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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

quarto (development version)

Breaking changes

  • quarto_render(output_file = ) now sets the output-file Quarto metadata instead of the --output CLI flag to avoid current problems with Quarto

    1. This allows the output file information to be correctly processed by Quarto, as if passed in a YAML header, and enables support for multiple output formats in the same render call. Users who need the old CLI flag behavior can use quarto_render(quarto_args = c('--output', 'filename')) (#251, #43).

  • quarto_use_template() now fails with a clear error message when used in non-empty directories, following a Quarto CLI update fix. Previously, the function could work with interactive prompting, but this required user interaction that isn’t suitable for programmatic use. The function still supports using templates in empty directories via the dir argument (requires Quarto 1.5.15+). Follow quarto-dev/quarto-cli#11127 for changes with --no-prompt behavior in future Quarto versions.

  • YAML 1.2 compatibility features improved to ensure written YAML can be properly read by Quarto’s js-yaml parser. write_yaml_metadata_block() and other YAML-writing functions now handle data corruption prevention from leading zero strings like "029" that would be misinterpreted as octal numbers (becoming 29) (thanks, @Mosk915, quarto-dev/quarto-cli#12736, #242). This change also benefits quarto_render() when using metadata= or execute_params= arguments.

  • Internal YAML processing functions now detect and prevent NA values to avoid incompatible YAML being sent to Quarto CLI. This prevents issues where R’s NA values get converted to YAML strings (like .na.real) that Quarto doesn’t recognize as missing values, since they are not supported in YAML 1.2 spec. Code that previously passed NA values will now receive clear error messages with actionable suggestions to handle missing data appropriately before passing to Quarto (#168).

New features

  • add_spin_preamble() adds YAML preambles to R scripts for use with Quarto Script rendering support. The function automatically detects existing preambles and provides flexible customization options through title and preamble parameters (#164).

  • check_newer_version() checks online if a newer version of Quarto is available. The function compares the current Quarto version against the latest stable and prerelease versions. It is aimed for verbosity by default (verbose = TRUE), but verbose = FALSE can also be set for just checking update availability with TRUE or FALSE return values. Version information is cached per session for up to 24 hours to minimize network requests.

  • detect_bookdown_crossrefs() helps users migrate from bookdown to Quarto by identifying cross-references that need manual conversion. The function scans R Markdown or Quarto files to detect bookdown-specific cross-reference syntax (like \@ref(fig:label) and (\#eq:label)) and provides detailed guidance on converting them to Quarto syntax (like @fig-label and {#eq-label}). It offers both compact and verbose reporting modes, with context-aware warnings that only show syntax patterns actually found in your files.

  • find_project_root(), get_running_project_root(), and project_path() provide Quarto-aware project path construction. These functions provide a consistent way to reference files relative to the project root, working both during Quarto rendering (using QUARTO_PROJECT_ROOT environment variables) and in interactive sessions (using intelligent project detection). The project_path() function is particularly useful in Quarto document cells where you need to reference data files or scripts from the project root regardless of the document’s location in subdirectories (#180).

  • has_parameters() detects whether Quarto documents use parameters. The function works with both knitr and Jupyter engines: for documents using the knitr engine, it checks for a params field in the document YAML metadata header; for documents using the Jupyter engine (.qmd with jupyter engine or .ipynb notebooks), it detects cells tagged with "parameters" using papermill convention. This enables programmatic identification of parameterized documents for automated workflows and document processing (#245).

  • new_blog_post() creates new blog posts for Quarto blog (thanks, @topeto, #22).

  • qmd_to_r_script() extracts R code cells from Quarto documents and creates R scripts. This experimental function preserves chunk options using #| syntax, adds YAML metadata as spin-style headers, handles mixed-language documents by filtering only R cells, skips chunks with purl: false, and properly processes eval: false chunks by commenting out their code. Complements the existing add_spin_preamble() function for working with R scripts in Quarto workflows (#208, #277, quarto-dev/quarto-cli#9112).

  • quarto_available() checks if Quarto CLI is found (thanks, @hadley, #187).

  • quarto_list_extensions(), quarto_remove_extension(), and quarto_update_extension() provide new wrapper functions for extension management (thanks, @parmsam, #192). These functions wrap quarto list extensions, quarto remove extensions, and quarto update extensions respectively.

  • tbl_qmd_span() and tbl_qmd_div() create HTML elements with special data-qmd attributes that tell Quarto to process their content as Markdown. These functions enable including formatted text, math equations, links, and other Markdown content within HTML tables generated by packages like knitr, kableExtra, and DT. The functions provide a display argument for fallback text when content includes Quarto-specific features like shortcodes. This addresses a common limitation where Markdown syntax inside HTML tables isn’t automatically processed by Quarto. Additional convenience functions tbl_qmd_span_base64(), tbl_qmd_div_base64(), tbl_qmd_span_raw(), and tbl_qmd_div_raw() provide explicit control over encoding.

  • theme_brand_*() and theme_colors_*() helper functions assist with theming using dark and light brand colors for common graph and table packages (thanks, @gordonwoodhull, #234). The functions support ggplot2 (theme_brand_ggplot2(), theme_colors_ggplot2()), gt (theme_brand_gt(), theme_colors_gt()), flextable (theme_brand_flextable(), theme_colors_flextable()), plotly (theme_brand_plotly(), theme_colors_plotly()), and thematic (theme_brand_thematic(), theme_colors_thematic()).

