Changelog • rpact.cloud

RPACT Cloud 2.8.1

Enhanced Futility Bounds Specification
Futility boundaries can now be specified on different statistical scales, providing greater flexibility and alignment with advanced design requirements.
See vignette: Enhanced Futility Bounds Specification with rpact
Count Data Endpoint (Count Data Designs)
Full support for count data endpoints has been implemented, including access via the RPACT Cloud Quick Start menu. This enables planning and simulation of adaptive designs with count-type outcomes directly within the GUI.
See vignette: Count Data with rpact
Improved Design and Session Saving
- Complete sessions (including all designs) can now be downloaded as a file and restored via an HTML link.
- Sessions can be bookmarked in the browser, preserving all designs and settings.
- All designs are automatically restored after a session timeout. Simply reload the page (e.g., press F5) if the app appears greyed out.
Extended Plot Customization Options
- Futility boundaries can now be displayed in the Boundaries p-Values Scale plot.
- Beta-spending can be enabled in the Error Spending plot.
Customizable “Need Help?” Sidebar Menu
The Need help? menu entry in the sidebar can now be customized via environment variables.
See: Custom Help Link in the Sidebar

Improved Dark Mode UX
Layout, colors, and overall GUI styling in dark mode have been refined to improve readability and visual clarity.
Unified and Extended Tooltip System
Mouse-over help popups have been standardized across the application and expanded with additional explanatory content.
More Accurate Progress Indicators
The progress display when opening or creating new designs has been optimized to reflect processing steps more precisely.
Improved UI Rendering Performance
Rendering performance of UI elements has been enhanced, resulting in a smoother user experience.
Design Comparison Table – UX Improvements
Selected settings have been moved to a dedicated tab (Comparison Table Settings) in the right-hand settings panel for better organization and usability.
Design Comparison Plot – UX Improvements
The Variables and Settings menu has been streamlined for improved clarity and workflow efficiency.
Additional Validation Coverage
New user requirements and unit tests for:
- Two-stage power calculation for count data with two arms
- Survival simulation for two stages and three arms
Updated Help Integration
- Help → Help Contents now directly displays the most up-to-date reference documentation from: docs.rpact.org/reference
- Help → About now correctly displays information about RPACT Cloud (instead of the rpact R package).

Comparison Tool
- Added a Comparison Tool Help page to the comparison tab
- Comparison tables are now generated with the flextable package
- Added filters for relevant parameters
Survival Design Simulation (Two Groups)
- Users can define the number of raw datasets per stage (maxNumberOfRawDatasetsPerStage)
- Raw data can be exported as an Excel file
Standard Deviation
- For two-armed trials, it is possible to specify the standard deviations separately, i.e., different standard deviations for group 1 and 2 can be defined.

Improved performance by replacing all conditional panels with a server-side rendering solution
Several design comparison settings have been moved to a central settings tab on the right for easier access and usability

Installation Qualification & Quality Assurance
- Added User Requirements Specification (URS). Details: https://docs.rpact.cloud/articles/urs.html
- Perform installation qualification directly in the System Status section while the app is running.
- Download qualification reports as HTML or PDF.
- Enhanced UX with a progress spinner and real-time status updates.
Session Timeout Handler
- Introduced session timeout logic with an environment variable fallback.
- Display remaining session time with conditional formatting based on time left.
Table Rendering Improvements
- New options in the project comparison UI to toggle rounding and set decimal precision via checkbox and select inputs.
- Dynamically enable or disable related UI controls (roundingEnabled, digits) based on user selections.
- Refactored roundNumericTableColumnsBeforeRendering to return both the modified data frame and the list of numeric columns, allowing precise rendering control.

Report Legend Position
- Added a drop-down menu to select the legend position in generated reports.
Markdown Rendering
- Switched from markdown::markdownToHTML to markdown::mark_html for more flexible resource embedding.
Internal Utilities
- Documented utility functions (appendTabItem, closeTabItem, getPreConfigurationFromURL) for improved code clarity.
- Strengthened validation logic to robustly handle edge cases (e.g., numeric and grouping values).

Log Messages: New menu item to view and share server logs for debugging.
Compatibility: Supports ggplot2 versions prior to 3.5.0.
UI & Testing:
- Refactored Apply button functionality.
- Display ggplot2 version info on the System Status page.
- Added new shinytest2 unit tests.

Custom Report Metadata: Specify user name and report name for generated reports.
Email Integration: Send reports as email attachments directly from the app.
CI/CD & Testing:
- Integrated shinytest2 unit tests.
- Added GitHub Actions workflows for package checks and tests.
Stability: Fixed client-reported issues and improved notification handling.

Bug Fix: Hazard ratio now displays correctly for the “Assumed medians of reference group (median2) + hazard ratio” option.
UX Tweaks: Minor interface improvements.

Manual Table Updates: Tables now update only after clicking the Apply button.
UX Tweaks: Additional minor UI enhancements.

Design Option: Added no-early-efficacy design (typeOfDesign = "noEarlyEfficacy").
Hazard Models: Support for non-proportional hazards analyses.

Performance: Overall speed improvements.
Bug Fix: Fixed risk ratio checkbox behavior in getPowerRates() for two-group analyses.