Category Archives: R

Bio7 2.6 for Windows and Linux Released

17.10.2017

A new version of Bio7 for Windows and Linux is available. The MacOSX version will be released soon, too.

The application Bio7 is an integrated development environment for ecological modelling, scientific image analysis and statistical analysis. Beside many different tools it contains a complete Graphical User Interface for R.

The application itself is based on an RCP-Eclipse-Environment (Rich-Client-Platform) which offers a huge flexibility in configuration and extensibility because of its plug-in structure and the possibility of customization.

For a short overview see this older video.

New Features:

General

Improved the dark theme for Bio7 2.6 (see Windows and Linux screenshot below)
Improved the default Bio7 theme (see Linux screenshot below)

Improved the theming of some Bio7 views (e.g., tables, text editors)
Added a new shortcut for Windows and Linux to show or hide the Bio7 main menus – CTRL(CMD)+2, CTRL(CMD)+3). By default the application frame, toolbar and the status bar can be hidden, too. (see screenshot below with hidden window and menu – set the key shortcuts in the preferences!)
Bio7 2.6 is based on Eclipse 4.7.1a
Added the ‘Project Explorer’ view to many perspectives and deleted the ‘Navigator’ view in some of the perspectives (the ‘Project Explorer’ view displays errors and warnings and supports pasting of clipboard Java code, etc.)
Added a break and interrupt action for the windows shell to end ,e.g., a ssh connection (CTRL+BREAK) or interrupt an ongoing shell process (CTRL+C)
Added an API to send commands to the Windows/Linux/MacOSX shell
Added SSH for Windows
Added the embedded SSH application path to the shell
Added a new ‘ImageJ Edit’ perspective to execute ImageJ scripts, macros side by side with the ImageJ-Canvas (see ImageJ section below)
Added a easy to use R API for Java/BeanShell/Jython/Groovy/JavaScript to execute R commands or scripts in an extra job (thread)
Improved several import/export scripts (now with Groovy) with the new Bio7 R API.
Improved the Linux shell (added the default xterm path)
The R package install script now works with a native R shell connection.
Shiny applications can now be tested from all folders (not only project folder – e.g.; from Git folders)

R Editor

Added an action to surround selected code with a “try and catch” skeleton
Added an Project view/Navigator view popup action to start a shiny app in a arbitrary folder
Added an action to open and insert a hex color in the editor
Added a hoover dialog to display and replace selected hex and R colors (see screenshot below)

Added an action in the hoover dialog to select hex colors
Added an action in the hoover dialog to select default R colors by name (see screenshot below)

Added a new database view to the R perspectives to store or apply database profiles and connections

Added SSH support for the database view (also for Windows!). Bio7 comes bundled with the latest SSH version of Windows

Improved the code completion of the R-Shell
Improved the default R package install script for Bio7
Restructured the R editor context menu

ImageJ

Added a full featured ImageJ macro editor with the following features:
- Dynamic error detection (grammar derived from the ECMA grammar by Bart Kiers)
- Toolbar action to execute ImageJ macros
- Syntax highlightening
- Editor debugging support (reusing and implementing interfaces and methods from – same keyboard shortcuts)
- Code completion (with browser help)
- Code templates (add you own templates)
- Info popups (text hoover)
- Outline view (var variables, variables, methods and macros)
- Automatic closing of braces, parentheses and strings
- Automatic indention of functions,loops, etc.
- Code folding
- Code formatting (based on the Eclipse-javascript-formatter by Sebastian Moran)
- Resize fonts functions (with Ctrl++ or CMD++, CTRL+- or CMD +-)
- Font preferences
- Mark occurences (scope independant)
- A copy function for the ImageJ forum

The ImageJ view menu is now right aligned and foldable to the left
Updated ImageJ to version 1.51r
Several bugfixes for the ImageJ compatibility

Download and Installation:

Windows:

Just download the *.zip distribution file from http://bio7.org and unzip it in your preferred location. Bio7 comes bundled with a Java Runtime Environment, R and Rserve distribution and works out of the box.

Linux:

Download and extract the installation file from http://bio7.org.

For Linux you have to install R and Rserve.

To install Rserve open the R shell and then execute the menu action “Options->Install Rserve (coop. mode)”. This will download an install Rserve in your default R library location, see video below (please make sure that your default Linux R library install location has writing permissions!).

The special version of Rserve can also be downloaded here:

https://bitbucket.org/maustenfeld/bio7-new/downloads

For a manual installation in the R prompt type the following command to install the compiled package (replace with your file path!):

install.packages(“Users/yourName/Downloads/Rserve_1.8-4_Mac_cooperative.tgz”, repos=NULL)

Installation of Useful R Packages

R packages which are useful in combination with Bio7 can easily be installed with the main menu “Scripts” action:

Scripts->R-Scripts->InstallDefaultRPackages

Bio7 Documentation

For more information about Bio7 please consult the soon updated Bio7 User Guide.

