litr, sometimes there are code chunks that can take a while to evaluate (e.g., tests), which slows down the coding process. We therefore provide an argument (to both litr::render() and the various litr output formats) that allows for “minimal eval” to occur. The goal is to allow the R package to be updated completely but without any of the code chunks being evaluated, except those whose involving usethis or a call to litr::document(), since these commands lead to changes in the R package itself.

7.1 Defining litr output formats

The function rmarkdown::render() allows for customizable behavior through the use of custom output formats.

Given a preexisting output format (e.g. rmarkdown::html_document), we would like to modify it to have litr-behavior – i.e., to create a package as it is being rendered. This next function takes a preexisting output format and “litr-ifies” it by making three changes:

  1. It modifies the pre_knit() function.

  2. It modifies the post_processor() function.

  3. It adds a marker (litr_format <- TRUE) that will help litr::render() know when a litr output format is being passed to it.

We present the function and then describe the details of the new pre_knit() and post_processor() functions below.

#' Modify an existing output format to have `litr` behavior
#' 
#' This function modifies the `pre_knit()` and `post_processor()` functions of a
#' preexisting output format so that it will have the `litr` behavior (meaning that an R package will be created when `rmarkdown::render()` is called).
#' 
#' @param base_format a preexisting, non-litr output format such as `rmarkdown::html_document`
#' @param minimal_eval If `TRUE`, then only chunks with `litr::document()` or 
#' `usethis` commands will be evaluated.  This can be convenient in coding when 
#' you just want to quickly update the R package without having to wait for long
#' evaluations to occur.
#' @export
litrify_output_format <- function(base_format = rmarkdown::html_document,
                                  minimal_eval = FALSE) {
  force(base_format) # I think using force here is advisable?
  force(minimal_eval) # https://adv-r.hadley.nz/function-factories.html
  function(...) {
    old <- base_format(...)
    new <- old
    new$original_knitr_objects <- list()
    new$pre_knit <- function(...) {
      args <- list(...)
      input <- args$input
      params <- knitr::knit_params(readLines(input))
      package_dir <- get_package_directory(
        params$package_parent_dir$value,
        params$package_name$value,
        input)
      new$original_knitr_objects <<- litr:::setup(package_dir, minimal_eval)
      if (!is.null(old$pre_knit)) old$pre_knit(...)
    }

    new$post_processor <- function(metadata, input_file, output_file, ...) {
      # typically the post_processor function returns the output file path
      # if old$post_processor is NULL, as in the case of pdf_document,
      # then R will throw an error when trying to call old$post_processor
      # if we only add a check for non null old$post_processor and otherwise
      # set out <- NULL then R will throw an error later in rmarkdown::render
      # since output_file is set to the output of the post_processor if 
      # output_format$post_processor is not null (See line 478 in rmarkdown::render)
      # Therefore, our solution is to set out to the output_file path if old$post_process is null.
      if (!is.null(old$post_processor)){
        out <- old$post_processor(metadata, input_file, output_file, ...)  
      } else {
        out <- output_file 
      }
      package_dir <- get_package_directory(
        metadata$params$package_parent_dir,
        metadata$params$package_name,
        input_file
      )
      # remove .Rproj and .gitignore if usethis::create_package() added these
      remove_rstudio_extras(package_dir)

      # add to DESCRIPTION file the version of litr used to create package:
      write_version_to_description(package_dir)

      # add litr hash so we can tell later if package files were manually edited:
      write_hash_to_description(package_dir)
      
      out
    }
    
    new$on_exit <- function() {
      old$on_exit()
      
      # restore knitr to its original state
      restore_knitr_objects(new$original_knitr_objects)
    }
    
    # mark this as a litr_format
    new$litr_format <- TRUE
    
    # litr formats have minimal_eval as an option
    new$minimal_eval <- minimal_eval

    new
  }
}

  1. The pre_knit() function is modified so that setup() is called before the preexisting output format’s pre_knit() function is called. As the name suggests, this is a function that gets called before knitting. The purpose of the call to setup() is to create the R package directory and make it so that when we knit the file using rmarkdown::render(), a lot of special things will happen, such as code being sent to the R package directory. The function setup() returns the state of the knitr settings before any changes were made. This previous state of the knitr settings will be restored at the end of the rendering process in on_exit().

  2. The post_processor() function is modified so that the DESCRIPTION file gets marked with the version of litr used and with the litr hash (as already described here). Some special care is taken for the case that the original output format doesn’t have a post processor (e.g., this is the case for the pdf_document output format). The particulars of this are given in a comment in the code chunk above.

  3. The on_exit() function is modified so that it restores the state of all the knitr settings to how it was when render was first called.

We use the above function to create some litr versions of common output formats, as seen in the next few subsections.

Before proceeding, we define the function write_version_to_description() that is called above.

