gist

The gist package provides a set of functions to work with GitHub Gist. It allows you to copy, create, and delete gists via the GitHub API. Moreover, it comes with an R Studio addin - a shiny app - to manage your Gists.

Installation

You can install the development version of gist like so:

devtools::install_github("edgar-treischl/gist")

In order to connect with the Git Hub API, you need to provide a GitHub API token (names as: github_api) with the keyring package. Use the key_set() function to store your token safely:

#Save GitHub API token as github_api
keyring::key_set(service = "github_api")

Workflow

There is no need to learn how the package works, because it comes with an R Studio addin that let you manage Gists. Go to the addin menu or use the following code to open the gist app. The app shows a list with your gist files and a preview of the code. Pick a gist and copy or insert the code. Furthermore, the app has tabs to create and delete gists as well.

#The gistAddin()
library(gist)
gist::gistAddin()

If you want to interact via R, you can use the following functions. Create a new Gist via:

#Create a gist
gist_create(name = "A_Test.R", 
            code = '#Test
            print("Hello world")', 
            description = "Test Gist")
#> ✔ Insert A_Test.R
#> [1] "TRUE"

Get a gist via:

#gistfiles lists all files and returns names and ids
gist_get(filename = "A_Test.R")

#> ✔ Copied A_Test.R from your GitHub account.

Set the raw parameter to TRUE in case you need the raw character vector. Finally, let us delete a gist. Therefore, you need to inspect your gists to get to know the id of a gist.

#gistFiles lists all files and returns names and ids
mygists <- gist::gistFiles()
mygists |> head()
#>                  file                               id
#> 1            A_Test.R 92fa4eeda00996058731e056c31e4535
#> 2        attachment.R 0daa7241e752a4c4f77ad0085b9d7694
#> 3             clear.R 27a596e3c9cf3b533936e771a01d840f
#> 4 cli_progress_step.R c0a0c0485afd7b0b48101e86a5dd1b3c
#> 5    dbi::dbConnect.R 330939119e04086d3a68a3c7662ad5a0
#> 6        dotwhisker.R 725f9b302453c9456e6dcc546760a0d4

To delete a gist, give the id the gist_delete() function.

#Delete a gist
gist::gist_delete(id = mygists$id[1])
#> ✔ Deleted id: 92fa4eeda00996058731e056c31e4535
#> [1] "TRUE"