rk.exporter: Batch Plot and Table Exporting for RKWard

rk.exporter brings seamless, automated batch exporting capabilities to the RKWard GUI. Stop wasting hours manually exporting plots one by one or copy-pasting tables into Microsoft Office.

Powered by purrr, flextable, and officer, this plugin suite allows you to take a List of ggplot2 objects or flextables and instantly export them as hundreds of individual high-res files, or compile them directly into professional, multi-page Word documents, PDFs, or PowerPoint presentations.

🚀 What's New in Version 0.0.1

This is the initial release of the package, introducing two core automation tools for data reporting:

1. Batch Plot Exporter: Export lists of ggplot2 graphics. Choose between saving them as individual files (SVG, PNG, PDF) into a folder, or combining them into a single presentation/report (PPTX, DOCX, PDF).
2. Batch Table Exporter: Export lists of flextable objects. Output them as individual HTML/Word/PPTX files, or stack them perfectly into a single, paginated Word document or PowerPoint deck.

🌍 Internationalization

The interface is fully localized in:

• 🇺🇸 English (Default)
• 🇪🇸 Spanish (es)
• 🇫🇷 French (fr)
• 🇩🇪 German (de)
• 🇧🇷 Portuguese (Brazil) (pt_BR)

✨ Features

1. Smart Combined Documents (Office Integration)

• One Object per Page: When combining tables or plots into Word (.docx), the plugin automatically injects page breaks (body_add_break()) so every table/plot sits cleanly on its own page.
• Orientation Control: Instantly set the entire Word or PDF document to Landscape or Portrait mode.
• PowerPoint Titles: When exporting a named list to PPTX, the name of the list element automatically becomes the title of the slide!

2. Bulletproof Batch Processing

• Name Sanitization: Safely handles list names containing spaces, slashes, or special characters, converting them to safe filenames (e.g., My Plot / 2 -> My_Plot___2.png) to prevent OS errors.
• Auto-Naming: If you pass an unnamed list (e.g., from an lapply loop), the plugin will automatically generate sequential names (plot_1, plot_2, etc.).
• Auto-Extensions: Don't worry about typing the exact file extension; the plugin's logic checks and appends .docx or .pptx dynamically if you forget it.

3. Dynamic User Interface

• Error Prevention: The GUI uses dynamic logic (rk.XML.logic). Depending on whether you choose "Individual" or "Combined" modes, unnecessary fields grey out and become disabled, guiding you to a perfect export every time.

📦 Installation

This plugin is not yet on CRAN. To install it, use the remotes or devtools package in RKWard.

1. Open RKWard.

2. Run the following command in the R Console:

   # If you don't have devtools installed:
   # install.packages("devtools")
   
   local({
     require(devtools)
     install_github("AlfCano/rk.exporter", force = TRUE)
   })

3. Restart RKWard to load the new menu entries.

💻 Usage & Testing Instructions

Once installed, the tools are located under the File menu: File -> Batch Exporters

To test the suite, copy and paste this code into your RKWard console to instantly generate a list of ggplot2 graphics and a list of flextables:

library(ggplot2)
library(flextable)

# 1. Create a named list of ggplot2 objects
p1 <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(x = wt, y = mpg, color = factor(cyl))) + geom_point(size=3) + theme_minimal() + labs(title="MTCars Scatter")
p2 <- ggplot(iris, aes(x = Species, y = Sepal.Length, fill=Species)) + geom_boxplot() + theme_minimal() + labs(title="Iris Boxplot")
my_plots <- list("Car_Analysis" = p1, "Flower_Analysis" = p2)

# 2. Create a named list of flextable objects
t1 <- flextable(head(mtcars[, 1:5])) %>% theme_vanilla() %>% set_caption("Motor Trend Cars")
t2 <- flextable(head(iris)) %>% theme_zebra() %>% set_caption("Edgar Anderson's Iris Data")
my_tables <- list("Cars_Table" = t1, "Iris_Table" = t2)

Test 1: Export Plots to PowerPoint

1. Go to File -> Batch Exporters -> Batch Plot Exporter.
2. Input & Mode: Select my_plots as your Target object.
3. Choose Combined Document. Notice how the "Output Directory" greys out!
4. Choose an Output File (e.g., your Desktop, name it Report).
5. Export Settings: Select PowerPoint (.pptx).
6. Click Submit. Open the PPTX file: You will have two slides, each titled automatically ("Car_Analysis" and "Flower_Analysis") with high-quality vector plots inside!

Test 2: Export Tables to Individual Word Files

1. Go to File -> Batch Exporters -> Batch Table Exporter.
2. Input & Mode: Select my_tables.
3. Choose Individual Files. Select an Output Directory (e.g., a new folder on your Desktop).
4. Export Settings: Select Word (.docx) and Landscape orientation.
5. Click Submit. Check your folder: You will see Cars_Table.docx and Iris_Table.docx perfectly exported in landscape mode.

🛠️ Dependencies

This plugin relies on the following R packages:

• purrr (List iteration and mapping)
• ggplot2 (Graphics rendering and ggsave)
• svglite (High-quality SVG device rendering)
• flextable (Table formatting)
• officer (Native Microsoft Office document manipulation)
• rkwarddev (Plugin generation)

✍️ Author & License

• Author: Alfonso Cano (alfonso.cano@correo.buap.mx)
• Assisted by: Gemini, a large language model from Google.
• License: GPL (>= 3)