Handle array arguments in webR.installPackages()

NEWS.md

@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@
 
 * The `rwasm` R package is now installed into the system library as part of the webR development Docker container (#443, r-wasm/actions#10).
 
+* `webR.installPackages()` now correctly handles both `string` and `string[]` arguments for package names and binary repositories (#437).
+
 # webR 0.3.3
 
 ## New features

src/webR/webr-chan.ts

@@ -26,10 +26,10 @@ export interface CallRObjectMethodMessage extends Message {
  */
 export interface InstallPackagesOptions {
  /**
- * The R package repository from which to download packages.
+ * The R package repositories from which to download packages.
  * Default: The configured default webR package repository.
  */
- repos?: string;
+ repos?: string | string[];
  /**
  * If `true`, do not output downloading messages.
  * Default: `false`.
@@ -44,9 +44,9 @@ export interface InstallPackagesOptions {
 
 /** @internal */
 export interface InstallPackagesMessage extends Message {
- type: 'installPackage';
+ type: 'installPackages';
  data: {
- name: string;
+ name: string | string[];
  options: InstallPackagesOptions;
  };
 }

src/webR/webr-main.ts

@@ -363,21 +363,20 @@ export class WebR {
  }
 
  /**
- * Install a list of R packages from a Wasm binary package repo.
- * @param {string[]} packages An array of R package names.
+ * Install a list of R packages from Wasm binary package repositories.
+ * @param {string | string[]} packages An string or array of strings
+ * containing R package names.
  * @param {InstallPackagesOptions} [options] Options to be used when
  * installing webR packages.
  */
- async installPackages(packages: string[], options?: InstallPackagesOptions) {
+ async installPackages(packages: string | string[], options?: InstallPackagesOptions) {
  const op = Object.assign({
  quiet: false,
  mount: true
  }, options);
 
- for (const name of packages) {
- const msg = { type: 'installPackage', data: { name, options: op } };
- await this.#chan.request(msg);
- }
+ const msg = { type: 'installPackages', data: { name: packages, options: op } };
+ await this.#chan.request(msg);
  }
 
  /**

src/webR/webr-worker.ts

@@ -421,11 +421,15 @@ function dispatch(msg: Message): void {
  break;
  }
 
- case 'installPackage': {
+ case 'installPackages': {
  const msg = reqMsg as InstallPackagesMessage;
+ let pkgs = msg.data.name;
+ let repos = msg.data.options.repos ? msg.data.options.repos : _config.repoUrl;
+ if (typeof pkgs === "string") pkgs = [ pkgs ];
+ if (typeof repos === "string") repos = [ repos ];
  evalR(`webr::install(
- "${msg.data.name}",
- repos = "${msg.data.options.repos ? msg.data.options.repos : _config.repoUrl}",
+ c(${pkgs.map((r) => '"' + r + '"').join(',')}),
+ repos = c(${repos.map((r) => '"' + r + '"').join(',')}),
  quiet = ${msg.data.options.quiet ? 'TRUE' : 'FALSE'},
  mount = ${msg.data.options.mount ? 'TRUE' : 'FALSE'}
  )`);