tar_quarto_rep does not work on self-contained reports in sub-directories

[tklebel]

Help

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Description

This is a direct continuation of #144. If we have a report in a subdirectory that has self-contained: true, the pipeline will succeed, but the resulting .html file does not include CSS and plots.

file structure:

_targets.R

report_dir/
├─ report.qmd

_targets.R:

library(tarchetypes)

params <- tibble::tibble(
  variable = c("mpg", "disp"),
)

list(tar_quarto_rep(report, path = "report_dir/report.qmd", execute_params = params))

report.qmd

---
title: "test"
format: 
  html: 
    self-contained: true
params:
  variable:
    "mpg"
---

This report is rendered with variable = `r params$variable`.

```{r}
library(ggplot2)

ggplot(mtcars, aes(.data[[params$variable]], hp)) +
  geom_point()
```

Applying self-contained: true was necessary to circumvent the issue of the generated reports incorrectly pointing all to the same figures #157.

[wlandau]

For some reason, self-contained: true is having no effect. The HTML of the rendered report is surprisingly small, and I see:

<p>This report is rendered with variable = mpg.</p>
<div class="cell">
<div class="sourceCode cell-code" id="cb1"><pre class="sourceCode r code-with-copy"><code class="sourceCode r"><span id="cb1-1"><a href="#cb1-1" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">library</span>(ggplot2)</span>
<span id="cb1-2"><a href="#cb1-2" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a></span>
<span id="cb1-3"><a href="#cb1-3" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a><span class="fu">ggplot</span>(mtcars, <span class="fu">aes</span>(.data[[params<span class="sc">$</span>variable]], hp)) <span class="sc">+</span></span>
<span id="cb1-4"><a href="#cb1-4" aria-hidden="true" tabindex="-1"></a>  <span class="fu">geom_point</span>()</span></code><button title="Copy to Clipboard" class="code-copy-button"><i class="bi"></i></button></pre></div>
<div class="cell-output-display">
<p><img src="report_files/figure-html/unnamed-chunk-1-1.png" class="img-fluid" width="672"></p>
</div>
</div>

[wlandau]

So the reason the figure isn't showing up is that targets needs to render the report to a temporary file in the current working directory first, then afterwards move that file to its final destination.

I can reproduce what you are seeing using just Quarto:

quarto::quarto_render(input = "report_dir/report.qmd", output_file = "temporary_file_in_current_working_dir.html")

tar_quarto_rep() needs to render its reports this way because of #144. If the Quarto maintainers ever relax this restriction, I will be able to move tar_quarto_rep() back to rendering in place.

[tklebel]

Thanks for figuring this out! Wouldn't this count as a bug on quartos side? I think it is, given the discussions in quarto-dev/quarto-cli#5765. Hopefully this will resolve itself once the quarto maintainers fix upstream.

[wlandau]

I agree with you. Hopefully they will fix it.