Building R package “no visible global function definition for” shiny functions

Question

Im trying to check my own package with

Rcmd.exe check dbt.ORA_1.0.tar.gz.

despite of adding "Depends: shiny in the Description file,

I get alot of warnings like this:

...

dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'runApp'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'fluidPage'
dbtORA: no visibleglobal function definition for 'titlePanel'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'sidebarLayout'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'sidebarPanel'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'selectInput'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'checkboxInput'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'conditionalPanel'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'numericInput'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'actionButton'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'mainPanel'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'textOutput'
dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'uiOutput'

...

the function dbtORA is very long, the source code is like this:

dbtORA <-function(){
...
outputApp=runApp(list(
  ui = fluidPage(
...
),
 server = function(input, output, session){
...
  }  
))
...
return(outputApp=NamedORAResults)}

I have in this context also a second question:

How do I declare functions, which are only locally defined, e.g. in

dbtORA <-function(){
...
matlabmin=function(...){...}
...}

gives the warning:

dbtORA: no visible global function definition for 'matlabmin'

There's a couple of fixes depending on whether or not there's a way to bind the variable in the package you're using. The universal fix is to put dbtORA <- NULL at the top of your script before the variable is called. The problem is you likely that have some sort of function that is probably reading a variable from a data.frame or list and using non standard evaluation — Tyler Rinker
dbtORA is a functon not variable, which uses alot other functions and is able to start a shiny interface. I dont understand your suggestion — mthrun
Did you declare the package functiontions you're using in the NAMESPACE imprts? The solution depends on whether you manage this manually or with something like devtools. — Tyler Rinker
Could you please elaborate this? I use Rstudio with Rtools, all checks are done automatically. — mthrun
Do you use roxygen2? If not I highly recommend it (+ devtools ; which is built into alot of RStudio). Here's more on NAMESPACES: cran.r-project.org/doc/manuals/r-release/… but roxygen would make this management easier. — Tyler Rinker

mthrun mthrun · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-20T08:49:17

For all of you, who have the same problem:

In the DESCRIPTION file you have to write

Imports: shiny

and not

Depends: shiny
In the NAMESPACE file you have to write
```
import(shiny)
```

No clue, why it has to be done like this only with shiny...

Building R package “no visible global function definition for” shiny functions

1 Answers