kitverse

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Install the KIT research tools in one step and open them with one line. Installing kitverse installs:

Package What it is GitHub
kits Item calibration, linking across cohorts, scoring jiewenTsai/kits
kitsUI KIT 量尺建構工具 (scale-building app, Shiny): run_kitsui() jiewenTsai/kitsUI
kitJoin KIT 資料處理工具 (data-processing app, Shiny): run_kitjoin() jiewenTsai/kitJoin
kitDesign The interface shared by both apps jiewenTsai/kitDesign · website

plus every package they need (about 90). RStudio is not needed.

Install

  1. Install R: https://cran.r-project.org (the latest version for Windows or macOS).

  2. Open R (Windows: "R" in the Start menu; macOS: "R" in Applications), paste this line and press Enter:

    source("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jiewenTsai/kitverse/main/install.R")

    The first time takes about 3–10 minutes. It ends with a checklist; all ✓ means you are ready. If there is a ✗, take a screenshot for the workshop assistants.

Windows and macOS need no Rtools or Xcode: every package comes pre-built. RStudio and Quarto are not needed either: when R has no pandoc (needed to save plots), kitverse installs it.

Without source(): install by hand
install.packages("kitverse", repos = c("https://jiewentsai.r-universe.dev",
                                       "https://cloud.r-project.org"))
kitverse::kitverse_update()   # update packages that are too old
kitverse::kitverse_check()    # check this computer

The first time a freshly installed R installs packages, it asks whether to use a "personal library": answer Yes both times.

Ubuntu

The same line works (packages come pre-built from Posit Package Manager). If the checklist says a system library is missing, run what it says, for example:

sudo apt install libuv1

Use

library(kitverse)   # attaches kits, kitsUI, kitJoin, kitDesign and lists their versions
run_kitsui()        # the scale-building app (from kitsUI)
run_kitjoin()       # the data-processing app (from kitJoin)

── Attaching core kitverse packages ─────────────────────────── kitverse 0.4.0 ──
✔ kits      0.25.2     ✔ kitJoin   0.7.0
✔ kitsUI    0.6.0      ✔ kitDesign 0.5.0
── Conflicts ─────────────────────────────────────────── kitverse_conflicts() ──
✖ kitJoin::kit_app() masks kitsUI::kit_app()
ℹ Start an app: run_kitsui() or run_kitjoin(). Check this computer: kitverse_check()

Like tidyverse, kitverse only installs and attaches the packages; their functions are used directly (run_kitsui() comes from kitsUI, run_kitjoin() from kitJoin). kitverse itself only adds the kitverse_*() helpers below.

The app opens in your browser. When you are done, go back to R and press Esc (the R window on macOS and Windows) or Ctrl+C.

When something goes wrong

Situation What to do
Not sure the computer is ready kitverse::kitverse_check(): one line per item; at the end it really starts both apps
A package is "not installed" or "too old" kitverse::kitverse_update(), then restart R
Update everything to the latest version kitverse::kitverse_update(all = TRUE)
The checklist says a system library is missing (Linux) Run the sudo apt install … it shows

library(kitverse) itself never fails because another package is broken: it tells you to run kitverse_update() instead.

Offline install at the workshop

Without internet, install from a repository on a USB drive:

# the repository on the USB drive (both the KIT packages and the CRAN packages)
Sys.setenv(KITVERSE_REPO = "file:///D:/kitverse-repo", KITVERSE_CRAN = "file:///D:/kitverse-repo")
source("D:/kitverse-repo/install.R")

For developers