#' Generate litr version field name for DESCRIPTION file
#' @keywords internal
description_litr_version_field_name <- function() return("LitrVersionUsed")
#' Write the version of litr used to the DESCRIPTION file
#' 
#' @param package_dir Path to package
#' @keywords internal
write_version_to_description <- function(package_dir) {
  ver <- as.character(utils::packageVersion("litr"))
  add_text_to_file(
    txt = stringr::str_glue("{description_litr_version_field_name()}: {ver}"),
    filename = file.path(package_dir, "DESCRIPTION"),
    req_exist = TRUE
    )
}

Also, we made use of a small function for getting the package directory based on the input file’s location and the parameters that are being used in the rendering process. We define it here:

#' Get package directory
#' 
#' @param package_parent_dir The directory of where the package should go (relative to the input directory)
#' @param package_name The name of the package
#' @param input The file name of the input
#' @keywords internal
get_package_directory <- function(package_parent_dir, package_name, input) {
  if (package_parent_dir == ".")
    return(file.path(dirname(input), package_name))
  file.path(dirname(input), package_parent_dir, package_name)
}

Let’s write some tests to make sure it’s behaving as expected:

testthat::test_that("get_package_directory() works", {
  input <- file.path("inputdir", "input.Rmd")
  testthat::expect_equal(
    get_package_directory(".", "mypkg", input),
    file.path("inputdir", "mypkg") # inputdir/mypkg
  )
  testthat::expect_equal(
    get_package_directory("..", "mypkg", input),
    file.path("inputdir", "..", "mypkg") # inputdir/../mypkg
  )
})
## Test passed

7.1.1 .pdf output format

We want our .pdf documents to accurately display the “logging” output from functions in packages such as devtools that use special ANSI escape codes for displaying information in the terminal. Unfortunately, these codes use escape characters which cause problems when creating .pdf versions of our documents. While it is relatively straightforward to map ANSI escape codes to HTML tags, as we will see in the .html output format section, converting these escape codes to Latex commands is more complicated. As a result, we define a post_knit function in our litr_pdf_document format to avoid this issue by stripping out all escape codes in the file before it is converted into a .tex file and then compiled into a .pdf document.

Specifically, the post_knit function modifies the intermediate .knit.md file, which contains both the .Rmd file, as well as the output of each code chunk. Thus, we can inspect the output text of each code chunk and remove any ANSI escape codes before the .knit.md is converted to a .tex file and then a .pdf document. We rely upon two internal functions from the fansi R package to remove all possible escape codes and return a clean character vector.

#' litr version of `rmarkdown::pdf_document()`
#' 
#' This behaves exactly like `rmarkdown::pdf_document()` except it creates an 
#' R package.
#' 
#' @param minimal_eval If `TRUE`, then only chunks with `litr::document()` or 
#' `usethis` commands will be evaluated.  This can be convenient in coding when 
#' you just want to quickly update the R package without having to wait for long
#' evaluations to occur.
#' @param ... Parameters to be passed to `rmarkdown::pdf_document()` 
#' @export
litr_pdf_document <- function(minimal_eval = FALSE, ...) {
  litr_pdf_document_ <- litrify_output_format(rmarkdown::pdf_document,
                                              minimal_eval = minimal_eval)
  old <- litr_pdf_document_(...)
  new <- old

  # post_knit
  new$post_knit = function(...){
    args = list(...)
    input_filename <- args[[2]]
    knitted_filename <- fs::path_ext_set(input_filename, ".knit.md")
    knitted_output <- readLines(knitted_filename)
    cleaned_output <- sapply(1:length(knitted_output), function(i){
      test_str <- knitted_output[i]
      fansi:::VAL_IN_ENV(x=test_str, ctl="all", warn=TRUE, warn.mask=fansi:::get_warn_mangled())
      .Call(fansi:::FANSI_strip_csi, test_str, CTL.INT, WARN.INT)
    })
    writeLines(cleaned_output, knitted_filename)
  }
  new
}

Since the above section uses the fansi package for handling ANSI escape sequences, we include it in our package:

usethis::use_package("fansi")
## ✔ Adding 'fansi' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION
## • Refer to functions with `fansi::fun()`

7.1.2 .html output format

For .html documents, we’d like to add a bit more in the postprocessing step. In particular, we include some special function and chunk hyperlinking behavior described below. The function add_function_hyperlinks() processes the outputted .html file(s), making it so that one can easily navigate to function definitions. (This function is described lower in this section.) We likewise call a function add_chunk_label_hyperlinks(), which makes chunk references into clickable links. In particular, the chunk reference <<my-chunk>> within a code chunk would link to a chunk named “my-chunk” that begins with ###"my-chunk"###. The ###"my-chunk"### line is added by a document hook defined in setup(). Finally, we replace ANSI sequences with HTML tag equivalents (the need for this is explained in the section on the .pdf output format).

