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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

tlfstack 0.1.0

First release. tlfstack is a clean re-implementation, as an open-source package, of the mechanism layer of a convention-driven clinical TLF reporting system described in a SESUG 2026 conference paper.

Features

  • Configuration layer: tlf_config() holds page geometry, fonts, page header, palette, treatment-variable candidates and render policy. It resolves from the argument, then options(tlfstack.config), then the TLFSTACK_CONFIG YAML file, then defaults.
  • 8 table/listing builders (9 dispatcher types) and 9 figure builders (12 dispatcher types), all pure functions. Organizations can register their own builders with tlf_register_table() and tlf_register_figure().
  • Structured title blocks (tlf_titles()) with {placeholder} filling and provenance.
  • Three-mode title resolution (tlf_resolve_titles()): live DBI source, then snapshot, then a TODO placeholder with a warning.
  • A JSON/YAML TOC interchange format (toc_write(), toc_source_file()) with a published JSON Schema.
  • pharmaverse interoperability: as_tlf_table() renders gtsummary tables and cards Analysis Results Data under tlfstack conventions. gtsummary footnotes are kept as builder footnotes. tlf_ard() and tlf_write_ard() export the ARD, one row per statistic, for QC. Registered builders may return gtsummary tables.
  • Crash-isolated figure rendering with bounded retries and a CSV attempt log (tlf_run_isolated(), tlf_rtf_figure()).

Fixes relative to the system described in the SESUG 2026 paper

  • Snapshot discovery found only .rds snapshots by default, so a deployed .csv snapshot silently degraded to fallback mode. toc_source_dir() now looks for .json, .yml, .yaml, .csv and .rds, and a regression test covers the CSV-only case.
  • Text is written to RTF verbatim by default. With r2rtf’s default markup conversion, _ in names such as t_demo.R became a subscript and >= became a symbol, which broke character-identical title blocks. RTF control characters are escaped and non-ASCII characters are written as RTF Unicode. r2rtf conversion is available with tlf_config(text_convert = TRUE).
  • The text-layer font is resolved by name from r2rtf’s public output. It no longer relies on an unexported r2rtf function.
  • Portrait tables now get portrait page dimensions.
  • Ambiguous TOC matches (several rows for one program and scope) are now an error, not a silent first-row pick. Use number to choose.
  • A treatment group given as a factor keeps its level order in tables and figures.
  • A standard deviation from a single value prints as NE.

Not included (planned)

  • MMRM, subgroup regression and observed-case efficacy tables.
  • Backoff between render retries, detection of deterministic crashes, and a placeholder RTF in batch mode when retries are exhausted.
  • Analysis Results Data output from tlfstack’s own builders.