Writing external plugins involves writing files in three languages (XML, JavaScript and R) and the creation of a standardized hierarchy of directories. To make this a lot easier for willing plugin developers, we are providing the rkwarddev package. It provides a number of simple R functions to create the XML code for all dialog elements like tabbooks, checkboxes, dropdownlists or filebrowsers, as well as functions to create JavaScript code and RKWard help files to start with. The function rk.plugin.skeleton() creates the expected directory tree and all necessary files where they are supposed to be.

This package is not installed by default, but has to be installed manually from RKWard's own repository. You can either do that by using the GUI interface (Settings → Configure packages), or from any running R session:

		install.packages("rkwarddev", repos="https://files.kde.org/rkward/R")
		library(rkwarddev)
		

rkwarddev depends on another small package called “XiMpLe”, which is a very simple XML parser and generator and also present in the same repository.

The full documentation in PDF format can also be found there. A more detailed introduction to working with the package can be found in the rkwarddev vignette.