Introduction to targets and geotargets

1 Welcome

Welcome to targets and geotargets! This course will teach you how to build reproducible computational pipelines for data analysis and geospatial workflows.

2 Course Materials

Materials will be added here as we progress through the course.

https://gentle-targets.njtierney.com

Prerequisites

• Experience writing basic R scripts
• Familiarity with writing functions in R
• Experience with spatial data packages (terra, sf) helpful but not required
• Experience in writing your own data analysis

Learning outcomes

• Understand benefits of using a pipeline approach like {targets}
• How to write functions that work in a pipeline
• How to debug common pipeline issues
• How to use {targets} with {geotargets}

3 Schedule

3.1 Why Pipelines?

• Where do I start? What do I run first?
• Common problems with pipelines/workflows
• Intro to {targets}
• Concepts in {targets}: functions, targets, graphs/networks
• Where we are going

3.2 Starting with function: writing out a workflow

• Defining out functions as the unit of understanding
• Ideal properties of functions
• Properties to avoid in functions
• Writing out a workflow with functions
• Using {fnmate} to accelerate function creation

3.3 Debugging functions

• brower()
• debug() and debugonce()
• options(recover)

3.4 Getting started with {targets}

• Using {tflow} to set up a targets project
  • Unpacking folder structure, _targets.R file
  • Using functions for pipeline steps
  • Using tar_assign()
• Your first pipeline
• Modifying and rebuilding: understanding what changes

3.5 Deeper workflow with {targets}

• Data read in with tar_read()
• Rendering reports with tar_quarto()
• Using keyboard shortcuts to load, inspect
• Using tar_workspaces() to debug issues
• Common problems when writing pipelines

3.6 Advanced Targets Features

• Using {crew} to paralellise workflow
• Branching
• Using targets with HPC

3.7 Introduction to Geospatial Data

• Spatial data challenges
• Introduction to {terra} and {sf}

3.8 Geospatial Pipelines with {geotargets}

• Why {geotargets}?
• tar_terra_rast(), tar_terra_vect(), etc
• Building a geospatial pipeline

3.9 Production Workflows and Best Practices

• Organising large projects
• Convert your own work into a pipeline
• Feedback on your pipeline
• Resources and next steps
• Open Q&A