#' litr version of `rmarkdown::html_document()`
#' 
#' This behaves like `rmarkdown::html_document()` with a few differences:
#' - It creates an R package.
#' - It adds hyperlinks to function definitions whenever a function is used
#' elsewhere in the document.
#' - It does "Knuth-style" chunk referencing with hyperlinks.
#' 
#' @param minimal_eval If `TRUE`, then only chunks with `litr::document()` or 
#' `usethis` commands will be evaluated.  This can be convenient in coding when 
#' you just want to quickly update the R package without having to wait for long
#' evaluations to occur.
#' @param ... Parameters to be passed to `rmarkdown::pdf_document()` 
#' @export
litr_html_document <- function(minimal_eval = FALSE, ...) {
  litr_html_document_ <- litrify_output_format(rmarkdown::html_document,
                                               minimal_eval = minimal_eval)
  old <- litr_html_document_(...)
  new <- old
  # modify post_processor
  new$post_processor = function(metadata, input_file, output_file, ...) {
    out <- old$post_processor(metadata, input_file, output_file, ...)
    # html_files <- fs::dir_ls(fs::path_dir(out), regexp = ".html$")
    # add hyperlinks within html output to make it easier to navigate:
    add_function_hyperlinks(output_file, metadata$params$package_name)
    add_chunk_label_hyperlinks(output_file)
    # replace ANSI sequences with HTML tag equivalents
    replace_ansi_sequences(output_file)
    out
  }
  new
}

We describe these two add_*_hyperlinks() functions next.

The function add_function_hyperlinks() looks for foo followed by <- function( and then wraps foo in a span tag with id="foo"; whenever foo is found elsewhere in the document, it calls the insert_hrefs() function to wrap a a href="file.html#foo" tag (where file.html is the file where foo is defined), so that it will be a hyperlink to foo’s definition.

#' Add hyperlinks to function definitions
#' 
#' Finds functions that are defined in the html file(s) by looking for text of the 
#' form `foo <- function(` and then wraps `foo` in a `span` tag with `id="foo"` 
#' and then whenever `foo` is found it wraps a `a href="file.html#foo"` tag so 
#' that it will be a hyperlink to `foo`'s definition.
#' 
#' @param html_files Character vector of file names of html files that were created
#' from Rmd files
#' @param pkg_name Name of the package created by litr. Taken from YAML front matter
#' @keywords internal
add_function_hyperlinks <- function(html_files, pkg_name) {
  find_function_defs <- function(html_file) {
    txt <- readLines(html_file)
    start_line <- which(txt == "<body>")
    pattern1 <- '([a-zA-Z0-9_.]+)(\\s*&lt;-\\s*function)'
    pattern2 <- stringr::str_replace(pattern1,
                                     '&lt;-',
                                     '<span class="ot">&lt;-</span>')
    pattern2 <- stringr::str_replace(pattern2,
                                     'function',
                                     '<span class="cf">function</span>')
    # find functions that are defined in this file:
    function_names <- character(0)
    for (pattern in c(pattern1, pattern2)) {
      for (i in seq(start_line + 1, length(txt))) {
        fn_name <- stringr::str_match(txt[i], pattern)[, 2]
        if(is.na(fn_name)) next
        # a function was defined in this line, so put a span around it
        txt[i] <- stringr::str_replace(
          txt[i],
          pattern,
          stringr::str_glue("<span id='{fn_name}'>\\1</span>\\2")
        )
        # and keep track of it for later:
        function_names <- c(function_names, fn_name)
      }
    }
    list(function_names = function_names, txt = txt)
  }
  fdefs <- lapply(html_files, find_function_defs)
  all_function_names <- unlist(lapply(fdefs, function(lst) lst$function_names))
  # if a function is defined multiple times, then it's ambiguous where to link to
  # so let's not try linking to it (this can occur when a function is defined 
  # within a function, such as `new$post_processor()`)
  repeated <- names(which(table(all_function_names) > 1))
  all_function_names <- setdiff(all_function_names, repeated)
  if (length(all_function_names) == 0) {
    # no functions defined in package, so nothing more to be done here
    return()
  }
  num_per_file <- unlist(lapply(fdefs, 
                                function(lst) {
                                  length(setdiff(lst$function_names, repeated))
                                }))
  where_defined <- rep(fs::path_file(html_files), times = num_per_file)
  defined_functions_pattern <- paste0("(::)?",all_function_names, "\\(", collapse = "|")
  # There's also this case: <span class="fu">myfunction</span>
  defined_functions_pattern2 <- paste0(
    '<span class="fu">', all_function_names, '</span>\\(',
    collapse = "|")
  
  for (i in seq_along(html_files)) {
    # whenever one of the defined functions is named, link to its definition
    # using the format `file_where_foo_is_defined.html#foo`
    modified_txt <- insert_hrefs(fdefs[[i]]$txt, defined_functions_pattern,
                                 where_defined, all_function_names, pkg_name)
    modified_txt <- insert_hrefs(modified_txt, defined_functions_pattern2,
                                 where_defined, all_function_names, pkg_name, remove_span=TRUE)
    writeLines(modified_txt, con = html_files[i])
  }
}

We define next the helper function insert_hrefs(), which was called in the previous function. If the function foo() is defined in the .Rmd file that defines a package named pkg, then whenever foo() or pkg::foo() appears in the .Rmd, a link will be added; however, if other_pkg::foo() appears, then no link will be added.

