setup.qmd

---
title: "Getting Started"
format: 
  html:
    eval: false
---

This is the set-up page for the **R for Geospatial** workshop. You ***must*** complete all steps on this page before the first day of the workshop. If you have any issues, we will have set-up hours 30 minutes before the start of Lesson 1, or you can email [ccmothes\@colostate.edu]{.underline} beforehand.

This course is also designed for individuals with a basic understanding of R and RStudio. **If you are new to R/RStudio, please read through the [R Basics](basics.qmd) page, including the attached lessons/tutorials.** Even if you do have experience with R, this page is a good refresher before diving into this course content.

## Install R and RStudio

**R** is an open source language and software environment for statistical analysis and graphics (plus so much more!). You must **first download the R software (for free) here: <https://www.r-project.org/>.**

*Note: If you already have R installed, we recommend that you have at least version 4.0.0. or greater. At minimum you will need R version \> 3.5.0 to use the required packages.*

**RStudio** is a (also free) R Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that provides a built-in editor and other advantages such as version control and project management. **Once you have the R software installed on your computer, you can install RStudio Desktop here: [https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/.](https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/)**

## Package Installation

While the R software comes with many pre-loaded functions (referred to as 'base R' functions), there are thousands of R packages that provide additional reusable R functions. In order to use these functions you need to first install the package to your local machine using the `install.packages()` function. Once a package is installed on your computer you don't need to install it again (but you may have to update it). Anytime you want to use the package in a new R session you can load it with the `library()` function.

The packages we are using for this workshop are listed below, and you can read more about them by clicking on the hyperlink:

+:--------------------------------------------------------------:+:---------------------------------------:+:-------------------------------------------:+:----------------------------------------------------:+:---------------------------------------------:+
| **Data Retrieval**                                             | **Data Wrangling**                      | **Data Visualization**                      | **Processing Spatial Data**                          | **Sharing Data**                              |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
| [`tidycensus`](https://walker-data.com/tidycensus/)            | [`dplyr`](https://dplyr.tidyverse.org/) | [`ggplot2`](https://ggplot2.tidyverse.org/) | [`sf`](https://r-spatial.github.io/sf/)              | [`rmarkdown`](https://rmarkdown.rstudio.com/) |
|                                                                |                                         |                                             |                                                      |                                               |
| [`tigris`](https://github.com/walkerke/tigris)                 | [`tidyr`](https://tidyr.tidyverse.org/) | [`tmap`](https://r-tmap.github.io/tmap/)    | [`terra`](https://rspatial.org/terra/pkg/index.html) | [`shiny`](https://shiny.rstudio.com/)         |
|                                                                |                                         |                                             |                                                      |                                               |
| [`rgbif`](https://docs.ropensci.org/rgbif/articles/rgbif.html) | [`readr`](https://readr.tidyverse.org/) |                                             |                                                      |                                               |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+---------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+

We will be working in RStudio this entire course, so after you have installed both R and RStudio, open a new session of RStudio. If you are new to working with RStudio visit the [R Basics](basics.qmd) page for an overview first.

To make this a little more reproducible, we are going to use a function throughout the course that checks if you need to install these packages on your system or not, installs them if needed, and then loads all the libraries into your R session. You can copy the code below by clicking the clipboard icon in the upper-right corner and run it in your console, or save it in a script. We will walk through saving it as a script in Lesson 1 to reuse it throughout the course.

```{r}
packageLoad <-
  function(x) {
    for (i in 1:length(x)) {
      if (!x[i] %in% installed.packages()) {
        install.packages(x[i])
      }
      library(x[i], character.only = TRUE)
    }
  }
```

After you run this code, you should now have `packageLoad` as a function in your Environment tab (upper-right corner of RStudio). Now you can feed in a list of all the packages we need for this workshop and let R do the rest! You can copy this chunk of code and run in your console:

```{r}
packageLoad(c("tidycensus", "tigris", "rgbif", "sf", "terra",
              "dplyr", "tidyr", "readr", "ggplot2", "tmap",
              "rmarkdown", "shiny"))
```

This may take a while to run, and you will see a lot of text being printed to your console. There may even be some warnings, but you can ignore most of this text unless you see 'error' anywhere. If you get errors and can't figure out how to troubleshoot, please send me an email (ccmothes\@colostate.edu) with a screenshot of the error and which package(s) you are having trouble installing. You can also join 30 mins before the first day of the workshop to troubleshoot in person.

To make sure you have all the needed packages installed and loaded, you can run this line of code and make sure you see all the packages in the table above printed to your console:

```{r}
(.packages())
```