Creates installation files and Inno Setup Script (ISS), "app_name.iss"

This function manages installation and app start up. To accept all defaults, just provide app_name. After calling create_app, call compile_iss to create an installer in dir_out.

create_app(app_name = "myapp", app_dir = getwd(),
  dir_out = "RInno_installer", pkgs = c("jsonlite", "shiny",
  "magrittr"), pkgs_path = "bin", repo = "https://cran.rstudio.com",
  remotes = "none", locals = NULL, app_repo_url = "none",
  auth_user = "none", auth_pw = "none", auth_token = github_pat(),
  user_browser = "electron", include_R = FALSE,
  include_Pandoc = FALSE, include_Chrome = FALSE,
  include_Rtools = FALSE, R_version = paste0(">=", R.version$major,
  ".", R.version$minor), Pandoc_version = rmarkdown::pandoc_version(),
  Rtools_version = "3.5", overwrite = TRUE, force_nativefier = TRUE,
  nativefier_opts = c(), ...)

Arguments

app_name

The name of the app. It will be displayed throughout the installer's window titles, wizard pages, and dialog boxes. See [Setup]:AppName for details. For continuous installations, app_name is used to check for an R package of the same name, and update it. The Continuous Installation vignette has more details.
app_dir

Development app's directory, defaults to getwd().
dir_out

Installer's directory. A sub-directory of app_dir, which will be created if it does not exist. Defaults to 'RInno_installer'.
pkgs

Character vector of package dependencies. Remote development versions are supported via remotes. pkgs are downloaded into file.path(app_dir, pkgs_path) as Windows binary packages (.zip). If you build binary packages and store them there before calling create_app, they will be included as well.
pkgs_path

Default location inside the app working directory to install package dependencies This defaults to pkgs_path = "bin"
repo

Default repository to install CRAN package dependencies. Defaults to repo = "https://cran.rstudio.com".
remotes

Character vector of GitHub repository addresses in the format username/repo[/subdir][\@ref|#pull] for GitHub package dependencies.
locals

Character vector of local package dependencies. Deprecated as of v1.0.0. Use pkgs instead.
app_repo_url

Repository address for continuous installations in the format "https://bitbucket.org/username/repo" (repo = app_name). Only Bitbucket and GitHub repositories are supported.
auth_user

Bitbucket username. It is recommended to create a read-only account for each app. Support for OAuth 2 and tokens is in the works.
auth_pw

Bitbucket password matching the above username.
auth_token

To install from a private Github repo, generate a personal access token (PAT) in https://github.com/settings/tokens and supply to this argument. This is safer than using a password because you can easily delete a PAT without affecting any others.
user_browser

Character for the default browser. Options include "chrome", "firefox", and "ie."
include_R

To include R in the installer, include_R = TRUE. The version of R specified by R_version is used. The installer will check each user's registry and only install R if necessary.
include_Pandoc

To include Pandoc in the installer, include_Pandoc = TRUE. If installing a flexdashboard app, some users may need a copy of Pandoc. The installer will check the user's registry for the version of Pandoc specified in Pandoc_version and only install it if necessary.
include_Chrome

To include Chrome in the installer, include_Chrome = TRUE. If you would like to use Chrome's app mode, it is no longer supported by Google :(.
include_Rtools

To include Rtools in the installer, include_Rtools = TRUE. For some packages to build properly, you may need to include Rtools.
R_version

R version to use. Supports inequalities. Defaults to: paste0(">=", R.version$major, '.', R.version$minor).
Pandoc_version

Pandoc version to use, defaults to: pandoc_available.
Rtools_version

Rtools version to include. For more information, see Building R for Windows.
overwrite

Logical. Should existing installation files be overwritten? See copy_installation for details.
force_nativefier

Boolean. Defaults to true and re-builds UI. If false, the UI is not rebuilt.
nativefier_opts

Character vector. Extra options to pass to nativefier when user_browser = "electron". Each string in the vector should be a valid nativefier command. For example, c('--no-overwrite', '--conceal', '--show-menu-bar'). For more information, system("nativefier --help").
...

Arguments passed on to setup_section, files_section, directives_section, icons_section, languages_section, code_section, tasks_section, and run_section.

Details

Creates the following files in app_dir:

  • Icons for installer and app, setup.ico and default.ico respectively.

  • Files that manage app start up, utils/package_manager.R, utils/ensure.R, and utils/launch_app.R.

  • First/last page of the installer, infobefore.txt and infoafter.txt.

  • Batch support files, utils/wsf/run.wsf, utils/wsf/js/run.js, utils/wsf/js/json2.js, utils/wsf/js/JSON.minify.js.

  • A configuration file, config.cfg. See create_config for details.

  • A batch file, app_name.bat. See create_bat for details.

  • An Inno Setup Script, app_name.iss.

See also

get_R, copy_installation, create_config, create_bat, directives_section, setup_section, languages_section, tasks_section, files_section, icons_section, run_section, and code_section.

Examples

# NOT RUN {
create_app('myapp')

create_app(
  app_name     = 'My AppName',
  app_dir      = 'My/app/path',
  dir_out      = 'wizard',
  pkgs         = c('jsonlite', 'shiny', 'magrittr', 'xkcd'),
  include_R    = TRUE,   # Download R and install it with the app
  R_version    = "2.2.1",  # Old version of R
  privilege    = 'high', # Admin only installation
  default_dir  = 'pf') # Program Files
# }