A plethora of Bio7 videotutorials can be found on YouTube.

Bio7 2.5 for MacOSX Released

1 Reply

11.04.2017

A new release of Bio7 for MaxOSX (64-bit) is available.
This release comes with a plethora of new functions for MacOSX and R.

(Screenshot with Bio7 Dark theme enabled and custom font colors of the R editor)

Bio7 2.5 Release Notes

Installation:

Download and extract the installation file from http://bio7.org.

If you start Bio7 a warning or error can occur because of the changes how Apple treats signatures! Please see this post for a solution (Go to System Preferences>Security & Privacy>General, set ‘Allow Apps etc’ to ‘Anywhere’. Change it back after you download and executed this app.).

In addition For MacOSX you have to install R and Rserve.

To install Rserve open the R shell and then execute the menu action “Options->Install Rserve (coop. mode)”. This will download an install Rserve in your default R library location, see video below (please make sure that your default MacOSX R library install location has writing permissions! – normally you don’t have to worry about this on MacOSX!).

The special version of Rserve can also be downloaded here:
https://bitbucket.org/maustenfeld/bio7-new/downloads

For a manual installation in the R prompt type the following command to install the compiled package (replace with your file path!):

install.packages(“Users/yourName/Downloads/Rserve_1.8-4_Mac_cooperative.tgz”, repos=NULL)

The latest Bio7 examples can be downloaded (download and import as *.zip) from Github here!

For more information about the installation and adding LaTeX, Knitr and rmarkdown support please consult the Bio7 User Guide.

Bio7 2.5 for Windows and Linux Released

1 Reply

07.04.2017

A new release of Bio7 is available for Windows (64-bit) and Linux (64-bit).
The MacOSX version will be released soon, too. This release comes with a plethora of new functions for R.

General

Bio7 is now based on Eclipse 4.6.3
Redesigned all Bio7 icons and created new icons, too
Nearly all icons are now available for high dpi displays
Added a dark Theme for Bio7

Added the default Eclipse theme as optional to Bio7
Added a new action for Linux and MacOSX to download and install Rserve (see Video in R section)
Added JavaScript editor support (default opened in text editor but if Eclipse JavaScript editor installed it can be opened and executed in the advanced editor)
Added a new action for the execution of JavaScript (and ImageJ macro)
JavaScript can be executed in the current opened browser if enabled in the preferences
Added JavaScript support to the console

Custom views are now entitled with the id of the view
Added a new „Document“ perspective for LaTeX, Sweave, knitr and rmarkdown documents
Added a new PDF viewer in the JavaFX browser to display PDF’s from LaTeX, knitr, rmarkdown and R plots („Display“)

Added options and actions to fullscreen a PDF on different monitors (press the key ‘t’ and the PDF will be centered and the toolbar will be removed)
Added several PDF options (scroll to selected page, etc.)
Added a new JavaFX browser for *.html and *.pdf files based on PDF.js
PDF files can be opened within the Navigator view with a double-click of the mouse device (also popular image types with ImageJ).
Added drag and drop support for the browser for *.html and *.pdf files
All editor fonts can now be scaled with the key combination ‘Ctlr +’
Added new global preferences for the editor fonts
Added preferences links for an improved navigation
Updated the default scientific Java libraries
Implemented a reload of the JavaFX Browser to avoid a cached display
Improved the resizing of the Quadgrid (Hexgrid) view
Added a new preference to disable the scrollbars of the Quadgrid (Hexgrid) view

R

Updated R to 3.3.3 on Windows
Added an action to download and install ‘Rserve cooperative mode’ for Linux and MacOSX
Improved the speed of the „Load packages“ dialog
Improved the speed of the „Install packages“ dialog.
Improved the speed of the refresh action in the R-Shell view
Added browser preferences to select the browser and the display
Added a new toolbar action for Sweave
Added an extra view for plots
Added the package install dialog as an view
Added an option to open a HTML package info for a selected package in the package install view (see video below).

