Deprecation Process

As xportr is an evolving package, functions or arguments may need to be removed or replaced with more efficient options from one release to another. In such cases, the relevant function or argument must be marked as deprecated. This deprecation is done in three phases over our release cycles.

Phase 1: The first release will issue a warning when using the depreciated function or argument by using lifecycle::deprecate_warn().

Phase 2: In the next release, an error will be thrown using lifecycle::deprecate_stop().

Phase 3: Finally, in the 3rd release thereafter, the function will be removed from the package altogether.

Examples of depreciation

Deprecating a function

Phase 1

1. Use lifecycle::deprecate_warn inside the function to throw a deprecation warning when it is called. If the function is replaced by a newer function, provide the new function as the with argument inside the lifecycle::deprecate_warn
2. Add lifecycle::badge("deprecated") in the function description using roxygen comments
3. Build the document using devtools::document() to make sure that the vignettes are updated

#' @description
#' `r lifecycle::badge("deprecated")`
#'
#' This function is *deprecated*. Please use the function `xportr_new_func()` instead
xportr_old_func <- function((.df, metadata, domain = NULL, verbose = "none") {
    lifecycle::deprecate_warn(
        when = "1.0.0",
        what = "xportr_old_func()",
        with = "xportr_new_func()",
        details = "Optionally provide more context about this change"
    )
    # Function logic
}

Phase 2

1. Replace the lifecycle::depricate_warn with lifecycle::deprecate_stop

Phase 3

1. Completely remove the deprecated function from the package

Deprecating a function argument

Phase 1

1. Still pass the deprecated argument in the function, but with a default value of deprecated()
2. If the deprecated function is used by the user, show a warning using lifecycle::deprecate_warn. If the argument is replaced with a new argument, reassign it here so the function works.
3. Add lifecycle::badge("deprecated") in the description of the function param using roxygen comments
4. Build the document using devtools::document() to make sure that the vignettes are updated

#' @param old_arg `r lifecycle::badge("deprecated")` description about the argument
#' @param new_arg description about the new argument
#'
#' This function is *deprecated*. Please use the function `xportr_new_func()` instead
xportr_old_func <- function((.df, metadata, new_arg, domain = NULL, verbose = "none", old_arg = deprecated()) {
    if (!missing(old_arg)) {
        lifecycle::deprecate_warn(
            when = "1.0.0",
            what = "xportr_old_func(old_arg = )",
            with = "xportr_new_func(new_arg = )",
            details = "Optionally provide more context about this change"
        )
        nre_arg <- old_arg
    }
    # Function logic
}

Phase 2

1. Replace the lifecycle::depricate_warn with lifecycle::deprecate_stop

Phase 3

1. Completely remove the deprecated argument from the function