setup .devcontainer

[m7pr]

An attempt to setup .devcontainer structure so that you can use pre-defined Docker image with R installed And potentially many more R packages LOCALLY in your VS Code or for interactive live github copilot coding environment

Closes

• https://github.com/insightsengineering/coredev-tasks/issues/678

Allows to open VS Code / Cursor in a pre-created docker image that is also used during CI/CD testing

---

Steps to reproduce - locally in VS Code / Cursor

• Open VS Code / Cursor on this branch
• Launch Docker Desktop, or be sure Docker is running on your machine
• Click in the notification to reopen with devcontainer

• On VS Code it looks like this -> right bottom corner

• The image will be pulled (if it was not pulled before)

• Once the image is pulled, the docker container is started

• Note that this container has 9 GBs

• Now, when opening a terminal, you should be inside the docker container

• You can check the structure of the project inside the container, and you can obviously run R

• You can see brand new packages from CRAN - this is our CI setup

• For the development setup, you would need to install development versions of packages on your own

• You can also see it created a new branch called devcontainer for you to work

• It also created a Workspace for you, that you can always close, when you are done

• Here you can close

• And then you can open again by selecting this workspace

• Final note: by default all folders from your current workspace are added to the container:
  • this is specified by "workspaceMount": "source=${localWorkspaceFolder},target=/workspace,type=bind" in .devcontainer.json
  • but the devcontainer needs to be on the same level as all folder like below

• So it opens the devcontainer will all folders included

• Lastly, you can see that each Remote Session with devcontainer starts a docker container

---

Steps to reproduce - remotely in GitHub Codespaces

• In project main view, click Code -> Create codespace on devcontainer

• You should see a page where the codespace is being created for you

• First Codespace creation is slow with this docker container (9 GB), but once it's created then you can always jump off and on
• This is how it looks when it's finally launched

- It has R and teal from CRAN

• You can always open the codespace back again from project website

- And this is how you stop the codespace

[Copilot]

Pull Request Overview

Sets up a development container configuration for R programming with VS Code extensions and language server support. This enables consistent R development environments using Docker containers.

• Adds .devcontainer/devcontainer.json with R-specific VS Code extensions and settings
• Creates .devcontainer/Dockerfile with Ubuntu base image and R installation
• Configures automatic installation of R language server package on container creation

Reviewed Changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

File	Description
.devcontainer/devcontainer.json	Configures dev container with R extensions and post-creation setup
.devcontainer/Dockerfile	Defines Docker image with Ubuntu base and R installation

---

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[Copilot]

@m7pr I've opened a new pull request, #1657, to work on those changes. Once the pull request is ready, I'll request review from you.

[github-actions]

Code Coverage Summary

Filename                          Stmts    Miss  Cover    Missing
------------------------------  -------  ------  -------  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
R/after.R                            59      21  64.41%   42-52, 64, 69, 77-79, 81-89, 100, 104-105
R/checkmate.R                        24       0  100.00%
R/dummy_functions.R                  61       2  96.72%   54, 56
R/include_css_js.R                   11       0  100.00%
R/init.R                            136       0  100.00%
R/module_bookmark_manager.R          99      54  45.45%   78-133
R/module_data_summary.R             177       8  95.48%   40, 50, 205, 236-240
R/module_filter_data.R               64       0  100.00%
R/module_filter_manager.R           207       7  96.62%   116-117, 313, 340, 352, 359-360
R/module_init_data.R                 84       0  100.00%
R/module_nested_tabs.R              371      36  90.30%   163, 267-282, 302-306, 324, 361, 479-482, 486-489, 493-496
R/module_session_info.R              18       0  100.00%
R/module_snapshot_manager.R         272       9  96.69%   302-306, 373, 376-378
R/module_source_code.R               69       0  100.00%
R/module_teal_lockfile.R            131      53  59.54%   45-57, 60-62, 76, 86-88, 100-102, 110-119, 122, 124, 126-127, 142-146, 161-162, 177-186
R/module_teal_reporter.R            122       9  92.62%   60, 77-78, 81, 98, 128, 142, 144, 158
R/module_teal.R                     211       7  96.68%   127, 142-143, 183, 217, 260-261
R/module_transform_data.R           116       6  94.83%   48, 132-136
R/module_validate_error.R            73       0  100.00%
R/modules.R                         291      61  79.04%   170-174, 229-232, 357-377, 385, 391, 568-574, 587-595, 610-625, 658, 670-678
R/reporter_previewer_module.R        41      12  70.73%   41, 45, 68-85
R/teal_data_module-eval_code.R       23       0  100.00%
R/teal_data_module-within.R           7       0  100.00%
R/teal_data_module.R                 20       0  100.00%
R/teal_data_utils.R                  49       0  100.00%
R/teal_modifiers.R                   57       0  100.00%
R/teal_slices-store.R                29       0  100.00%
R/teal_slices.R                      63       0  100.00%
R/teal_transform_module.R            45       0  100.00%
R/TealAppDriver.R                   344     344  0.00%    50-713
R/utils.R                           291      48  83.51%   403-452, 540-549
R/validate_inputs.R                  32       0  100.00%
R/validations.R                      58       0  100.00%
R/zzz.R                              19       0  100.00%
TOTAL                              3674     677  81.57%