Added a preference for a custom Rserve client connection port if you start the Rserve server with a different port
Added code completion in the R-Shell view for s3 and s4 methods (see video below)

Added an option to automatically open code completion when typing in the R-Shell
R-Shell R help now recognizes the selected browser
Added several actions to create, built, and test R packages to the context menu of the Navigator view (using the ‘devtools’ package)
Added a Shiny test action in the context menu of the Navigator view which opens a browser with the running shiny application (select a project folder with the server and ui files – to stop the server use the interrupt action in the R-Shell console or press ‘Strg c’ in the Console).
Improved the transfer of variables and sheet names from the Table view and LibreOffice
Improved the display of the R preferences (opening the default preferences structure)

R editor

Improved the code completion in general
Code completion dialogs are now synchronized with the other dialogs
Added code completion for
- S3 objects (after $)
- S4 object slots (after @)
- the library function (library())
- the data function (data())
Added new individual images to the code completion
Improved the close parentheses functions
Improved the visual appearence of the hoover dialog
Corrected the code completion images to match the Outline view images
Improved the display of markers
Added a popup display for the ‚str‘ function when hoovering over a workspace variable
Fonts can now be scaled with the key shortcuts ‘Strg +’
Added automatic indention after parentheses (loops, function, etc.)
Added preferences for the formatR package
Added an formatR action to format editor selections only
Added a refactor rename method for a selected scope
Added roxygen code completion in comments

Added an action to create roxygen templates from selected function, S3, S4, Reference and R6 classes (see video below)

In the popup menu added several actions of the devtools package to create, test and install R packages (select a project or regular folder)
Added plot preferences to open plot images individually and an option to execute an ImageJ macro after plot creation (e.g. to scale a plot after creation, etc.)
Added an ‘Open File’ and ‘Save File’ dialog to create file templates with selected files in the R editor and the R-Shell view (see video)
Added a new shortcut to create an assign operator (‘ALT _’)
Added a new shortcut to create a pipe operator (‘CTRL SHIFT M’)
Added simple editor templates for S3, S4, Reference and R6 classes
Improved the preferences navigation
Reorganized some preferences
Updated the parser to ANTLR 4.6

R Markdown

Improved the R markdown editor
Header and R chunks are now displayed in the Outline view
Added spell checking to the rmarkdown editor

Compiled documents are now displayed in a special custom view of Bio7 if enabled (by default enabled)
Added font and color preferences to the editor
Added new browser preferences (use of JavaFX webkit browser or system browser) and additional preferences for the control of the output
Added preferences to compile the document automatically after a specific time intervall (adjustable in the preferences – see video below)

Added code templates for popular markdown commands
Added an option to open word documents embedded in a custom view with Word (Windows only)

Added a key shortcut for the action to compile markdown documents

LaTeX

Improved the compile actions in the Bio7 toolbar (new icon) and removed the popup actions in the Navigator view
Added a key shortcut for the compilation
By default Latex documents are opened in the new PDF viewer (custom view)
Added new Bio7 LaTeX preferences to compile documents easily (without the need to create a LaTeX project with Texclipse)
Added new preferences to optional use XeLaTex and cleanup auxiliary files in the project folder
Added an option to compile BibTeX along with the *.tex file (several compilation iterations are performed)

ImageJ

Updated ImageJ to version1.51m
Improved the ImageJ menus to display all ImageJ menus correctly and nested (with key shortcuts and seperators)
ImageJ plugins now extend the respective SWT menu analogue to the ImageJ AWT menu.
Plugins, scripts and macros are now displayed in their defined menus or submenus.
Some popular image types can now be opened (double-click) directly from a Navigator folder (registered as a fake editor type)
Added two preferences to define the install location of plugins and macros (e.g external locations for teams).
Plugins now contribute to all ImageJ menus (SWT) like it is known from ImageJ
Dramatically improved the compatibility for ImageJ plugins (partially AWT)
Added a menu option to open images in a nested JavaFX panel (fullscreen on different monitors possible)
Addded JavaScript support for ImageJ (default editor is the text editor but a advanced Eclipse JavaScript editor can easily be installed)
Added a ImageJ macro wizard action to create ImageJ macros
Added an JavaScript wizard action to create a JavaScript file
JavaScript and ImageJ macros can now be executed with a toolbar (JavaScript) action.

WorldWind

Updated WorldWind to version 2.1
Made improvements for the dark theme

Installation:

Windows:

Just download the *.zip distribution file from http://bio7.org and unzip it in your preferred location. Bio7 comes bundled with the latest Java Runtime Environment, R and Rserve distribution and works out of the box.

Linux:

Download and extract the installation file from http://bio7.org.

For Linux you have to install R and Rserve.

The special version of Rserve can also be downloaded here:
https://bitbucket.org/maustenfeld/bio7-new/downloads

For a manual installation in the R prompt type the following command to install the compiled package (replace with your file path!):

install.packages(“Users/yourName/Downloads/Rserve_1.8-4_Mac_cooperative.tgz”, repos=NULL)

For more information please consult the Bio7 User Guide.

R Improvements for Bio7 2.5

New R Editor Features in Bio7