Visual Basic and R

Jump down to:

• Introduction
• MRDS and DSM
• How Distance for Windows calls MRDS and DSM
• Distance for Windows R folder
• Microsoft Jet database configuration
• DSM and MRDS Visual Basic invocation implementation overview
• MRDS and DSM implementation notes

Introduction

Distance currently has two R-based analysis engines:

• MRDS fits detection functions to point and line transect distance sampling survey data
• DSM fits density surface models to spatially-referenced distance sampling data

MRDS and DSM

MRDS and DSM are R libraries. For full details see the source code repositories (see How to get DSM and MRDS R source code).

How Distance for Windows calls MRDS and DSM

Distance for Windows calls MRDS and DSM libraries as follows:

• Create input files:
  • in.r - R commands
  • ddf.dat.r - data used in detection function modelling
  • region.dat.r
  • sample.dat.r
  • obs.dat.r
  • The last three files are used in estimating density given a fitted detection function
• Invoke R, via its Rcmd.exe executable. For example:

C:\PROGRA~1\R\rw1091\bin\Rcmd.exe BATCH C:\temp\dst90474\in.r C:\temp\dst90474\log.r

• Wait for results.
• Parse output files.

Distance for Windows R folder

Distance for Windows projects can contian an optional R\ folder within .dat\ project folders. This contains:

• .RData - R object file with objects created during analysis
  • This is virtually empty unless debugging or logging
• Image files (optional)
  • These have the naming convention PREFIX.ANALYSIS ID.PLOT NUMBER.SUFFIX
  • SUFFIX can be .wmf,(default), .jpeg, .bmp

Microsoft Jet database configuration

ProjectSettingsMemo table:

The AnalysisEngine values are as follows:

ProjectSettingsBoolean table:

DSM and MRDS Visual Basic invocation implementation overview

Only DSM is shown - MRDS is similar.

Class Analysis Engines\DSM\NEngineInterface\Classes\DSMNEngineInterface.cls:

• Function RunItem:
  • Calls DatabaseInterface.MakeFiles to create input data and command files
  • Calls RProcess.EngineName to get engine file name (at present this is always Rcmd.exe)
  • Call RProcess.RunEngine to run the analysis engine
• Sub RunFinished:
  • Handles return codes from the analysis engine run
  • Calls DatabaseInterface.SaveResults to process files and update state

Class Analysis Engines\DSM\NEngineInterface\Classes\DatabaseInterface.cls:

• Interfaces between database and R files
• Function MakeFiles:
  • Calls DataFileMaker.MakeFile to create data files
  • Calls InputFileMaker.MakeFile to create input file
• Function SaveResults:
  • Processes output files and command-line output file

Class Analysis Engines\DSM\NEngineInterface\Classes\DataFileMaker.cls:

• Function MakeFile:
  • Gets data from database
  • Creates data files which, depending on the analysis, can include:
    • Sample data file
    • Observation data file
    • Spatial prediction covariate values file
    • Spatial prediction layer file
    • Variance data file

Class Analysis Engines\DSM\NEngineInterface\Classes\InputFileMaker.cls:

• Function MakeFile:
  • Creates log, stats and result file names
  • Creates sample, observation, spatial prediction covariate, spatial prediction layers, variance file names, if not already specified
  • Creates spatial prediction results and variance results file names, if not already specified
  • Creates input file, adding R commands, depending upon the analysis.
    • This includes commands to load the library…
• Function AppendLinkDSMLibraryString:
  • Calls DnnnnNEIUtil.GetRSupportFileName to get R support file name (e.g. support.r) and adds R code to source this file
  • Calls DnnnnNEIUtil.GetRSupportFileName to get DSM R support file name (e.g. dsm.support.r) and adds R code to source this file
  • Gets database ProjectSettingsBoolean table R section value for ForceLoadLibrary, to see if the user wants to reinstall the library
  • Gets database ProjectSettingsBoolean table R section value for UpdateFromCRAN to see if the user wants to update packages from CRAN
  • Calls DnnnnNEIUtil.GetRPackageName to get DSM package name
  • Calls DnnnnNEIUtil.GetRPackagePath to get package path
  • If ForceLoadLibrary is selected then adds R code to force installation of the library is added, otherwise R code to install the library
  • If UpdateFromCRAN is selected then adds R code to update the package from CRAN, at http://cran.r-project.org
  • Adds R code to load the library
• Function AppendRemoveNewObjectsString
  • Adds R code to remove objects added by R support file (e.g. dsm.support.r)

Class Analysis Engines\Shared Stuff\NEngineInterfaceUtilities\Classes\CDSProcess.cls:

• Function GetEngineName:
  • Gets database ProjectSettingsMemo table R section value for Path
  • If no such value then calls DnnnnUtil.GetRInstallPath (see below) and, if found, updates database
  • Adds R executable name (i.e. RCmd.exe) to path to form engine name
• Sub RunEngine:
  • Calls PATH\bin\i386\Rcmd.exe BATCH INPUT_FILE LOG_FILE

Class Analysis Engines\Shared Stuff\NEngineInterfaceUtilities\Classes\InputFileMakerUtils.cls:

• Function GetRPackageName:
  • Gets database ProjectSettingsMemo table AnalysisEngine section value for the requested analysis (i.e. DSM or MRDS)
  • Parses Name=Value pairs to get PackageName, the name of the R package
  • Returns full path to package’s ZIP file or the R package name only depending upon what has been requested
• Function GetRPackagePath:
  • Gets path to App.Path\RPackages\, within the same folder as DnnnNEIUtil.dll
  • Converts path to R-compliant format
• Function GetRSupportFileName:
  • Gets database ProjectSettingsMemo table AnalysisEngine section value for the requested analysis (i.e. DSM or MRDS)
  • Parses Name=Value pairs to get SupportFileName, the name of the R support file name (i.e. dsm.support.r or mrds.support.r)
  • If no analysis was specified (i.e. “”) then the R support file, support.r, is used
  • Returns support file name, prefixed with App.Path\ if requested

Class Utilities\Classes\Misc.cls:

• Function GetRInstallPath:
  • Searches Windows registry for R path
  • Gets value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\Current Version
  • If found, gets value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\CURRENT_VERSION\InstallPath
  • Else gets value of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\R-core\R\Current Version
  • If found, gets value of HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\R-core\R\CURRENT_VERSION\InstallPath
  • Else, for older R versions, gets value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\R-core\R\Current Version
  • If found, gets value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, Software\R-core\R\InstallPath

File Analysis Engines\Shared Stuff\NEngineInterfaceUtilities\Modules\Global.bas:

• Global Consts gstrR_SUPPORT_FILE = “support.r”
• Global Const gstrRCMD = “\bin\i386\Rcmd.exe”
• Global Const gstrBATCH = “BATCH”

MRDS and DSM implementation notes

Random numbers

R’s default random number generator is used. For more information, run, within R:

help(.Random.Seed)

MRDS main functions

• ddf() - fits detection function
• dht() - estimates abundance using Hortvitz-Thompson-like estimator

DSM main functions

• dsm() - fitsdensity surface model
• predict.dsm() - produces estimated response across prediction grid