#' Replace a function's name with a link to its definition
#' 
#' A helper function for `add_function_hyperlinks` that wraps references to a 
#' function in an anchor tag with a link to the function's definition.
#' 
#' @param txt Character vector where each element is a row of the knitted HTML file.
#' @param function_pattern Regular Expression passed from `add_function_hyperlinks` that contains all referenced functions in the document.
#' @param where_defined Character vector that contains the name of the file in which a function was defined.
#' @param all_function_names Character vector of all referenced functions in the document.
#' @param pkg_name Name of the package created by litr. Taken from YAML front matter.
#' @param remove_span Boolean argument for removing span tags. Used for minimizing code duplication.
#' @keywords internal
insert_hrefs <- function(txt, function_pattern, where_defined,
                         all_function_names, pkg_name, remove_span=FALSE){
  # filter down matches of defined_functions_pattern
  has_fn_name <- which(stringr::str_detect(txt, function_pattern))
  has_colon_prefix <- which(stringr::str_detect(txt, paste0("::", all_function_names, "\\(", collapse = "|")))
  has_only_fn_name <- setdiff(has_fn_name, has_colon_prefix)
  has_pkg_colon_prefix <- which(stringr::str_detect(txt, paste0(stringr::str_glue("{pkg_name}::"))))
  
  # define different replacement functions for colon prefix cases and regular cases
  colon_pref_replace_fn <- function(x){
    if(remove_span){
      fn_name <- stringr::str_remove(x, "</span>\\(")
      fn_name <- stringr::str_remove(fn_name, '<span class="fu">')
    } else{
      fn_name <- stringr::str_remove(x, "\\(")
    }
    fn_name <- stringr::str_remove(fn_name, stringr::str_glue('{pkg_name}::'))
    # implicitly assuming that a function is not redefined in another file
    def_file <- where_defined[all_function_names == fn_name]
    return(stringr::str_glue("{pkg_name}::<a href='{def_file}#{fn_name}'>{fn_name}</a>("))
    
  }
  regular_replace_fn <- function(x){
    if(remove_span){
      fn_name <- stringr::str_remove(x, '</span>\\(')
      fn_name <- stringr::str_remove(fn_name, '<span class="fu">')  
    } else {
      fn_name <- stringr::str_remove(x, "\\(")
    }
    # implicitly assuming that a function is not redefined in another file
    def_file <- where_defined[all_function_names == fn_name]
    stringr::str_glue("<a href='{def_file}#{fn_name}'>{fn_name}</a>(")
  }  
  
  colon_prefix_function_pattern <- paste0(stringr::str_glue("{pkg_name}::"),all_function_names, "\\(", collapse = "|")
  colon_prefix_refs <- stringr::str_replace_all(
    txt[has_pkg_colon_prefix],
    colon_prefix_function_pattern,
    colon_pref_replace_fn
  )
  
  regular_refs <- stringr::str_replace_all(
    txt[has_only_fn_name],
    function_pattern,
    regular_replace_fn
  )
  # now put back in the changed lines
  txt[has_pkg_colon_prefix] <- colon_prefix_refs
  txt[has_only_fn_name] <- regular_refs
  txt
}

In addition to adding hyperlinks to function definitions, we also want to add hyperlinks for chunk references of the form <<chunk-name>> that link to user-defined chunk names that take the form ###chunk-name###. We want these user-defined chunk names to stand out to readers and in their original form as code comments they might be harder to notice. To solve this issue, we modify the formatting of these chunks to add a border with the name of the chunk set into the border, mimicking the look of a <fieldset> tag. The additional formatting requires inserting additional HTML tags as well as css into the knitted HTML file so we use the xml2 package to parse and manipulate the knitted HTML file.

#' Add hyperlinks to embedded chunks
#' 
#' Finds chunks that are referenced in the html file(s) by looking for comments
#' of the form `###"foo"###` and then wraps `foo` in a `span` tag with `id="foo"` 
#' and then whenever the chunk label `<<foo>>` is found it wraps it in a 
#' `a href="file.html#foo"` tag so that it will be a hyperlink to `foo`'s 
#' definition.
#' 
#' @param html_files Character vector of file names of html files that were created
#' from Rmd files
#' @param reference_start The delimiter used to indicate the start of a chunk label 
#' @param reference_end The delimiter used to indicate the end of a chunk label 
#' @keywords internal
add_chunk_label_hyperlinks <- function(html_files,
                                       reference_start = "&lt;&lt;",
                                       reference_end = "&gt;&gt;"){
  find_chunk_defs <- function(html_file) {
    txt <- readLines(html_file)
    start_line <- which(txt == "<body>")
    pattern <- '###&quot;([a-zA-Z0-9-_.]+)&quot;###'
    # find chunks that are defined in this file:
    chunk_names <- character(0)
    for (i in seq(start_line + 1, length(txt))) {
      chunk_name <- stringr::str_match(txt[i], pattern)[, 2]
      if(is.na(chunk_name)) next
      # a chunk was defined in this line, so put a span around it
      txt[i] <- stringr::str_replace(
        txt[i],
        pattern,
        stringr::str_glue("<span id='{chunk_name}'>###&quot;\\1&quot;###</span>")
      )
      # and keep track of it for later.
      # we're using setNames here to make sure that we keep the name of file
      # where the chunk name is defined 
      chunk_names <- setNames(c(chunk_names, chunk_name), c(names(chunk_names), html_file))
    }
    list(chunk_names = chunk_names, txt = txt)
  }
  
