SWAT/SWAT+ dependency

[mps9506]

Hi,
I'm working through the JOSS review. One of the review checklist items includes:

• Installation instructions: Is there a clearly-stated list of dependencies? Ideally these should be handled with an automated package management solution.

A couple of things to note here.
First, the README and DESCRIPTION do not explicitly state you need SWAT or SWAT+ executable files. I'd include this in the README with a link to the respective downloads for each OS. In the DESCRIPTION, this requirement should be included in the SystemRequirements field. (See https://r-pkgs.org/description.html#other-fields).

Second, it isn't realistic to automate including SWAT with the package given CRAN packaging constraints. But, I think a function to download and copy a SWAT/SWAT+ executable to the project folder would be useful. The function should return the file path, then this can be provided as the SWAT executable file path argument in runSWATpar().

The first item should be fixed (IMO), but the second item is just a suggestion.

---

EDIT: Reference JOSS Review thread:
openjournals/joss-reviews#6797

[tamnva]

Thanks mps9506.

I have added SWAT/SWAT+ dependency to README and DESCRIPTION in this commit

The second suggestion (download and copy a SWAT/SWAT+ executable) was not implemented because there are many versions of SWAT/SWAT+ and modified SWAT . In some cases, users could also use their local version that they developed for special purposes. So to have the maximum flexibitily, I just let the user input the path to their executable files.

Please let me know if you are satisfied with this solution, so I could close this issue. Otherwise, I would be happy if you have any further comments on this.

[mps9506]

Thanks @tamnva ,

DESCRIPTION and README updates look good.

My only other minor suggestion regarding the executable, would be ensure helpful error messages are returned for the user if the wrong file path or name is provided:

R-SWAT/R/runSWATpar.R

Lines 181 to 183 in af648c8

	# Call swat.exe file
	exeFile <- basename(swatExe)
	if(!file.exists(exeFile)) file.copy(swatExe, toDir)

Which returns the following if I use the wrong file path:

Error in file(file, "rt") : cannot open the connection
In addition: Warning messages:
1: In file.copy(swatExe, dir) :
  problem copying C:\SWAT\SWATPlus_EXEC_dontexist\rev60.5.7_64rel.exe to C:\SWAT_EXAMPLE\workingFolder\TxtInOut_1\rev60.5.7_64rel.exe: No such file or directory
2: In file.copy(swatExe, toDir) :
  problem copying C:\SWAT\SWATPlus_EXEC_dontexist\rev60.5.7_64rel.exe to C:\SWAT_EXAMPLE\workingFolder\TxtInOut_1\rev60.5.7_64rel.exe: No such file or directory
3: In file(file, "rt") :
  cannot open file 'C:/SWAT_EXAMPLE/workingFolder/TxtInOut_1/channel_sd_day.txt': No such file or directory

If !file.exists(swatExe) you can probably use stop() and provide a informative message that the file or file path specified in the swatExe argument doesn't exist.

Otherwise this issue looks good to me, feel free to close this.

[tamnva]

Thank you for your comment. I have updated RSWAT following the suggestion b303161 Please let me know if I can close this issue