Diff against main

Filename      Stmts    Miss  Cover
----------  -------  ------  --------
TOTAL             0       0  +100.00%

Results for commit: e407547

Minimum allowed coverage is 80%

♻️ This comment has been updated with latest results

[github-actions]

Unit Tests Summary

  1 files   29 suites   2m 44s ⏱️
399 tests 354 ✅ 45 💤 0 ❌
625 runs  576 ✅ 49 💤 0 ❌

Results for commit e407547.

♻️ This comment has been updated with latest results.

[github-actions]

Unit Test Performance Difference

Test Suite	$Status$	Time on main	$±Time$	$±Tests$	$±Skipped$	$±Failures$	$±Errors$
module_session_info	💔	$18.14$	$+1.01$	$0$	$0$	$0$	$0$
shinytest2-disable_report	💀	$0.38$	$-0.38$	$-4$	$-4$	$0$	$0$
shinytest2-disable_src	💀	$0.22$	$-0.22$	$-2$	$-2$	$0$	$0$
shinytest2-show-rcode	💀	$0.28$	$-0.28$	$-3$	$-3$	$0$	$0$
shinytest2-teal_modifiers	💀	$0.55$	$-0.55$	$-7$	$-7$	$0$	$0$

Additional test case details

Test Suite	$Status$	Time on main	$±Time$	Test Case
module_session_info	💔	$18.12$	$+1.01$	srv_session_info_lockfile_creation_process_is_invoked_for_teal.lockfile.mode_enabled_and_snapshot_is_copied_to_teal_app.lock_and_removed_after_session_ended
shinytest2-decorators	👶		$+0.04$	unnamed
shinytest2-disable_report	💀	$0.10$	$-0.10$	Add_to_report_button_is_not_disabled_by_default.
shinytest2-disable_report	💀	$0.09$	$-0.09$	Report_button_is_active_on_a_nested_module_by_default
shinytest2-disable_report	💀	$0.09$	$-0.09$	Report_button_is_disabled_on_a_module_changed_by_disable_report_
shinytest2-disable_report	💀	$0.10$	$-0.10$	Report_button_is_disabled_on_nested_modules_changed_by_disable_report_
shinytest2-disable_src	💀	$0.12$	$-0.12$	Show_R_Code_button_is_disabled_on_a_module
shinytest2-disable_src	💀	$0.10$	$-0.10$	Show_R_Code_is_disabled_on_nested_modules_changed_with_disable_src
shinytest2-reporter	👶		$+0.01$	unnamed
shinytest2-show-rcode	💀	$0.09$	$-0.09$	e2e_Module_with_Show_R_Code_has_code
shinytest2-show-rcode	💀	$0.09$	$-0.09$	e2e_Module_with_Show_R_Code_has_modal_with_two_dismiss_and_two_copy_to_clipboard_buttons
shinytest2-show-rcode	💀	$0.10$	$-0.10$	e2e_Module_with_Show_R_Code_initializes_with_visible_button
shinytest2-teal_data_module	👶		$+0.02$	unnamed
shinytest2-teal_modifiers	💀	$0.08$	$-0.08$	e2e_add_landing_modal_displays_landing_modal_on_app_startup
shinytest2-teal_modifiers	💀	$0.08$	$-0.08$	e2e_add_landing_modal_modal_can_be_dismissed
shinytest2-teal_modifiers	💀	$0.08$	$-0.08$	e2e_combined_modifiers_displays_all_customizations_when_chained_together
shinytest2-teal_modifiers	💀	$0.08$	$-0.08$	e2e_modify_footer_displays_custom_footer_in_the_app
shinytest2-teal_modifiers	💀	$0.09$	$-0.09$	e2e_modify_header_displays_custom_header_in_the_app
shinytest2-teal_modifiers	💀	$0.07$	$-0.07$	e2e_modify_title_sets_custom_title_in_the_page_title_head_title_displays_custom_favicon_in_the_app
shinytest2-teal_modifiers	💀	$0.08$	$-0.08$	e2e_modify_title_sets_custom_title_in_the_page_title_head_title_displays_custom_title_in_the_app