  cdefs <- lapply(html_files, find_chunk_defs)
  all_chunk_names <- unlist(lapply(cdefs, function(lst) lst$chunk_names))
  num_per_file <- unlist(lapply(cdefs, function(lst) length(lst$chunk_names)))
  where_defined <- rep(fs::path_file(html_files), times = num_per_file)
  
  defined_chunks_pattern <- paste0(reference_start, all_chunk_names, reference_end, 
                                   collapse = "|")
  ref_start <- '<span class="sc">&lt;</span><span class="er">&lt;</span>'
  ref_start_alt <- '<span class=\"er\">&lt;&lt;</span>'
  ref_end <- '<span class="sc">&gt;</span><span class="er">&gt;</span>'
  hyphen_with_extras <- '<span class="sc">-</span>'
  all_chunk_names2 <- stringr::str_replace_all(all_chunk_names, "-", hyphen_with_extras)
  defined_chunks_pattern2 <- paste0(
    ref_start, all_chunk_names2, ref_end, collapse = "|"
    )
  defined_chunks_pattern2_alt <- paste0(
    ref_start_alt, all_chunk_names2, ref_end, collapse = "|"
    )
  defined_chunks_pattern2 <- paste(
    defined_chunks_pattern2, defined_chunks_pattern2_alt, sep = "|"
    )

  for (i in seq_along(html_files)) {
    # whenever one of these named chunks is referenced, link to its definition
    # using the format `file_where_chunk_is_defined.html#chunkname`
    txt <- stringr::str_replace_all(
      cdefs[[i]]$txt,
      defined_chunks_pattern,
      function(x) {
        cname <- stringr::str_remove_all(
          x,
          paste(reference_start, reference_end, sep = "|")
        )
        def_file <- where_defined[all_chunk_names == cname]
        stringr::str_glue(
          "<a href='{def_file}#{cname}'>{reference_start}{cname}{reference_end}</a>"
          )
      }
    )
    txt <- stringr::str_replace_all(
      txt,
      defined_chunks_pattern2,
      function(x) {
        cname <- stringr::str_remove_all(
          x,
          paste(ref_start, ref_start_alt, ref_end, sep = "|")
        )
        def_file <- where_defined[all_chunk_names2 == cname]
        cname <- stringr::str_replace_all(cname, hyphen_with_extras, "-")
        stringr::str_glue(
          "<a href='{def_file}#{cname}'>{reference_start}{cname}{reference_end}</a>"
          )
      }
    )

    parsed_html <- xml2::read_html(paste(txt,collapse="\n"))
    # get all possible chunk names in this file.
    chunk_names <- all_chunk_names[which(names(all_chunk_names) == html_files[i])]
    
    if(length(chunk_names) > 0){
      for(j in seq_along(chunk_names)){
        span_node <- xml2::xml_find_first(parsed_html, stringr::str_glue('(.//span[@id="{chunk_names[j]}"])'))
        span_node_path <- stringr::str_split(xml2::xml_path(span_node),"/")
        
        pre_path <- paste(span_node_path[[1]][1:(max(which(stringr::str_detect(span_node_path[[1]], "pre"))))],collapse="/")
        if(nchar(pre_path) == 0){
          next()
        }
        pre_parent <- xml2::xml_find_first(parsed_html, pre_path)
        if(is.na(pre_parent)){
          next()
        }
        xml2::xml_add_parent(pre_parent
                             , xml2::read_xml(stringr::str_glue('<fieldset id="{chunk_names[j]}" class="chunkfield"> </fieldset>')))
        xml2::xml_add_sibling(pre_parent, xml2::read_xml(stringr::str_glue('<legend class="chunklegend">{chunk_names[j]}</legend>')), where="before")
        xml2::xml_remove(span_node)
        # remove the extra line break that is left over from removing the span
        code_node <- xml2::xml_child(pre_parent)
        changed_txt <- stringr::str_remove(paste(as.character(xml2::xml_contents(code_node)),collapse=""), '\n')
        xml2::xml_replace(code_node, xml2::read_xml(stringr::str_glue('<code>{changed_txt}</code>')))
      }
    }
    # last thing is to insert an additional style node in the head with our CSS so we have a standard style whether we are using bookdown or Rmarkdown
    css_string <- "fieldset.chunkfield {border:1px dotted black;padding-bottom: 0px;padding-top: 0px;margin:0 2px;padding:.35em .625em .75em}
    legend.chunklegend {padding:0;width:auto;border:0; border-bottom: none; margin-bottom:0}
    "
    head_node <- xml2::xml_find_first(parsed_html, ".//head")
    xml2::xml_add_child(head_node, xml2::read_xml(stringr::str_glue("<style type='text/css'>{css_string}</style>")))
    txt <- xml2::write_html(parsed_html, html_files[i])
  }
}

Since we rely on the xml2 package to add in the extra label formatting, let’s import it:

usethis::use_package("xml2")
## ✔ Adding 'xml2' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION
## • Refer to functions with `xml2::fun()`

Finally, we want to replace the ANSI escape sequences used by packages such as testthat and devtools with their HTML equivalents so the output matches what we see in the terminal.

