I'd need to be able to grab data straight from into R without going through using its GUI. I've found that the RSAP package seems to be exactly what I'm looking for.
I followed the steps recommended by Piers and Alvaro Tejada Galindo (made it work on windows environment) and here is where I'm stuck:
managed to compile the RSAP package
managed to install it
everything is looking in good shape when I run library(RSAP)
whatever i try in the RSAPConnect command, my R session crashes without any log or tools to be able to debug.
Of course I've tried a few combinations of arguments in this command, but in every single case it still crashed without me knowing why. It does not matter whether i enter a valid ashost or just aaa for instance, still crashes...
Here is the code I was thinking would work (of course I added stars in there):
conn <- RSAPConnect(ashost = "*****.****.com", sysnr = "00", client = "410",
user = "*****", passwd = "*********", TRACE = "3")
Has anyone experienced something similar ? I don't even know in which direction to look to try and make this work. In fact I'd have expected some error message like "server could not be reach" for instance should the ashost not be right, but none of that happens.
I'd appreciate any assistance on this.
Thanks ahead for your support.
Kind regards
After some talking with Piers Harding, it appears that the segfault happens because of some code changes between previous version and version 3.x, which I use.
M. Alvaro Tejada Galindo also tried to use RSAP on a windows machine like me, but if you read his post, you'll see that he was using R 2.15.0 at the time.
Unfortunately I do not have the skills to locate these changes and make the required adjustments within the RSAP code.
Piers did confirm though that RSAP is still working great using R latest build for linux.
Lastly, for those like me who struggled to find the NW RFC library, you can find it on GitHub.
If this can help anyone...
Well I thought I'd add this as another answer.
It is possible to code some vba embedded in an excel file to go fetch stuff into SAP. The interesting part is that I just ran into some code to run a specific vba macro from a specific excel file, all from R :
# Open a specific workbook in Excel:
xlApp <- COMCreate("Excel.Application")
xlWbk <- xlApp$Workbooks()$Open("C:\\Excel_file.xlsm")
# Run the macro called "MyMacro"
vxlApp$Run("MyMacro")
# Close the workbook (and save it) and quit the app:
xlWbk$Close(TRUE)
vxlApp$Quit()
# Release resources:
rm(xlWbk, xlApp)
So in the end, if your macro is set up to grab and store the SAP data, all you have to do next is just read this file using XLConnect or any other package as you'd normally do, and you're all set !
Related
sessionInfo() includes very useful info that will improve the chances of someone being able to run your code on their machine, including
OS and version
R version
Attached packages
What other info can be provided with an R script to ensure someone else will be able to run it in their environment?
NB please include how to get that info (i.e. what command to run or where to look for it)
While this is not a complete answer, I tend to include this function with scripts I send along as it will download a package if the computer does not have it. This is more of a suggestion for scripts. For packages, you can explicitly put what versions of other packages your package depends on.
package_load<-function(packages = NULL, quiet=TRUE,
verbose=FALSE, warn.conflicts=FALSE){
# download required packages if they're not already
pkgsToDownload<- packages[!(packages %in% installed.packages()[,"Package"])]
if(length(pkgsToDownload)>0)
install.packages(pkgsToDownload, repos="http://cran.us.r-project.org",
quiet=quiet, verbose=verbose)
# then load them
for(i in 1:length(packages))
require(packages[i], character.only=T, quietly=quiet,
warn.conflicts=warn.conflicts)
}
## Example of use
package_load(c('dplyr', 'rgdal'))
This is helpful for one off scripts as it gets over the hurdle of a different computer not having the appropriate packages. However, I generally suggest to folks to make sure their version of R is up to date as well.
Is this the best solution? Probably not, but it does help with minor scripts you send along to others. For a larger code base, it would probably be better to put together a package or a docker image.
I think the criterion you listed are the "basics" of reusability of a script. The next levels would be the possible interaction of your scripts (e.g. R Shiny scripts will use web features: therefore, giving the web browser and its version used to produce the script is a good practice). Also, another kind of information would be commentaries precising the expected input and outputs.
NB: I would precise "attached packages and their versions", just for us to be sure...
This is an issue I am encountering for different pieces of codes I am writing in R.
Basically, I would like to generate a window that displays a picture (a .png file). Following for instance guidances from this or this, I come up with this kind of code:
library(tcltk)
tmpFile <- tempfile(fileext = ".png")
download.file("https://www.r-project.org/logo/Rlogo.png", tmpFile)
tcl("image","create","photo", "imageLogo", file=tmpFile)
win1 <- tktoplevel()
tkpack(ttklabel(win1, image="imageLogo", compound="image"))
This works fine under Mac OS, but not on Linux nor on Windows, where I am displayed such an error message:
[tcl] couldn't recognize data in image file
I can find some workarounds when I want to display graphs, using for instance packages tkrplot or igraph. Nonetheless, I would be really eager to understand why I got such errors when running my scripts on Linux or Windows, whereas it works just fine on Mac OS.