Results for commit e971999

♻️ This comment has been updated with latest results.

[llrs-roche]

When running this locally I got stuck at:

• Launch Docker Desktop, or be sure Docker is running on your machine

I got prompted to install docker on WSL as I don't have Docker Desktop on my computer and saw this error:

Just to give some feedback (I am able to use the web based approach fine)

[m7pr]

@llrs-roche would you be able to try it with a public open docker container?
instead of our can you use rocker/r-ver ? so that we can understand if this might be an authorization issue.

does docker ps work in your terminal as well?

[donyunardi]

Dev Containers extension needs to be installed first. Need to add this to the instruction.

I also can't get past this:

I confirmed my Docker Desktop is running.

Also, just to add, I believe internally we're moving away from Docker and prefer Podman? @llrs-roche can you confirm?
If so, we should align our process with our internal workflow.

[m7pr]

@llrs-roche @donyunardi are you logged to our GitHub Container Registry where the container is hosted?

docker login registry.rocde.roche.com

Let me know if you can run it if you login first.

@donyunardi Docker Desktop in this case is only used to verify that container is running, but it's not used by the setup/instruction.

[averissimo]

This works out of box for me. I already had the image pulled before.

• Operating system: Ubuntu 25.10
• VS Code: 1.105.1 and 1.107.0
• Docker version 24.0.5, build ced0996

devcontainer extension in vs code was already installed

[llrs-roche]

I had to remove previous credentials on WSL for VS code to use the Linux docker process to set up the .devcontainer.

I can pull from it but I cannot commit.
The R version I got was 4.5.0, just to confirm that this is what's expected

[m7pr]

@llrs-roche you can not commit or you cannot push?

Changes made in the workspace should be visible outside the container and for sure you can commit and push outside the container. So if git config does not work from the inside of the container, use outside configuration and commit and push outside of the container.

[osenan]

Hi @m7pr
The container worked fine, both in my machine (Ubuntu 22.10) and on Github Codespaces. Good work!!

In my case, on Codespaces I had to stop the container like this:

I could not find the command to stop in VS Code command pallete

[llrs-roche]

@m7pr I cannot commit inside the container as it doesn't reuse the key to sign it, as I cannot commit I haven't pushed (I haven't tested pushing changes committed outside the devcontainer) but I guess it will work.
I just wanted to share my experience, as I expected to keep working as I do now on VS code/Positron where the signing key is picked up and in contrast to git pull that picks my credentials even inside the .devcontainer. I'll see if I can fix this

[m7pr]

@llrs-roche I have the same that I can pull and commit, but something crashes during push. But I can push from the terminal, that is outside the container.

[m7pr]

@osenan locally you first close Remote Connection, and then you can stop docker container locally trhough Docker Desktop or by using terminal.

[m7pr]

@donyunardi @chizapoth looking for your feedback as well. Just wondering if you were able to run it locally and in codespaces.
Other team members were able to use devcontainer. I am planning to merge this in this repository and also provide the file in other teal related repositories

[m7pr]

Hey, added

python, installed pre-commit

Also I rebuild container locally to see that we added drawio and air-formatter extensions

drawio

air-formatter

radian

#1628 (comment)