boxes: store and retrieve arbitrary R objects

The goal of boxes is to provide a convenient way to store R objects or arbitrary files (plus additional notes) and retrieve them again later.

To use the package, you need to know a few terms:

• box: A container to store things. Things can be R objects or files.
• item: Anything stored inside a box.
• pack: Adding an item to a box.
• pick: Retrieving an item from a box.

Boxes are stored on your disk. Hence, anything put into it will remain there until you delete the box. Technically, each box is a separate SQLite database. You can create as many boxes as you need.

Installation

You can install the dev version of boxes like so:

devtools::install_github("markheckmann/boxes")

Usage

Load package and show existings boxes. A box with your username exists by default.

library(boxes)
boxes()
# # A tibble: 1 × 6
#   name        path        size n_objects modified            created            
#   <chr>       <fs::path> <fs:>     <int> <dttm>              <dttm>             
# 1 markheckma… …ckmann.db   12K         3 2024-03-26 14:41:29 2024-03-25 13:50:49

Create a new box and see that it is empty.

box_create("test")
# ℹ Activating box test
box_active()
# [1] "test"
box()
# # A tibble: 0 × 6
# # ℹ 6 variables: id <chr>, object <blob>, info <chr>, tags <chr>, class <chr>,
# #   changed <dttm>

Add a new object to the box.

pack(mtcars, "my_data", "Data to keep for later")
box()
# # A tibble: 1 × 6
#   id             object info                   tags  class   changed            
#   <chr>          <blob> <chr>                  <chr> <chr>   <dttm>             
# 1 my_data <raw 1.43 kB> Data to keep for later ""    data.f… 2024-03-26 14:47:18

Retrieve an object from a box and remove it.

x <- pick("my_data")
identical(x, mtcars)
# [1] TRUE
remove("my_data")

Check if item is gone and delete box.

box()
# # A tibble: 0 × 6
# # ℹ 6 variables: id <chr>, object <blob>, info <chr>, tags <chr>, class <chr>,
# #   changed <dttm>
box_delete("test")
boxes()
# # A tibble: 1 × 6
#   name        path        size n_objects modified            created            
#   <chr>       <fs::path> <fs:>     <int> <dttm>              <dttm>             
# 1 markheckma… …ckmann.db   12K         3 2024-03-26 14:41:29 2024-03-25 13:50:49