#' Replace ANSI escape sequences with their HTML equivalents
#' 
#' Finds ANSI escape sequences and replaces them with HTML tags using the `fansi` package
#' 
#' @param html_files Character vector of file names of html files that were created
#' from Rmd files
#' @keywords internal
replace_ansi_sequences <- function(html_files) {
  for (i in seq_along(html_files)) {
    file_lines <- readLines(html_files[i])
    # look for lines with escape sequences for URLs and remove the URL
    # escape sequences before we convert to HTML
    url_code_regex <- "\\033]8;;.*\\a(.*?)\\033]8;;\\a"
    url_seq_idx <- which(stringr::str_detect(file_lines, url_code_regex))
    file_lines[url_seq_idx] <- sapply(url_seq_idx, function(idx){
      line <- file_lines[idx]
      stringr::str_replace(line, url_code_regex, stringr::str_glue("\\1"))  
    })
    
    txt <-
      fansi::sgr_to_html(x = file_lines,
                         warn = FALSE,
                         term.cap = "256")
    writeLines(txt, con = html_files[i])
  }
}

7.1.3 bookdown output format

It turns out that our modification to the bookdown::gitbook() format’s postprocessor is identical to the above. This suggests that we should probably reuse code more effectively. But for now I will leave it how it is:

#' litr version of `bookdown::gitbook()`
#' 
#' This behaves like `bookdown::gitbook()` with a few differences:
#' - It creates an R package.
#' - It adds hyperlinks to function definitions whenever a function is used
#' elsewhere in the document.
#' - It does "Knuth-style" chunk referencing with hyperlinks.
#' 
#' @param minimal_eval If `TRUE`, then only chunks with `litr::document()` or 
#' `usethis` commands will be evaluated.  This can be convenient in coding when 
#' you just want to quickly update the R package without having to wait for long
#' evaluations to occur.
#' @param ... Parameters to be passed to `bookdown::gitbook()` 
#' @export
litr_gitbook <- function(minimal_eval = FALSE, ...) {
  litr_gitbook_ <- litrify_output_format(bookdown::gitbook,
                                         minimal_eval = minimal_eval)
  old <- litr_gitbook_(...)
  new <- old
  # modify post_processor
  new$post_processor = function(metadata, input_file, output_file, ...) {
    out <- old$post_processor(metadata, input_file, output_file, ...)
    out_dir <- fs::path_dir(out)
    file_stems <- readLines(file.path(out_dir, "reference-keys.txt"))
    html_files <- file.path(out_dir, paste0(file_stems, ".html"))
    html_files <- unique(intersect(c(out, html_files), fs::dir_ls(out_dir)))
    # add hyperlinks within html output to make it easier to navigate:
    add_function_hyperlinks(html_files, metadata$params$package_name)
    add_chunk_label_hyperlinks(html_files)
    # replace ANSI sequences with HTML tag equivalents
    replace_ansi_sequences(html_files)
    out
  }
  new
}

To use this output format, one would use bookdown::render_book() instead of rmarkdown::render(). In particular:

bookdown::render_book(output_format = litr::litr_gitbook())

The preamble in index.Rmd would look something like this:

---
title: "A `litr` Book"
author: "Your Name"
site: bookdown::bookdown_site
params:
  package_name: "frombookdown" # <-- change this to your package name
  package_parent_dir: "." # <-- relative to this file's location
documentclass: book
---

Or one can add to the preamble the lines

knit: litr::render
output: litr::litr_gitbook

This first line makes it so that in RStudio when you press “Knit”, it calls litr::render(), and the second line makes it so that it will use the special litr bookdown output format.

Since the above function uses bookdown, we include it in our package:

usethis::use_package("bookdown")
## ✔ Adding 'bookdown' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION
## • Refer to functions with `bookdown::fun()`

7.2 Defining litr::render()

There are two primary use cases for this function:

  1. To render a .Rmd with a non-litr output format (e.g., rmarkdown::html_document) in such a way that it will generate an R package (and include the special litr-hyperlinking if .html files were created).

