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WebR 0.6.0 and Quarto Live

Source: vignettes/articles/webr-quarto-live.Rmd
webr-quarto-live.Rmd

myIO 1.3.0 has a pinned end-to-end compatibility gate for WebR 0.6.0. The claim is deliberately specific: CI cross-compiles myIO and its dependencies as WebAssembly packages, loads library(myIO), creates a point chart in R, transfers the serialized htmlwidget payload, and renders that payload with the production myIO bundle in Chromium. The gate requires a visible SVG, the expected marks, and no R, page, or console errors.

This does not claim that DuckDB-WASM, every browser engine, or every host framework has been validated. Those remain separate compatibility surfaces.

Why a Wasm package repository is required

WebR cannot install an R package from source in the browser. Custom packages must be compiled for WebAssembly first and made available through a compatible binary repository. myIO uses the official r-wasm/actions/build-rwasm@v3 path in CI. See the WebR documentation on building R packages for the underlying constraint and supported distribution model.

Quarto Live setup

Quarto Live uses WebR to execute R blocks in the reader’s browser and supports htmlwidget output. Install the extension in a Quarto project:

quarto add r-wasm/quarto-live

Then configure the document to use the same WebR release tested by myIO. The Morton Analytics R-universe is a CRAN-like repository that publishes Wasm binaries; confirm that it carries myIO 1.3.0 before publishing the document.

---
title: "myIO in the browser"
format: live-html
webr:
  engine-url: https://webr.r-wasm.org/v0.6.0/
  packages:
    - myIO
  repos:
    - https://mortonanalytics.r-universe.dev
---

Quarto Live documents using the knitr engine also need its documented setup include. Follow the current Quarto Live installation instructions for that project-level configuration.

An interactive block can then create a standard small-data widget:

```{webr}
library(myIO)
stopifnot(packageVersion("myIO") >= "1.3.0")

myIO(mtcars) |>
  addIoLayer(
    type = "point",
    label = "Cars",
    mapping = list(x_var = "wt", y_var = "mpg")
  ) |>
  setAxisFormat(xLabel = "Weight", yLabel = "Miles per gallon")
```

The stopifnot() check prevents an older repository snapshot from silently supporting a publication claim intended for 1.3.0. Quarto Live documents can configure custom repositories through webr.repos; its package-loading guide describes the same precompiled-package pattern.

Supported boundary

The verified 1.3.0 path covers the pure-R configuration and transform layer, htmlwidget payload creation, production JavaScript bundle, SVG rendering, and keyframe configuration. It does not exercise the optional Arrow, DuckDB-WASM, WebGL, Shiny server, or Crosstalk paths inside WebR. Use the normal R, Shiny, and browser test matrices for those capabilities rather than treating WebR compatibility as a blanket runtime guarantee.