Apologies in case this issue is obvious, but I haven't found anything about potential differences with the tcltk package depending on the OS.
Tk's native support for PNG was added in 8.6. Prior to that, you need to have the tkimg extension loaded into Tk to add the image format handler required. If your installation of Tcl/Tk that R is using is set up right, you can probably make it work with:
tclRequire("Img")
once you've initialised things sufficiently. Yes, the name used internally is “Img” for historical reasons, but that's just impossible to search for! (This is the key thing in this mailing list message from way back.)
However, upgrading the versions of Tcl and Tk to 8.6 is likely to be a better move.
Finally and a bit lately, I would like to close this issue and sum up the different suggestions that were kindly made in response of my question:
R comes along with Tcl 8.5, even with the latest version 3.3.2, which means that there is no way for embedding a PNG file with the usual command into a window created thanks to Tcl/Tk. For some reasons it is working on Mac OS, but do not expect this to work easily on other OSs.
In order to display pictures, graphs, etc. in a window generated by Tcl/Tk in R, better look for either using the GIF support (when possible) or trying alternative solutions (see the question for possible alternative options).
In case one really wants to display PNG files, the solution consists of installing Tcl 8.5 (for instance ActiveTcl) along with the extension Img. In order to use the Tcl/Tk package that you've just installed on your computer, you can refer to the R FAQ for Windows for instance (as stated in the FAQ, you need to install Tcl 8.5 - I tried with Tcl 8.6, thereby hoping to solve my issue, but it didn't work). Basically, you need to set up an environment variable (MY_TCLTK) and put the path where the package Tcl/Tk is installed. Needless to be said, Tcl/Tk is commonly used in R in order to implement GUIs; if you have to go through very complex procedures to set up the system, the package definitely loses its advantages.
Finally, since Tcl 8.6 should be available soon or later with R (already implemented in the devel version), this issue will be de facto outdated.
I'm trying to call a simple python script from within R using system2(). I've read some information I found vague that said if 'too much' memory is used, it won't work.
If I load a large dataset and use some information in it to use as arguments to pass into system2(), it will only work if I manually click "Restart R" in call Rstudio.
What I want:
df <- read.csv('some_large_file.csv')
###extracting some info called 'args_vec'
for(arg in args_vec){
system2('python', args)
}
This won't work as is. The for loop is simply passed over.
What I need:
df <- read.csv('some_large_file.csv')
###extracting some info called 'args_vec'
###something that 'restarts' R
for(arg in args_vec){
system2('python', args)
}
This answer doesn't quite get what I want. Namely, it doesn't work for me within Rstudio and it calls "system" (which presents the same problem as "system2" in this case). In fact, when I put the answer referenced above in my Rprofile.site file, it just immediately closed rstudio:
I tried the suggestion as a normal function (rather than using "makeActiveBinding", and it didn't quite work.
##restart R in r session -- doesn't work
makeActiveBinding("refresh", function() { system("R --save"); q("no") }, .GlobalEnv)
##nor did this:
refresh <- function() { system("R --save"); q("no") }
I tried a number of variations of these two options above, but this is getting long for what feels like a simple question. There's a lot I don't yet understand about the startup process and "makeActiveBinding" is a bit mysterious. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
In Rstudio, you can restart the R session by:
command/ctrl + shift + F10
You can also use:
.rs.restartR()
RStudio has this undocumented rs.restartR() which is supposed to do just that: restarting R.
However, it does not unload the packages that were loaded, nor does it clean the environment, so that I have some doubts about if it restarts R at all.
If you use RStudio, use the menu item Session > Restart R or the associated keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+F10 (Windows and Linux) or Command+Shift+F10 (Mac OS). Additional keyboard shortcuts make it easy to restart development where you left off, i.e. to say “re-run all the code up to HERE”:
In an R script, use Ctrl+Alt+B (Windows and Linux) or Command+Option+B (Mac OS)
In R markdown, use Ctrl+Alt+P (Windows and Linux) or Command+Option+P (Mac OS)
If you run R from the shell, use Ctrl+D or q() to quit, then restart R.
Have you tried embedding the function call within the apply function, rather than a for loop?
I've had some pieces of code that ran the system out of memory in a for loop run perfectly with apply. It might help?
For those not limited to a command that want something that actually resets the system (no prior state, no loaded packages, no variables, etc.) you can select Terminate R from the Session menu.
It is a bit awkward (asks you if you are sure). If anyone knows something like clear all or really clear classes in MATLAB let me know!
I have an R-based GUI that allows some non-technical users access to a stats model. As it stands, the users have to first load R and then type loadGui() at the command line.
While this isn't overly challenging, I don't like having to make non-technical people type anything at a command line. I had the idea of writing a .bat file (users are all running Windows, though multi-platform solutions also appreciated) that starts R GUI, then autoruns that command.
