R Functions Framework

R Logo + Cloud Run

🅡 is a programming language and environment commonly used for statistical computing, data analytics and scientific research.

The R Functions Framework allows you to write portable R functions that can be easily deployed to Cloud Run.

In this blogpost, we’ll walk through deploying an R service to Cloud Run!

Install R

Install the precompiled binary distribution of R for your operating system at https://cloud.r-project.org/.

This will install the R language and rscript CLI.

Install the R extension in VS Code

For easy local testing of R in our IDE, install the R extension from the VS Marketplace:

R - Visual Studio Marketplace

Test locally

Open the VS Code command palette (⌘⇧P) and type:

R: Run Command in Terminal

This will start an R Interactive session.

You’ll see this prompt:

R version 4.0.2 (2020-06-22) -- "Taking Off Again"
Copyright (C) 2020 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin17.0 (64-bit)
R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
You are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions.
Type 'license()' or 'licence()' for distribution details.
Natural language support but running in an English locale
R is a collaborative project with many contributors.
Type 'contributors()' for more information and
'citation()' on how to cite R or R packages in publications.
Type 'demo()' for some demos, 'help()' for on-line help, or
'help.start()' for an HTML browser interface to help.
Type 'q()' to quit R.

In this session, install R devtools and the R Functions Framework:

Now create new terminal. (➕ in the terminal) run the service:

Rscript create-app.R --target=hello

You’ll see the console output:

Starting server to listen on port 8080

Go to localhost:8080 to test your server.

Hello World! served from the R Functions Framework.

Deploy to Cloud Run

Now let’s deploy our app to Cloud Run.

1. Download the Functions Framework binary

curl -O https://github.com/averikitsch/functions-framework-r/blob/master/examples/functionsframework_0.0.0.9000.tgz

2. Create a Dockerfile:

Dockerfile

3. Build and Run:

Building the container takes a bit, but after it’s built, it runs well.

Test on Cloud Run

After deploying, you’ll get a URL like:

https://hellor-q7vieseilq-uc.a.run.app

Now feel free to create a more advanced R application!

Learn More

Thanks for reading!

If you enjoyed this article, you may be interested in the following resources:

• 😺 GitHub Source for the R Functions Framework
• 📄 Functions Framework Contract