We develop our R work wherever possible using .RProj, and when opening the file in RStudio using it's lovely features to set the working directory behind the scenes. This is useful for our team as it helps with portability and shareability, and works nicely with git.
However, we also have a requirement to use Windows Task Scheduler sometimes to execute an R script. The script is in a project, and relies on accessing some folders which are the children of the working directory. Right now there is a line at the top of the script setwd(C:/Reports/Report_A).
This is because when the script is called by Windows Task Scheduler, it is called in the form:
Action:
Start Program: "C:\Program Files\R\R-3.3.1\bin\Rscript.exe"
Add arguments (optional): "C:\Reports\Report_A\run_this_daily.R"
Because the script itself is called from the r installation, the project is not hit in the automated deployment, so the working directory isn't set. The (small) frustration is that the setwd() is relatively bad practice, and can lead to simple errors/novice users confusion.
Is there any experiences? Is there a different setting to supply to the Start Program? Or maybe this should be handled in the script with a config file? Or should the script check the working directory that is currently set and change it only if the working directory is not named the same as the report?