  2. To render a .Rmd with a litr output format (including the litr_gitbook() format).

The second use case might seem unnecessary in that

rmarkdown::render("create-pkg.Rmd", output_format = litr::litr_html_document())

or

bookdown::render_book("index.Rmd", output_format = litr::litr_gitbook())

would do what we want. However, a reason to still prefer litr::render() is that this function ensures the identical behavior to when one clicks the “Knit” in RStudio. It does this by opening a fresh R session (when fresh_session=TRUE, which is the default) in which rmarkdown::render() (or bookdown::render_book()) is called. This is based on the description in the Rmarkdown Cookbook. Another reason to prefer litr::render() is that if there is an error in the rendering process, the special litr hash will still be written to the DESCRIPTION file. This means that after fixing that error when one calls litr::render(), one will not get the error telling the user to delete the partially generated package directory. We accomplish this with the function with_cleanup() defined below.

In the first use case, litr::render() is responsible for ensuring all the special litr things happen (like setup() being called before knitting, the litr-hash being written afterwards, and hyperlinking occurs). The details of what it does is very similar to what is described in the output formats section, especially the one on the html output format.

One thing that is different is that we need a function get_params_used(), defined at the end of this section, that gets the actual parameters that are used so that the location of the outputted package can be found.

#' Render R markdown file
#' 
#' Wrapper to `rmarkdown::render()` that produces an R package as output in 
#' addition to the standard output document.  It does some post-processing on the 
#' .html file when that is the output.  In particular, when an .html file is among
#' the outputs, it adds hyperlinks to functions defined within the file to make 
#' it easier for someone reading the code to see where different functions are
#' defined.
#' 
#' @param input The input file to be rendered (see `rmarkdown::render`)
#' @param minimal_eval If `TRUE`, then only chunks with `litr::document()` or 
#' `usethis` commands will be evaluated.  This can be convenient in coding when 
#' you just want to quickly update the R package without having to wait for long
#' evaluations to occur.
#' @param fresh_session Whether to call `rmarkdown::render` from a fresh R 
#' session. By default TRUE, so that it matches the behavior of pressing "Knitr"
#' in RStudio.  However, for debugging it can be useful to set this to FALSE so 
#' that functions like `debug()` and `browser()` will work.
#' @param ... Additional parameters to pass to `rmarkdown::render`
#' @export
render <- function(input, minimal_eval, fresh_session = TRUE, ...) {
  # call rmarkdown::render in a new environment so it behaves the same as 
  # pressing the knit button in RStudio:
  # https://bookdown.org/yihui/rmarkdown-cookbook/rmarkdown-render.html
  args <- list(...)

  # let's determine if the output format being used is a litr format.
  # If it is, then we'll simply want to call rmarkdown::render() since the 
  # special litr behavior will be attained through the output format.
  litr_format <- FALSE
  bookdown_format <- FALSE
  output_format_arg <- FALSE
  if ("output_format" %in% names(args)) {
    output_format_arg <- TRUE
    if ("litr_format" %in% names(args$output_format)) {
      litr_format <- TRUE
    }
    if ("bookdown_output_format" %in% names(args$output_format)) {
      bookdown_format <- TRUE
    }
  } else {
    frontmatter <- rmarkdown::yaml_front_matter(input)
    if ("output" %in% names(frontmatter)) {
      formats <- ifelse(is.list(frontmatter$output),
                        names(frontmatter$output),
                        frontmatter$output)
      if (any(stringr::str_detect(formats, "litr::"))) {
        litr_format <- TRUE
      }
      if (any(stringr::str_detect(formats, "litr::litr_gitbook"))) {
        bookdown_format <- TRUE
      }
    }
  }

  # get package_directory
  params <- get_params_used(input, args$params)
  package_dir <- get_package_directory(
    params$package_parent_dir,
    params$package_name,
    input
    )
  
  # if minimal_eval was passed to render, add this to the output_options
  # argument that will be passed to rmarkdown::render
  if (is.null(args$output_options)) args$output_options <- list()
  if (!missing(minimal_eval)) args$output_options$minimal_eval <- minimal_eval
  
  # determine whether a new R session will be created when we run the rendering 
  # function of rmarkdown/bookdown
  if (fresh_session)
    run_function <- xfun::Rscript_call
  else
    run_function <- do.call
  
  if (litr_format) {
    # this uses a litr output format, so we don't need to do anything litr-specific
    # here because it will happen through the output format
    
    if (output_format_arg & !missing(minimal_eval)) {
      # the output format was passed through the output_format argument rather 
      # than through the metadata
      if (minimal_eval) {
        stop(make_noticeable(paste(
          "When passing a litr output format using the output_format argument,",
          "you should not pass minimal_eval = TRUE directly to render.",
          "Instead, pass it to the litr output format function.  For example,",
          "litr::litr_html_document(minimal_eval = TRUE).",
          collapse = " "
          )))
      }
    }
    
    if (bookdown_format) {
      if (fs::is_file(input)) input <- fs::path_dir(input)
      return(invisible(run_function(with_cleanup(bookdown::render_book,
                                                 package_dir),
                                    c(input = input, args))))
    }
    else
      return(invisible(run_function(with_cleanup(rmarkdown::render,
                                                 package_dir),
                                    c(input = input, args))))
  }
  
