At this point, BOARD's software includes an R calculation step. This supposedly allows users to run R scripts on data extracted from BOARD, then read the results back into BOARD. Unfortunately, the server package used to connect BOARD to R, Rserve, is known to have several IP connectivity issues when used on Windows. The following links describe the issue in detail.
Bind Rserve() to IP address on Windows
Tableau Community Forums
Rserve fails to set up connection
For the past few weeks I have been attempting to use this feature of BOARD, however simply ensuring a connection to R has been a challenge. Previously, only one BOARD developer has posted about this issue (Idea Details). The problem arises primarily due to the fact that Rserve, when run on a Windows daemon, is bound to the local IP address of the host machine(i.e., 127.0.0.1). BOARD's web application is in this case a 3rd party application that can only communicate with other software through a public IP. Rserve does not allow for a forced IP address when initialised.
I pose the following questions to the community:
1) Have any BOARD developers been able to successfully implement the R calculation step? If so, was this done on a Windows or Linux machine?
2) Is the previous solution (Idea Details) a viable one, assuming most BOARD developers operate on a Windows subsystem?
Any advice or inputs on this matter would be greatly appreciated.
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Sandil Bhikha
Board developer
ADAPT IT (PTY) LTD Partner
South Africa
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