Introducing WebR to TLG Catalog: A Game Changer for Interactive Learning

I’m thrilled to announce a major update to the TLG Catalog. We have integrated WebR to the website transforming the way you interact with the R code. You don’t have to copy and run code separately, open containers and/or install packages. With WebR, you can now interact with the TLG source R code directly in your browser, making learning more interactive and enjoyable than ever before!

What is `WebR`?

WebR makes it possible to run R code in the browser without the need for an R server to execute the code: the R interpreter runs directly on the user’s machine.

Source: WebR documentation

In short, WebR is a project that aims to port R into WebAssembly (WASM) which then allows to run compiled code in the website. A special thanks to George Stagg from Posit for making this integration possible. While WebR is still in active development, a significant progress had been made recently increasing its robustness and efficiency.

However, it’s important to note a limitation: not all packages are compatible with WebR. A package must be compiled for WebAssembly to be used with WebR. Fortunately, there’s a dedicated WebR binary R package repository hosting close to 20,000 packages. For packages not yet available, you can utilize a dedicated GitHub Actions workflow to build them yourself, or use r-universe platform that will build it for you.

Implementation Details

The integration of WebR into TLG Catalog was made possible through a dedicated quarto-webr Quarto extension, which simplifies the integration process. The main challenge was to ensure a DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) approach with respect to the existing codebase. This was achieved through leveraging lesser-known knitr features, including knitr::knit_code$get() to reuse code chunks as well as results = "asis" to create code chunk from within another (parent) code chunk. The source code for this is open-source and available on GitHub.

Interactive `teal` Applications via `shinylive`

The benefits of WebR extend beyond TLG outputs. It also enhances all existing teal applications. Users can now interact with applications and even live-edit their source code! Everything is inside the website itself without any additional application hosting service. This was made possible through the shinylive Quarto extension leveraging Shinylive under the hood. A huge thank you to the Shiny team for their contributions!

Summary

The addition of interactivity via WebR marks a significant milestone for TLG Catalog. This update unlocks a myriad of possibilities previously unavailable, such as live code editing, step-by-step code execution, access to function documentation, and dynamic data exploration. This advancement brings R closer to users, especially those new to the language, fostering a more engaging and effective learning experience.

Happy learning!

Last updated

2024-05-15 11:22:26.036154

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Citation

BibTeX citation:

@online{rucki2024,
  author = {Rucki, Pawel},
  title = {TLG {Catalog} 🤝 {WebR}},
  date = {2024-05-08},
  url = {https://pharmaverse.github.io/blog/posts/2024-05-08_tlg_catalog_webr/tlg_catalog_webr.html},
  langid = {en}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Rucki, Pawel. 2024. “TLG Catalog 🤝 WebR.” May 8, 2024. https://pharmaverse.github.io/blog/posts/2024-05-08_tlg_catalog_webr/tlg_catalog_webr.html.