  • write_yaml_metadata_block() dynamically sets YAML metadata in Quarto documents from R code chunks. This addresses the limitation where Quarto metadata must be static and defined in the document header. The function enables conditional content and metadata-driven document behavior based on R computations (thanks, @kmasiello, #137, #160).

  • yaml_quote_string() allows explicit control over string quoting in YAML output.

Minor improvements and fixes

  • Debugging logic added for quarto vignette engine to help diagnose issues with Quarto vignettes in pkgdown and other contexts (thanks, @hadley, #185). Set quarto.log.debug = TRUE to enable debugging messages (or R_QUARTO_LOG_DEBUG = TRUE environment variable). Set quarto.log.file to change the file path to write to (or R_QUARTO_LOG_FILE environment variable). Default will be ./quarto-r-debug.log. Debug mode will be on automatically when debugging Github Actions workflows, or when Quarto CLI’s environment variable QUARTO_LOG_LEVEL is set to DEBUG.

  • Error reporting improved when background process call to quarto fails (thanks, @salim-b, #235).

  • Interactive prompt error fixed for extension approval (thanks, @wjschne, #212).

  • Package is now licensed MIT like Quarto CLI.

  • quarto_create_project() gains a title argument to set the project title independently from the directory name. This allows creating projects with custom titles, including when using name = "." to create a project in the current directory (thanks, @davidkane9, #148). This matches with --title addition for quarto create project in Quarto CLI v1.5.15.

  • quarto_create_project() offers better user experience (thanks, @jennybc, #206, #153).

  • quarto_path() now correctly returns NULL when no quarto is found in the PATH (thanks, @jeroen, #220, #221).

  • quarto_path() now returns a normalized path with potential symlink resolved, for less confusion with quarto_binary_sitrep() (thanks, @jennybc).

  • quarto_preview() gains a quiet argument to suppress any output from R or Quarto CLI (thanks, @cwickham, #232).

  • quarto_preview() now explicitly returns the preview server URL (invisibly) and documents this behavior. This enables programmatic workflows such as taking screenshots with webshot2 or passing the URL to other automation tools (thanks, @cwickham, #233).

  • quarto_render() now correctly sets as_job when not inside RStudio IDE and required rstudioapi functions are not available (#203).

  • quarto_render(as_job = TRUE) is now wrappable (thanks, @salim-b, #105).

  • quarto.quiet option added to allow more verbose error messages when quarto_* functions are used inside other packages. For example, inside pkgdown for building Quarto vignettes. pkgdown sets quiet = TRUE internally for its call to quarto_render(), and setting options(quarto.quiet = TRUE) allows to overwrite this.

  • R_QUARTO_QUIET environment variable can be used to set quarto.quiet option, which overrides any quiet = TRUE argument passed to quarto_* functions. This can be useful to debug Quarto rendering inside other packages, like pkgdown. Overrides will also now happen for GHA debug logging.

  • R version consistency improved: Quarto CLI will now correctly use the same R version as the one used to run functions in this package (#204).

quarto 1.4.4

CRAN release: 2024-07-20

quarto 1.4

CRAN release: 2024-03-06

  • This version is now adapted to Quarto 1.4 latest stable release.

  • Add registration of vignette engine to use quarto as a vignette builder, and use .qmd file as vignette. See vignette("hello", package = "quarto"). (thanks, @dcnorris, #57).

  • New quarto_binary_sitrep() checks possible difference in Quarto binary used by this package, and the one used by RStudio IDE (thanks, @jthomasmock, #12).

  • New is_using_quarto() to check if a directory requires using Quarto (i.e. it has a _quarto.yml or at least one *.qmd file) (thanks, @hadley, #103).

  • New quarto_create_project() calls quarto create project <type> <name> (thanks, @maelle, #87).

  • New quarto_add_extension() and quarto_use_template() to deal with Quarto extensions for a Quarto project. (thanks, @mcanouil, #45, @remlapmot, #42).

  • quarto_render() and quarto_inspect() gains a profile argument (thanks, @andrewheiss, #95, @salim-b, #123).

  • quarto_render() gains metadata and metadata_file arguments. They can be used to pass modified Quarto metadata at render time. If both are set, metadata will be merged over metadata_file content. Internally, metadata will be passed as a --metadata-file to quarto render (thanks, @mcanouil, #52, @maelle, #49).

  • quarto_render() and all other relevant functions gain a quarto_args argument. It allows to pass additional options flag to quarto CLI. This is for advanced usage e.g. when new options are added to Quarto CLI that would not be user-facing in this package’s functions (thanks, @gadenbuie, #125).

  • Add quiet argument in most functions to remove warnings and messages. It default to FALSE in most function to match with quarto CLI default.

  • In quarto_render(), execute_params now converts boolean value to true/false correctly as expected by quarto render (thanks, @marianklose, #124).

  • Error message now advises to re-run with quiet = FALSE because quarto_render(quiet = TRUE) will run quarto render in quiet mode (thanks to @gadenbuie, #126, @wlandau, #16).

  • rsconnect R package dependency has been moved to Suggest to reduce this package’s overall number of dependencies. rsconnect package is only required for publishing using quarto_publish_*() functions. Users will be prompted to install (when in interactive mode) if not installed.

  • Added a NEWS.md file to track changes to the package.