Title:	Remote Objects with Active-Binding Magic
Version:	0.1.0
Description:	Provide helper functions for package developers to create active bindings that looks like data embedded in the package, but are downloaded from remote sources.
License:	MIT + file LICENSE
Encoding:	UTF-8
RoxygenNote:	7.3.3
Imports:	rappdirs, utils
Suggests:	devtools, knitr, rmarkdown, testthat (≥ 3.0.0), usethis
VignetteBuilder:	knitr
Config/testthat/edition:	3
NeedsCompilation:	no
Packaged:	2026-03-25 01:25:54 UTC; yangy
Author:	Mitchell O'Hara-Wild [aut], Yangzhuoran Fin Yang [aut, cre]
Maintainer:	Yangzhuoran Fin Yang <yangyangzhuoran@gmail.com>
Repository:	CRAN
Date/Publication:	2026-03-29 16:40:03 UTC

roam: Remote Objects with Active-Binding Magic

Description

Provide helper functions for package developers to create active bindings that looks like data embedded in the package, but are downloaded from remote sources.

Author(s)

Maintainer: Yangzhuoran Fin Yang yangyangzhuoran@gmail.com (ORCID)

Authors:

• Mitchell O'Hara-Wild mail@mitchelloharawild.com (ORCID)

Create and manage roam object and their active bindings

Description

Helper functions for package developers to create active bindings that looks like data embedded in the package, but are downloaded from remote sources.

Usage

new_roam(package, name, obtainer, ...)

roam_update(x)

roam_install(x, version = NA_character_)

roam_set_version(version = NA_character_)

roam_version(package, name)

roam_delete(x)

roam_activate(x)

roam_activate_all(package)

Arguments

Details

Users of the package using roam data object can treat the roam active bindings as if they are regular data embedded in the package. The first time a user calls the roam active binding, they will be prompted to download the data using the obtainer function. The obtainer function defines how the package developer wants to download or generate data. Once the data are downloaded, they will be cached locally using rappdirs. The users can then use the data object as normal.

new_roam() creates a roam object using the package writer/roam object creator defined obtainer function. The roam object created using new_roam() is not an active binding. The active bindings are not preserved during package installation, so the package developer needs to activate the roam object and turn it into an active binding in the .onLoad function using either roam_activate() or roam_activate_all().

roam_activate() takes one roam object and activates it. roam_activate_all() looks through the namespace and activates all the roam objects in the package.

If there are a lot of objects in the package, calling roam_activate() on each roam object in .onLoad might save some package loading time than calling roam_activate_all() once.

roam_set_version() allows the package developer to control versioning. The obtainer function takes the version user specifies. Inside the obtainer function, the package developer can allow different download mechanism depending on the user version input, and use roam_set_version() to set a (transformed) developer version. For example, the user can specify roam_install(x, version = "latest"), and the developer can take the version "latest", find out what is the latest version, download it and set the correct version number by using (e.g.) roam_set_version("1.2.1"). If roam_set_version() is not called inside of the obtainer, the local version label will be set to NA, regardless of the user input version.

roam_update() is a wrapper of roam_install() with the default version "latest". To control versioning, the package developer should consider the behaviour of the obtainer corresponding to two special user input versions. One is "latest" from the user calling roam_update(), and the other is NA from the user calling roam_install() or calling the roam object for the first time.

Value

new_roam returns a function with class roam_object.

roam_update returns the updated local cache of the roam active binding

roam_install returns the installed local cache of the roam active binding

roam_set_version returns the version invisibly.

roam_version returns the version.

All the other functions return invisible NULL.

Functions

• roam_update(): Update the local cache of the roam active binding using the package writer/roam object creator defined obtainer function

• roam_install(): Install (Download) the local cache of the roam active binding of a specific version using the package writer/roam object creator defined obtainer function

• roam_set_version(): For package writers to use inside the obtainer function, save the currently downloading version number.

• roam_version(): Find the current version of a roam object in a package.

• roam_delete(): Delete the local cache of the roam active binding

• roam_activate(): Activate a roam object to an active binding. Used in the .onLoad function of a package. The roam object is activated in the environment it is defined.

• roam_activate_all(): Activate all the roam objects in the given package. Used in the .onLoad function of a package. roam_activate_all() looks through every object in the package to find roam objects. If the package has lots of objects, use roam_activate() to specify roam objects individually to improve performance.

Examples

# Define the roam object
bee <- new_roam(
  "roam", "bee",
  function(version)
  read.csv(
    "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/finyang/roam/master/demo/bee_colonies.csv"
  ))
# Activation
roam_activate(bee)
if (interactive()) {
  # Download
  roam_install(bee)
  # or in an interative session, simply
  bee
  # Access
  bee
  # Update
  roam_update(bee)
  # Deleting cache
  roam_delete(bee)
}