Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

boilerplate 1.1.0 [2025-06-06]

Documentation improvements

• Added comprehensive bibliography management vignette showing how to use centralised BibTeX files
• Added complete “Getting Started” tutorial with real-world workflow examples
• Created enhanced introduction vignette with practical multi-study scenarios
• Updated all examples to use current API (removed references to deprecated functions)
• Enhanced vignettes to showcase new variable documentation and database health features

Major improvements

• Lighter package: Reduced dependencies from 9 to 6 by removing glue, janitor, and stringr - replaced with base R equivalents
• Cleaner codebase: Removed deprecated backward compatibility functions (boilerplate_manage_text() and boilerplate_manage_measures()) - saving 625+ lines of code
• Streamlined JSON support: Consolidated JSON functionality into existing functions rather than separate _json variants
• Enhanced base functions: boilerplate_import(), boilerplate_save(), and boilerplate_export() now auto-detect and handle both JSON and RDS formats seamlessly
• Quarto integration: Package now emphasises support for Quarto documents with new vignette and updated README
• Smart backup handling: Backup creation is now context-aware - automatically disabled in temporary directories and non-interactive sessions
• Cleaner directory structure: Removed confusing nested directory structure

New features

Enhanced core functions

• boilerplate_import() - Now auto-detects JSON or RDS format based on file extensions
• boilerplate_save() - Added format parameter supporting “json”, “rds”, or “both”
• boilerplate_export() - Added format parameter for flexible export options
• boilerplate_batch_edit() - Can now load databases directly from file paths (JSON or RDS)
• boilerplate_standardise_measures() - Added json_compatible parameter for JSON-specific formatting

JSON utilities

• boilerplate_migrate_to_json() - Migrate RDS databases to JSON format
• boilerplate_rds_to_json() - Convert individual RDS files to JSON
• compare_rds_json() - Compare RDS and JSON databases for migration validation
• validate_json_database() - Validate JSON structure against schemas

Template variable documentation

• boilerplate_add_entry_enhanced() - Add entries with documented template variables
• boilerplate_update_entry_enhanced() - Update entries while preserving variable documentation
• boilerplate_get_variables() - Retrieve variable documentation for a specific path
• boilerplate_list_variables() - List all template variables across database with documentation status
• extract_template_variables() - Extract variables from template strings

Database health checking

• boilerplate_check_health() - Comprehensive database health checks including:
  • Empty or NULL entries detection
  • Orphaned template variables identification
  • Duplicate content detection
  • Measure structure consistency checks
  • Path naming convention validation
• Enhanced boilerplate_check_health() - Now includes integrated report generation with report parameter

Version management

• Enhanced boilerplate_import() - Can now import database files directly by path (both timestamped and backup files)
• boilerplate_list_files() - List and organise all database files (standard, timestamped, backups)
• boilerplate_restore_backup() - Convenient function to restore from backup files
• Improved file organisation - Clearly distinguishes between standard files, timestamped versions, and backups
• print.boilerplate_health() - Formatted output for health check results

Bibliography support

• boilerplate_add_bibliography() - Add bibliography information to database
• boilerplate_update_bibliography() - Download and cache bibliography files
• boilerplate_copy_bibliography() - Copy bibliography to project directory
• boilerplate_validate_references() - Check that all citations exist in bibliography
• boilerplate_generate_text() - Now supports automatic bibliography copying with copy_bibliography parameter

Measures enhancements

• boilerplate_generate_measures() - Now fully replaces deprecated boilerplate_measures_text()
• boilerplate_standardise_measures() - Standardises measure entries by extracting scale information, identifying reversed items, cleaning descriptions, and ensuring consistent structure
• boilerplate_measures_report() - Analyses a measures database and reports on completeness and consistency

Breaking changes

• Removed boilerplate_import_json() - use boilerplate_import() instead (auto-detects format)
• Removed boilerplate_save_json() - use boilerplate_save(..., format = "json") instead
• Removed boilerplate_batch_edit_json() - use boilerplate_batch_edit() instead (accepts file paths)
• Removed boilerplate_standardise_measures_json() - use boilerplate_standardise_measures(..., json_compatible = TRUE) instead
• Removed boilerplate_manage_text() and boilerplate_manage_measures() - deprecated functions no longer needed

Minor improvements

• Updated package examples with Quarto-focused workflows
• Fixed Rd line width issues in documentation
• Improved example code in export function
• Replaced janitor::make_clean_names with lightweight base R alternative
• Replaced glue::glue with base R template substitution
• Updated all vignettes and tests for consolidated functions
• Fixed trailing whitespace and indentation issues throughout package
• Updated pkgdown configuration to reflect current function set