README.Rmd

---
title: "BOAST Utilities"
author: EducationShinyAppTeam
date: February 26, 2021
output: github_document
---

<!-- README.md is generated from README.Rmd. Please edit that file -->

```{r setup, include = FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  eval = FALSE,
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>",
  fig.path = "man/figures/README-",
  out.width = "100%"
)
```

Used to provide reusable [components](https://shiny.rstudio.com/articles/html-tags.html), [gadgets](https://shiny.rstudio.com/articles/gadgets.html), and [modules](https://shiny.rstudio.com/articles/modules.html) for the [BOAST](https://github.com/EducationShinyAppTeam/BOAST) project.

## Installation

You can install this version of boastUtils from [GitHub](https://github.com/) with:

```{r}
devtools::install_github("EducationShinyAppTeam/boastUtils")
```

**Troubleshooting:**
- [Error: (converted from warning) package 'xyz' was built under R version x.y.z](https://github.com/r-lib/remotes/issues/403#issuecomment-513891775)

Create an [issue](https://github.com/EducationShinyAppTeam/boastUtils/issues) if the problem is not solved by one of the above.

## Creating an App

One way to accomplish serving a more standardized codebase was to provide a wrapper for the default [shinyApp](https://shiny.rstudio.com/reference/shiny/latest/shinyApp.html) function. Instead of including the `shiny` package, include `boastUtils` and write your app as normal. Be sure to replace `shinyApp` with `boastApp`.

**Example app.R**
```{r}
library(boastUtils)

ui <- fluidPage(
  # ... ui definitions ...
)

server <- function(input, output, session){
  # ... server logic ...
}

boastApp(ui = ui, server = server)
```

## Configuration

We currently have one config option available which disables xAPI logging.

**Example app.R**
```{r}
boastApp(ui = ui, server = server, config = list(log = FALSE))
```

## Additional Configuration

To connect with services such as CouchDB for persistent storage, place details in an environment variable using `appDir/inst/.Renviron`. This information is then pulled into `boastUtils/inst/config.yml` on app startup. These details are meant to be kept private and should not be pushed to GitHub.

**See also:**

- `boastUtils:::.getConfig()`
- https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/httr/vignettes/api-packages.html#authentication

**.Renviron**
```{txt}
DB_USER=<DATABASE_USERNAME>
DB_PASSWORD=<DATABASE_PASSWORD>
R_CONFIG_ACTIVE=rsconnect
```

**config.yml**
```{yml}
default:
  database:
    host: 'localhost'
    transport: 'https'
    port: NULL
    user: 'root'
    pwd: 'root'
  
rsconnect:
  database:
    host: 'dev.stat.vmhost.psu.edu/couch'
    transport: 'https'
    port: NULL
    user: !expr Sys.getenv("DB_USER")
    pwd: !expr Sys.getenv("DB_PASSWORD")
```