RForge Documentation
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How RForge works

RForge.net consists of various components that are provided for developer's convenience and can be combined in many ways. This document describes the various components and conventions that allow you to use it for your project in the most suitable way.

SVN repository

The basis for each project is a SVN repository that holds both the current project and its associated webpages. Each repository has the following standard layout: So for example for a project foo you can check out the current trunk using:
svn co svn://svn.rforge.net/foo/trunk foo
Then you work on it, modify or add files and commit it. At the time of the commit RForge will check the package and create its documentation if it is told to, see details below.

Note: RForge.net now supports external GIT repositories as well - use the "Modify Your Project" item under "Other actions""Modify Your Project" to set the GIT URL. In that case the SVN sources are ignored and the check process pulls from a git repository. You can use WebHook http://rforge.net/do/githook in GitHub or GitLab to have check-on-commit enabled. Note that the project name in RForge.net must match the git repository name exactly.

Project webpages

The project webpages are fetched from the /web part of project's SVN repository. Webpages intended for viewing should be placed directly in the /web space and should have .html extension. They are embedded in the RForge look and feel. In addition, special directives of the form %XXX% are replaced dynamically, where XXX is one of the variables or commands supported by RForge (see below). Any subdirectories are directly served and can be used for static content. See customizing webpages below for further details.

R packages

RForge provides automatic checking and building of R packages and supporting documentation. There are two ways to use this facility:

If a project contains a NEWS file in its repository root then it is accessible (in beautified form) as "News" menu item. It is assumed to be in a form similar to R's NEWS file, but any format will do.

Customizing Webpages

RForge attempts to keep a common look and feel so users don't need to deal with different UIs. Also this simplifies the maintenance for the developers, because menus etc. are generated automatically. A project is free to use external webpages if it desires (see project administration). When using RForge's content management facilities each .html file in the web root can use following special directives:

%NAME% - name of the project
%TITLE% - project title
%VER% - package version (from DESCRIPTION or version script)
%RForge.svn.log% - last SVN (or GIT) log entries
%RForge.pkg.desc% - main fields from the DESCRIPTION file in tabular form
%RForge.news% - NEWS file from the package

In addition you can create a special file called map which defines the menu on the left hand side. The format for each custom entry is page.html|Menu item where page.html is the web page filename and Menu item is the text that shall appear in the menu (you can use HTML). In addition, you can use standard entries that start with a plus. The following is the contents of the default map file:

# default menu
+about
+svn
+files
+news
+check
+doc
When creating your own map file, you can combine any custom entries and default entries. In addition you can use special entries . (just a dot on a line), - (minus on a line) for space or vertical bar respectively and =|.. where .. can be any HTML code that will be inserted as-is.

Remember that only files in the web root are processed, all other files are passed as they are.

E-mail accounts

RForge offers optional e-mail accounts and aliases at RForge.net to registered developers. The RForge mail server includes virus scanner, spam filter and web-mail interface (the latter only with accounts, not aliases).

Bug reports

RForge optinally provides Bugzilla to all projects that wish to use it. Use project administration page to enable bugzilla for your project. This basically registers your account with bugzilla and creates a product with your project name. Since this Bugzilla setup is global, users reporting bugs need to register only once to report bugs to any RForge projects.

Mailing Lists

RForge optimally provides mailing lists to all projects that wish to use it. The list server is lists.rforge.net. If you want one or more lists for your project, they must start with your project name and you will be made administrator of the mailing lists.

Backup

The entire RForge (SVN, projects, repository, code ...) is backed up daily to two other servers located in the USA and Germany. Both are in locations separate from the main server. The main server and both backup servers are running on server-grade hardware with RAID. One of the backup servers can be used as a replacement for the main server in case of a hardware failure and the other one runs in a highly-protected environment for security audits.

Suggestions

If you have any suggestions on how to improve RForge, please don't hesitate to drop me a line admin@rforge.net, Simon Urbanek.