tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
cffr vs crul
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cffr and crul — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
cffr vs crul: at a glance
What is cffr?
cffr keeps CITATION.cff generation in step with the standard and its R sources.
The package generates and validates CITATION.cff files from R package metadata. Recent work is validation and parsing accuracy rather than new outputs: cff_validate() moved onto the ajv engine through jsonvalidate for clearer errors, ROR identifiers act as a website fallback for people and entities, and DOIs are now detected in inst/CITATION url fields including dx.doi.org forms.
What is crul?
crul took mocking back from webmockr and made it a property of the client itself
crul is the R6-based HTTP client underneath much of rOpenSci's package stack, covering synchronous requests, three flavours of async, pagination and retries. Its 1.6.0 release in July 2025 changed where test mocking lives: each client — HttpClient, Async, AsyncVaried — now takes a mocking parameter at initialisation or per method, and the standalone mock() function is deprecated. Mocking used to be something webmockr switched on from outside; it is now a setting on the client.
cffr vs crul: editorial side-by-side
cffr
0.0ANALYTICS
cffr keeps CITATION.cff generation in step with the standard and its R sources.
◆ Current state
The package generates and validates CITATION.cff files from R package metadata. Recent work is validation and parsing accuracy rather than new outputs: cff_validate() moved onto the ajv engine through jsonvalidate for clearer errors, ROR identifiers act as a website fallback for people and entities, and DOIs are now detected in inst/CITATION url fields including dx.doi.org forms.
◆ Where it's heading
The package tracks two moving targets — the Citation File Format schema and R's own person and citation handling, which has broken extraction twice in recent releases. Between those, releases pick up ecosystem details: Codeberg recognised as a repository host, CRAN-to-SPDX licence mappings refreshed, GitHub Action defaults changed to save quota. The most recent release is an internal refactor carried out with AI assistance, with no user-facing change.
◆ Prediction
With validation migrated and the R 4.5 person changes absorbed, the next release most likely follows a Citation File Format schema update rather than adding capability.
crul
0.0ANALYTICS
crul took mocking back from webmockr and made it a property of the client itself
◆ Current state
crul is the R6-based HTTP client underneath much of rOpenSci's package stack, covering synchronous requests, three flavours of async, pagination and retries. Its 1.6.0 release in July 2025 changed where test mocking lives: each client — HttpClient, Async, AsyncVaried — now takes a mocking parameter at initialisation or per method, and the standalone mock() function is deprecated. Mocking used to be something webmockr switched on from outside; it is now a setting on the client.
◆ Where it's heading
The async surface has been the growth area for years — retries reached Async, AsyncVaried, AsyncQueue and HttpRequest in 1.4, AsyncQueue gained the response accessors in 1.2, and 1.5.0 wired async requests up to webmockr. The 1.6.0 change reverses that direction of dependency, and it landed within a minute of webmockr's own release severing its tie to vcr. Read together, the rOpenSci HTTP stack is being deliberately untangled so each package can be used without the others.
◆ Prediction
With mock() deprecated rather than removed, the next major release is the likely point of deletion. Expect the remaining work to follow the same decoupling theme rather than adding request features.
Alternatives to cffr and crul
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either cffr or crul.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
rlistings
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
hoardr
A cache-directory helper that has shipped nothing but CRAN-triggered patches for seven years.
gigs
gigs redesigned its whole conversion API for rOpenSci, then spent three releases getting the docs to build.
riem
A weather-data client that keeps rewriting its HTTP layer while slowly tightening its API.
Recent activity from cffr and crul
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agocffrInternal refactor and test hardening
- 3mo agocffrValidation moves to ajv; ROR and DOI detection improve
- 5mo agocffrR 4.1 minimum and Quarto vignettes
- 7mo agocffrAction defaults and person-comment parsing
- 1y agocrulMocking becomes a client parameter, independent of webmockr ⚡
- 1y agocffrcff_write() can now generate inst/CITATION too
- 1y agocffrORCID extraction adapted to R person changes
- 2y agocrulAsync requests become mockable through webmockr
- 2y agocrulDocumentation fixes and test helper tweak
- 3y agocrulHTTP retries reach the async classes
- 3y agocrulClearer error for mismatched urls and disk lengths
- 4y agocrulAsyncQueue gains response accessors; results print as a summary
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cffr and crul?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. cffr and crul are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is cffr better than crul?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cffr and crul are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to cffr?
Top cffr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cffr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cffr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to crul?
Top crul alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "crul alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/crul for the full list with editorial commentary on each.