tidytlg
A tables-listings-graphs package that reached CRAN and then went quiet.
Comparison · Analytics
EDIutils vs rlistings
A side-by-side editorial comparison of EDIutils and rlistings — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
EDIutils vs rlistings: at a glance
What is EDIutils?
The EDI data client is being dragged through its repository's identity-system migration.
EDIutils is the R client for the Environmental Data Initiative repository. The last two releases are both consequences of changes at EDI rather than in the package: 2.0.0 rewired authentication for the new EDI Identity and Access Manager and made Distinguished Names defunct in favour of EDI-IDs, and 2.1.0 handles the deprecation of the old auth token. Earlier releases were small bug fixes against repository outages and endpoint changes.
What is rlistings?
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
rlistings renders clinical-trial subject listings and paginates them for regulatory output, sitting alongside rtables on the shared formatters engine. The releases in this window are dominated by pagination correctness: repeated key columns across pages, splitting by a variable, ordered-factor handling, column gaps, and font metrics. Development is a large rotating contributor set inside the insightsengineering organisation.
EDIutils vs rlistings: editorial side-by-side
EDIutils
0.0ANALYTICS
The EDI data client is being dragged through its repository's identity-system migration.
◆ Current state
EDIutils is the R client for the Environmental Data Initiative repository. The last two releases are both consequences of changes at EDI rather than in the package: 2.0.0 rewired authentication for the new EDI Identity and Access Manager and made Distinguished Names defunct in favour of EDI-IDs, and 2.1.0 handles the deprecation of the old auth token. Earlier releases were small bug fixes against repository outages and endpoint changes.
◆ Where it's heading
This is a client whose roadmap belongs to its server. Every meaningful release tracks something EDI changed — a deprecated endpoint, a resource outage breaking CRAN checks, and now a whole identity system — and the package's job is to absorb the churn while keeping the R interface stable. The 2.0.0 break was handled by pointing users at where to find their new EDI-ID rather than by papering over the change.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued follow-through on the IAM migration as the old auth token is fully retired, and further releases keyed to EDI service changes rather than to new client features.
rlistings
0.0ANALYTICS
Clinical listings that keep inheriting their hardest problem — pagination — from the layer below.
◆ Current state
rlistings renders clinical-trial subject listings and paginates them for regulatory output, sitting alongside rtables on the shared formatters engine. The releases in this window are dominated by pagination correctness: repeated key columns across pages, splitting by a variable, ordered-factor handling, column gaps, and font metrics. Development is a large rotating contributor set inside the insightsengineering organisation.
◆ Where it's heading
The package is progressively delegating pagination to formatters rather than implementing it — paginate_listing() was refactored to call formatters' paginate_to_mpfs() directly, and truetype font support arrived through a new formatters API. That reduces duplicated logic but ties the package's page-break behaviour to a dependency it shares with rtables. Feature work beyond pagination is thin: better error messages for unsupported column classes, a cheatsheet.
◆ Prediction
Expect pagination fidelity to remain the focus, with changes arriving as formatters exposes more of its layout machinery rather than as rlistings-native features.
Alternatives to EDIutils and rlistings
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 EDIutils or rlistings.
Tplyr
Tplyr made clinical summary tables explain where every number came from.
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.
datasetjson
datasetjson rebuilt its object model to track the CDISC Dataset-JSON 1.1 schema.
See all EDIutils alternatives → · See all rlistings alternatives →
Recent activity from EDIutils and rlistings
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 3mo agoEDIutilsGraceful handling for the deprecated auth token
- 7mo agoEDIutilsEDI-IDs replace Distinguished Names as authentication moves to IAM ⚡
- 1y agorlistingsError and message handling for difftime and zero-row listings
- 1y agorlistingsTrueType font support and col_gap in pagination
- 2y agorlistingssplit_into_pages_by_var() and pagination moved onto formatters
- 2y agoEDIutilsDeprecated archive endpoint fixed
- 3y agoEDIutilsCRAN check fixed after EDI repository outage
- 4y agoEDIutilsCharacter encoding bug fixed in a dependency path
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between EDIutils and rlistings?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. EDIutils and rlistings 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 EDIutils better than rlistings?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. EDIutils and rlistings 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 EDIutils?
Top EDIutils alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "EDIutils alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ediutils for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rlistings?
Top rlistings alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rlistings alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rlistings for the full list with editorial commentary on each.