Recommended folder structure

For a simple R project

checklist assumes you have some main folder for your project. Within that main folder you create the checklist project which should contain all R related files (scripts and data). Place all non R related files in other folders under the main folder.

The checklist project has a mandatory folder source where you place all the R and Rmarkdown files. The other folders are optional. The data folder holds all the data files for the analysis. The output folder holds the rendered files from the analysis. The media folder holds the images you want to incorporate in the Rmarkdown files. The inst folder stores some checklist specific data.

While you can add other folders the root of your checklist project, we recommend to stick with the default folders. Having a non-standard folder name results in a warning when running check_folder().

In case you want to use version control (strongly recommended), use the root of the R project as the root of the version control project.

─┬─ main_folder
 ├─── folder_a
 ├─── folder_b
 └─┬─ checklist_project_name
   ├─── data
   ├─── inst
   ├─── media
   ├─── output
   └─── source

A more complex project

We advise to use subfolders with source, data and / or media when the project is more complex. You are free to create a relevant folder structure with these folders. E.g. source/import for scripts to import data; source/analysis for scripts to run the analysis and source/report for the bookdown report.

─┬─ main_folder
 ├─── folder_a
 ├─── folder_b
 └─┬─ r_project_name
   ├─┬─ data
   │ ├─── raw
   │ ├─── intermediate
   │ └─── processed
   ├─── inst
   ├─┬─ media
   │ ├─── collaborators
   │ └─── report
   ├─── output
   └─┬─ source
     ├─── import
     ├─── analysis
     └─── report

A project with several reports with different data and media

You can opt to use report specific data and/or media folders instead of common data and/or media folders. However, if you choose to have a report specific data folder, you no longer can have a common data folder. The same goes for a report specific media folder. Hence a data folder at the project root implies that the user can find all data in that folder. No data folder at the project root implies that the user needs to look for the data in the source folder of the report.

─┬─ main_folder
 ├─── folder_a
 ├─── folder_b
 └─┬─ r_project_name
   ├─── inst
   ├─── output
   └─┬─ source
     ├─┬─ report_a
     │ ├─── data
     │ └─── media
     └─┬─ report_b
       ├─── data
       └─── media