1 Install a recent version of R

SpaDES requires R version 3.2.2 or greater.

Download and install the latest version of R from https://cran.rstudio.com/

2 Install the latest RStudio

Download and install the latest RStudio from https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download

Developer preview versions are available from https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/preview/

3 Install SpaDES

Ensure you have updated the packages on your computer, installed the latest development version of the SpaDES package and its dependencies:

# First, update your packages
update.packages() # This will ask you y or n for each package. 
## If you want all packages updated, try update.packages(ask = FALSE)

install.packages(c("curl", "digest", "influenceR", "devtools", 
                   "rstudioapi", "SpaDES"))

devtools::install_github("PredictiveEcology/SpaDES@development")

# check package version
packageVersion("SpaDES") ## should be >= 1.2.0.9009

4 Additional dependencies

Important note: Installing SpaDES will install a number of additional spatial packages, some of which have additional system dependencies not covered by simply installing the R package.

See this post on how to ensure you can install the system dependencies required to install these packages.

5 Brainstorm your SpaDES needs

  • Use a pre-existing module as is? Which one(s)?

  • Modify a pre-exising module? Enhance it? Fix bugs?

  • Are you going to make a new module?

  • Add a new module to a group of other modules (e.g., add fires to vegetation dynamics)?

  • Learn some ecological modeling?

  • Come with specific problems …

6 Data & Model

  • Bring any data that you would like to work with
  • If you have a conceptual model that you would like to work on, bring it

7 Create a new RStudio project

  1. From the File menu, select New Project….
  2. Select New Directory.
  3. Select Empty Project.
  4. Name your project and select where to save it.
  5. Don’t worry about ‘Packrat’ and ‘Git repositories’. Leave these unchecked.
  6. (Optional) You may want to open your project in a new Rstudio session.