My first problem is opening RGui from the command line. While I can provide an explicit path, such as
"%ProgramW6432%\R\R-2.15.1\bin\i386\Rgui.exe"
it will need updating each time R is upgraded. It would be better to retrieve the location of RGui from the %path% environment variable, but I don't know an easy way to parse that.
The second, larger problem is how to call commands for R on startup from the command line. My first thought is that I could take a copy of ~/.Rprofile, append the extra command, and then replace the original copy of the file once R is loaded. This is awfully messy though, so I'd like an alternative.
Running R in batch mode isn't an option, firstly since I can't persuade GUIs to display themselves, and secondly because I would like the R console available, even if the users shouldn't need to use it.
If you want a toy GUI to test your ideas, try this:
loadGui <- function()
{
library(gWidgetstclck)
win <- gwindow("test")
rad <- gradio(letters[1:3], cont = win)
}
Problem 1: I simply do not ever install in the suggested default directory on Windows, but rather group R and a few related things in, say, c:/opt/ where I install R itself in, say,c:/opt/R-current so that the path c:/opt/R-current/bin will remain constant. On upgrade, I first renamed to R-previous and then install into a new R-current.
Problem 2: I think I solved that many moons ago with scripts. You can now use Rscript.exe to launch these, and there are tcltk examples for waiting for a prompt.
I have done similar a couple of times. In my cases the client was using windows so I just installed R on their computer and created a shortcut on their desktop to run R. Then I right click on the shortcut and choose properties to get the propertiest dialog. I then changed the "Start in" folder to the one where I wanted it to run from (which had the .Rdata file with the correct data and either a .First function in the .Rdata file or .Rprofile in the folder). There is also a "Run:" option that has a "Minimized" option to run the main R window minimized.
I had created the functions that I wanted to run (usually a specialized gui using tcltk) and any needed data and saved them in the .Rdata file and also either created .First or .Rprofile to run the comnand that showed the gui. The user double clicks on the icon on the desktop and up pops my GUI that they can work with while ignoring the other parts.
Take a look at the ProjectTemplate library. It does what you want to do. It loads used libraries from a batch file an run R files automatically after loading as well as a lot of other usefull stuff as well...
Using the answer from https://stackoverflow.com/a/27350487/41338 and a comment from Richie Cotton above I have arrived at the following solution to keeping a script alive until a window is closed by checking if the pointer to the window is valid.
For a RGtk2 window created and shown using:
library(RGtk2)
mainWindow <- gtkWindow("toplevel", show = TRUE)
Create a function which checks if the pointer to it exists:
isnull <- function(pointer){
a <- attributes(pointer)
attributes(pointer) <- NULL
out <- identical(pointer, new("externalptr"))
attributes(pointer) <- a
return(out)
}
and at the end of your script:
while(!isnull(mainWindow)) Sys.sleep(1)
I am attempting to automate the insertion of JPEG images into Powerpoint. I have a macro done for that already, except using R would be infinitely better for my purposes.
The package R2PPT should do this, I understand. However, I cannot use it. For example, when I try to use PPT.Open, I understand I can do it two different ways by calling method = "rcom" or method = "RDCOMClient". Using the latter, R will always crash, sending an error report to windows. Using the former, it tells me I need to install statconnDCOM , before giving the error:
Error in PPT.Open(x) : attempt to apply non-function.
I cannot install statconnDCOM freely, as I wouldn't call this work non-commercial. So if there isn't a way to get around this issue, are there at least some free alternatives to R2PPT so that I can save several hours of manual work with a simple R code? If there is a way for me to use R2PPT, that would be ideal.
Thanks!
Edit:
I'm using R version 2.15 and downloaded the most recent version of R2PPT. Powerpoint is 2007.
Do you have administrative privileges on this machine?
There is an issue with package RDCOMClient. It needs permissions to write file rdcom.err in the root of drive C:. If you don't have privileges to write to c:, there is a rather cumbersome workaround:
Close R
Create "c:\temp" folder if it doesn't exist.
Locate on your hard drive file rdcomclient.dll. It usually placed in \R\library\RDCOMClient\libs\i386\ and in \R\library\RDCOMClient\libs\x64\ (you need to patch file which corresponds your Windows version - 32 bit or 64 bit). It's recommended to make backup copy of this files before patching.
Open rdcomclient.dll in text editor (Notepad++, for example -http://notepad-plus-plus.org/)
Find in file string c:\rdcom.err - it occurs only once.
Go into overwrite mode (usually by pressing "Ins" key). It is very important that new path will have the same number of characters as original one. Type C:\temp\e.rr instead of c:\rdcom.err
Save the file.
Now all should work fine.
Arguably not an answer, but have you looked at using Sweave/knitr to render your presentations in LaTeX using something like Beamer? (As discussed on slide 17 here.)
Wouldn't help any with getting JPGs into a PowerPoint, but would certainly make putting R-output (numerical or graphical) into a presentation much easier!
Edit: if you want to use knitr (which I recommend), here's another reference.