Building the plugin package

As explained earlier, external RKWard plugins are in effect R packages, and therefore the packaging process is identical. In contrast to "real" R packages, a pure plugin package does not carry any further R code (although you can of course add RKWard plugins to usual R packages as well, using the same methods explained here). This should make it even easier to create a functioning package, as long as you have a valid DESCRIPTION file and adhere to the file hierarchy explained in previous sections.

The easiest way to actually build and test your plugin is to use the R command on the command line, for example:

R CMD build SquaretheCircle

R CMD INSTALL SquaretheCircle_0.1-3.tar.gz

Tip

You do not have to build the package like this on the command line. If you use the function rk.build.package() from the rkwarddev package, it will build and/or check your plugin package for you.