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Visualize an abridged fast dependency graph.

Source: R/tar_glimpse.R
tar_glimpse.Rd

Analyze the pipeline defined in the target script file (default: _targets.R) and visualize the directed acyclic graph of targets. Unlike tar_visnetwork(), tar_glimpse() does not account for metadata or progress information, which means the graph renders faster. Also, tar_glimpse() omits functions and other global objects by default (but you can include them with targets_only = FALSE).

Usage

tar_glimpse(
  targets_only = TRUE,
  names = NULL,
  shortcut = FALSE,
  allow = NULL,
  exclude = ".Random.seed",
  label = targets::tar_config_get("label"),
  label_width = targets::tar_config_get("label_width"),
  level_separation = targets::tar_config_get("level_separation"),
  degree_from = 1L,
  degree_to = 1L,
  zoom_speed = 1,
  physics = FALSE,
  callr_function = callr::r,
  callr_arguments = targets::tar_callr_args_default(callr_function),
  envir = parent.frame(),
  script = targets::tar_config_get("script"),
  store = targets::tar_config_get("store")
)

Arguments

targets_only

Logical, whether to restrict the output to just targets (FALSE) or to also include global functions and objects.

names

Names of targets. The graph visualization will operate only on these targets (and unless shortcut is TRUE, all the targets upstream as well). Selecting a small subgraph using names could speed up the load time of the visualization. Unlike allow, names is invoked before the graph is generated. Set to NULL to check/run all the targets (default). Otherwise, the object supplied to names should be a tidyselect expression like any_of() or starts_with() from tidyselect itself, or tar_described_as() to select target names based on their descriptions.

shortcut

Logical of length 1, how to interpret the names argument. If shortcut is FALSE (default) then the function checks all targets upstream of names as far back as the dependency graph goes. If TRUE, then the function only checks the targets in names and uses stored metadata for information about upstream dependencies as needed. shortcut = TRUE increases speed if there are a lot of up-to-date targets, but it assumes all the dependencies are up to date, so please use with caution. Also, shortcut = TRUE only works if you set names.

allow

Optional, define the set of allowable vertices in the graph. Unlike names, allow is invoked only after the graph is mostly resolved, so it will not speed up execution. Set to NULL to allow all vertices in the pipeline and environment (default). Otherwise, you can supply symbols or tidyselect helpers like starts_with().

exclude

Optional, define the set of exclude vertices from the graph. Unlike names, exclude is invoked only after the graph is mostly resolved, so it will not speed up execution. Set to NULL to exclude no vertices. Otherwise, you can supply symbols or tidyselect helpers like any_of() and starts_with().

label

Character vector of one or more aesthetics to add to the vertex labels. Currently, the only option is "description" to show each target's custom description, or character(0) to suppress it.

label_width

Positive numeric of length 1, maximum width (in number of characters) of the node labels.

level_separation

Numeric of length 1, levelSeparation argument of visNetwork::visHierarchicalLayout(). Controls the distance between hierarchical levels. Consider changing the value if the aspect ratio of the graph is far from 1. If level_separation is NULL, the levelSeparation argument of visHierarchicalLayout() defaults to 150.

degree_from

Integer of length 1. When you click on a node, the graph highlights a neighborhood of that node. degree_from controls the number of edges the neighborhood extends upstream.

degree_to

Integer of length 1. When you click on a node, the graph highlights a neighborhood of that node. degree_to controls the number of edges the neighborhood extends downstream.

zoom_speed

Positive numeric of length 1, scaling factor on the zoom speed. Above 1 zooms faster than default, below 1 zooms lower than default.

physics

Logical of length 1, whether to implement interactive physics in the graph, e.g. edge elasticity.

callr_function

A function from callr to start a fresh clean R process to do the work. Set to NULL to run in the current session instead of an external process (but restart your R session just before you do in order to clear debris out of the global environment). callr_function needs to be NULL for interactive debugging, e.g. tar_option_set(debug = "your_target"). However, callr_function should not be NULL for serious reproducible work.

callr_arguments

A list of arguments to callr_function.

envir

An environment, where to run the target R script (default: _targets.R) if callr_function is NULL. Ignored if callr_function is anything other than NULL. callr_function should only be NULL for debugging and testing purposes, not for serious runs of a pipeline, etc.

The envir argument of tar_make() and related functions always overrides the current value of tar_option_get("envir") in the current R session just before running the target script file, so whenever you need to set an alternative envir, you should always set it with tar_option_set() from within the target script file. In other words, if you call tar_option_set(envir = envir1) in an interactive session and then tar_make(envir = envir2, callr_function = NULL), then envir2 will be used.

script

Character of length 1, path to the target script file. Defaults to tar_config_get("script"), which in turn defaults to _targets.R. When you set this argument, the value of tar_config_get("script") is temporarily changed for the current function call. See tar_script(), tar_config_get(), and tar_config_set() for details about the target script file and how to set it persistently for a project.

store

Character of length 1, path to the targets data store. Defaults to tar_config_get("store"), which in turn defaults to _targets/. When you set this argument, the value of tar_config_get("store") is temporarily changed for the current function call. See tar_config_get() and tar_config_set() for details about how to set the data store path persistently for a project.

Value

A visNetwork HTML widget object.

Dependency graph

The dependency graph of a pipeline is a directed acyclic graph (DAG) where each node indicates a target or global object and each directed edge indicates where a downstream node depends on an upstream node. The DAG is not always a tree, but it never contains a cycle because no target is allowed to directly or indirectly depend on itself. The dependency graph should show a natural progression of work from left to right. targets uses static code analysis to create the graph, so the order of tar_target() calls in the _targets.R file does not matter. However, targets does not support self-referential loops or other cycles. For more information on the dependency graph, please read https://books.ropensci.org/targets/targets.html#dependencies.

Storage access

Several functions like tar_make(), tar_read(), tar_load(), tar_meta(), and tar_progress() read or modify the local data store of the pipeline. The local data store is in flux while a pipeline is running, and depending on how distributed computing or cloud computing is set up, not all targets can even reach it. So please do not call these functions from inside a target as part of a running pipeline. The only exception is literate programming target factories in the tarchetypes package such as tar_render() and tar_quarto().

See also

Other visualize: tar_mermaid(), tar_visnetwork()

Examples

if (identical(Sys.getenv("TAR_INTERACTIVE_EXAMPLES"), "true")) {
tar_dir({ # tar_dir() runs code from a temp dir for CRAN.
tar_script({
  library(targets)
  library(tarchetypes)
  tar_option_set()
  list(
    tar_target(y1, 1 + 1),
    tar_target(y2, 1 + 1),
    tar_target(z, y1 + y2)
  )
}, ask = FALSE)
tar_glimpse()
tar_glimpse(allow = starts_with("y")) # see also any_of()
})
}