What is the interest of the 'golem' package?

[saturne]

Hello,

The 'golem' package:

• provides a function to create a CSS file in the www folder => I prefer to create it manually

• provides a function to fill the DESCRIPTION file => one can fill it directly, no interest

• provides a command to build the package => I prefer to click on a button in RStudio

• etc.

So, am I missing something? What is the interest of 'golem'? Why is it described as a package to build robust shiny apps? I don't see what is more robust with 'golem'.

I am familiar with R packages and I find it is easier to not use 'golem' and its myriad of functions. And on the other hand, I think someone not familiar with R packages will not understand what he/she does if he/she uses 'golem'.

But maybe I'm missing something and you will enlighten me

[colin]

Hey there,

Here are some thoughts about this:

• You can add the CSS yourself manually, indeed. But for example for the JavaScript handlers, there is no "empty template" by default but {golem} provides one for you. Otherwise, you need to go to Shiny - Communicating with Shiny via JavaScript and copy and paste code.

• Same goes for golem::add_module(), a function that provides both a module skeleton and a testing skeleton. Without these function, you'd have to copy and paste code from the internet, and remove parts of it to make it work. As someone who write a lot of shiny modules, that function has saved me a lot of time AND a lot of typos from copying and pasting stuff.

• Conventional names and structure : {golem} tries to enforce you to follow a specific development pattern, so for example whenever I receive a {golem} app to debug, or I'm taking over a project from one of my colleage, I know exactly what the file contains and where to look for things. The good thing with {shiny} is that it will allow to build an "unstructured project" and the app still works on your machine, but it's basically a nightmare maintaining multiple apps that do not follow conventions.

• Production / dev configuration: {golem}, with the golem-config.yaml file, has a standard way to define production and development vars and value

• etc...

I know that it feels that there are a lot of things inside {golem} and that at the end of the day you could do it manually BUT as someone once said:

Everything that can be automated should be automated

And at the end of the day this is really what {golem} is about: standardization and automation, so that you can safely work on your app with your colleagues and with yourself in 6 months, and so that you don't waste time doing things that can be done in a safer and automated way, like the module addition, which I think is the greatest example of what {golem} tries to do: before {golem}, you had to go to Shiny - Modularizing Shiny app code, copy the code, create a file at the correct place, name it in a correct way so that you know it's a module, paste the code, remove the code that you don't need, rename the functions with the correct name, and start working on your module. Which is a recipe for disaster on the long run

So, to sum up: yes, you can do everything manually, for example you could use R in the command line, but you use RStudio button because you feel that it's easier and safer If your goal is to write "quick and dirty" app that will never be sent to production or that aims at being maintained over a long period, you probably don't need {golem}, but as soon as you're working on a "serious" app, it's safer to go with it.

[vincent]

and when your app is ready, clean and tested, golem can create for you the Dockerfile you need for deployment

@saturne do you type your R documentation with LateX or do you use {roxygen2} ? do you use {usethis} or {devtools} for package developpement ?

There are no wrong answers to these questions, but as said, what can be automated must be automated

Regards

[saturne]

Thanks. I will continue to experiment.

@vincent I don't use devtools and usethis, except:

• devtools for CRAN checking and CRAN release

• usethis::use_tidydescription and usethis::use_github_action

[saturne]

I don't need a template for my JS files I practice Shiny since its beginning, so I know.

I don't use convention names for my functions (yet). When developing a Shiny app, I start by doing a package without Shiny app, that can be used without Shiny. Then I develop the Shiny app, using the functions of the package.