---
title: "3. Browse for blocks"
output: rmarkdown::html_vignette
vignette: >
  %\VignetteIndexEntry{3. Browse for blocks}
  %\VignetteEngine{quarto::html}
  %\VignetteEncoding{UTF-8}
---

```{r, include = FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>"
)
```

```{r setup}
library(blockr.core)
```

## Introduction

The __registry__ is a __environment__ which provides access to multiple __blocks__ as well as some
metadata:

- The block __description__.
- The block __category__.
- The block __package__.
- ...

In other words, the __registry__ is a __"supermarket"__ for data analysis. As shown below, if you develop your own blocks package and registers blocks on load, these blocks become available to the end user. Therefore this makes it powerful for __collaboration__ between data science teams.

```{mermaid}
flowchart LR
  subgraph blockr_ggplot2[blockr.ggplot2]
    new_block1[New block]
    new_block2[New block]
  end
  subgraph blockr_echarts4r[blockr.echarts4r]
    new_block3[New block]
    new_block4[New block]
  end
  blockr_ggplot2 --> |register| registry
  blockr_echarts4r --> |register| registry
  subgraph registry[Registry]
    subgraph select_reg[Select block]
      reg_name[Name: select block]
      reg_descr[Description: select columns in a table]
      reg_classes[Classes: select_block, tranform_block]
      reg_category[Category: transform]
      reg_ctor[Construcor: new_select_block]
      reg_package[Package: blockr.dplyr]
    end
    subgraph filter_reg[Filter block]
    end
    filter_reg --x |unregister| trash['fa:fa-trash']
  end
```

## Previewing available blocks

Upon loading, `{blockr}` __registers__ its internal __blocks__ with `register_blockr_blocks()`.
You won't have to call this function as it is not exported anyway. This makes the __registry__ environment
ready to be queried by `available_blocks()`. A truncated output example below:

```{r, eval=FALSE}
available_blocks()[["dataset_block"]]
```

```r
function(dataset = character(), package = "datasets", ...) {
  ...
}
<environment: namespace:blockr.core>
attr(,"name")
[1] "dataset block"
attr(,"description")
[1] "Choose a dataset from a package"
attr(,"classes")
[1] "dataset_block" "data_block"    "block"         "vctrs_vctr"    "list"         
attr(,"category")
[1] "data"
attr(,"ctor_name")
[1] "new_dataset_block"
attr(,"package")
[1] "blockr.core"
attr(,"class")
[1] "block_registry_entry"
```

```{r, eval=TRUE}
names(available_blocks())
```

## Register a block
To register your own blocks, user facing functions are:

- `register_block()` to register a block in the __registry__. If the __block__ is already registered,
it __overwrites__ the existing one.
- `register_blocks()` to register multiple blocks.

Note that, if you develop your block outside a package context, you must call `register_block` (or `register_blocks`)
passing the constructor as a function and not as a string (see below).

Let's say you want to create a new `new_dummy_block` which does nothing specific in the `./R/dummy-block.R` script:

```{r, eval=TRUE}
# ./R/dummy-block.R
new_dummy_block <- function(text = "Hello World", ...) {
  new_data_block(
    function(id) {
      moduleServer(id, function(input, output, session) {
        list(
          expr = reactive(quote(text)),
          state = list(text = text)
        )
      })
    },
    function(id) {
      shiny::tagList()
    },
    class = "dummy_block",
    ...
  )
}

register_dummy_blocks <- function() {
  register_blocks(
    c(new_dummy_block),
    name = c("dummy block"),
    description = c("A block that does nothing"),
    overwrite = TRUE
  )
}

register_dummy_blocks()
```

Finally, we create a `.R/zzz.R` script where you run this code to register the block(s) whenever the package loads:

```r
# ./R/zzz.R
.onLoad <- function(libname, pkgname) {
  register_dummy_blocks()
  invisible(NULL)
}
```

If we now query the registry, the new block is available:

```{r}
available_blocks()[["dummy_block"]]
```

## Unregister a block

The counterpart of `register_block()` is `unregister_blocks()`. We can remove
our new `dummy_block` from the registry:

```{r}
unregister_blocks(uid = "dummy_block")

# Check it out
names(available_blocks())
```

where __uid__ is/are the block(s) class(s) passed in the constructor.