  # the output format being used is not a litr-specific one, so we need to make
  # sure that all the special litr things happen
  args$package_dir <- package_dir

  render_ <- function(input, package_dir, minimal_eval, ...) {
    knitr_objects <- litr:::setup(package_dir, minimal_eval)
    out <- rmarkdown::render(input, ...)
    restore_knitr_objects(knitr_objects)
    # remove .Rproj and .gitignore if usethis::create_package() added these
    remove_rstudio_extras(package_dir)
    return(out)
  }

  if (missing(minimal_eval)) minimal_eval <- FALSE
  out <- run_function(with_cleanup(render_, package_dir),
                      c(input = input, minimal_eval = minimal_eval, args))


  # add hyperlinks within html output to make it easier to navigate:
  if (any(stringr::str_detect(out, "html$"))) {
    html_file <- stringr::str_subset(out, "html$")
    add_function_hyperlinks(html_file, params$package_name)
    add_chunk_label_hyperlinks(html_file)
  }
  
  # add to DESCRIPTION file the version of litr used to create package:
  write_version_to_description(package_dir)
  
  # add litr hash so we can tell later if package files were manually edited:
  write_hash_to_description(package_dir)
}

We used the package xfun, so let’s import it:

usethis::use_package("xfun")
## ✔ Adding 'xfun' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION
## • Refer to functions with `xfun::fun()`

When litr::render() encounters an error, it can leave the output directory partially modified. We want to make sure the litr hash still gets written to the DESCRIPTION file. Otherwise, the next time one calls litr::render() it does not allow this directory to be overwritten. We do this by using withCallingHandlers(). This function, explained here, is similar to tryCatch(), but with the advantage that it lets the function to continue to run normally, meaning that we will still get the error message as it would appear if we hadn’t done the condition handling.

#' Add litr hash to DESCRIPTION file if error encountered
#' 
#' This creates a function that calls the passed function within the context of
#' a try-catch.  If an error is encountered, the litr hash is still added to
#' the DESCRIPTION file so that future calls to `litr::render()` will recognize
#' that it can safely overwrite the package directory (i.e., no manual editing
#' occurred).
#' 
#' @param fun function being called
#' @param package_dir directory where package is being written to
#' @param ... arguments to be passed to `fun`
#' @keywords internal
with_cleanup <- function(fun, package_dir) {
  return(function(...) {
    withCallingHandlers(
      fun(...),
      error = function(e) {
        # add litr hash so we can tell later if package files were manually edited:
        write_hash_to_description(package_dir)
      })
  })
}

In setup(), we modified the knitr objects (e.g., adding hooks, engines, etc.). We call the function restore_knitr_objects() after we’re done, to put things back how they were:

#' Return the knitr objects to their original state
#' 
#' @param original_knitr_objects As returned by `setup()`
#' @keywords internal
restore_knitr_objects <- function(original_knitr_objects) {
  knitr::opts_knit$restore(original_knitr_objects$opts_knit)
  knitr::knit_hooks$restore(original_knitr_objects$knit_hooks)
  knitr::opts_chunk$restore(original_knitr_objects$opts_chunk)
  knitr::opts_hooks$restore(original_knitr_objects$opts_hooks)
  knitr::knit_engines$restore(original_knitr_objects$knit_engines)
}

Another thing we want to do at the end of the rendering process is to remove two files that might have been created by usethis: .Rproj and .gitignore. These are created by usethis::create_package() when rstudio = TRUE. We don’t want these files created since this would suggest to a user that the R package should be worked on from within it rather than from the generating .Rmd file.

#' Remove extra files added by usethis
#' 
#' Remove .Rproj and .gitignore files if they are in the package directory.
#' 
#' @param package_dir Path to package
#' @keywords internal
remove_rstudio_extras <- function(package_dir) {
  extras <- fs::dir_ls(package_dir,
                       all = TRUE,
                       regexp = "[.]Rproj$|[.]gitignore$")
  rbuildignore <- file.path(package_dir, ".Rbuildignore")
  txt <- readLines(rbuildignore)
  txt <- stringr::str_subset(txt, "^.*Rproj.*$", negate = TRUE)
  writeLines(txt, con = rbuildignore)
  for (extra in extras) fs::file_delete(extra)
}

As described earlier, the function get_params_used() combines the parameters from the YAML but allows for those values to be overridden through arguments passed to render().

#' Get parameter values used in rendering
#' 
#' When the `params` argument of `rmarkdown::render()` is explicitly used, this
#' overrides the default that appears in `input`.
#' @param input The input file to be rendered (see `rmarkdown::render`)
#' @param passed_params The list of parameters that were passed to `render`.
#' @keywords internal
get_params_used <- function(input, passed_params) {
  params <- rmarkdown::yaml_front_matter(input)$params
  for (param in names(passed_params)) {
    params[[param]] <- passed_params[[param]]
  }
  params
}

We used the package rmarkdown, so let’s import it:

usethis::use_package("rmarkdown")
## ✔ Adding 'rmarkdown' to Imports field in DESCRIPTION
## • Refer to functions with `rmarkdown::fun()`

  1. For example, we include the line knit: litr::render in the yaml of the templates for this reason.↩︎