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Comparison · Infra & APIs
aftables vs rollupTree
A side-by-side editorial comparison of aftables and rollupTree — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
aftables vs rollupTree: at a glance
What is aftables?
Accessible government spreadsheets in R, rebuilt on openxlsx2 and renamed along the way.
aftables generates spreadsheets that meet the UK Analysis Function's accessibility guidance, taking structured input and producing a formatted workbook with cover, contents, notes and table sheets. Version 2.0.0 replaced the workbook engine with openxlsx2 and added configuration through a config.yaml file, with create_config_yaml() exporting a template and generate_workbook() gaining arguments to point at it. The package was previously called a11ytables and was renamed in 1.0.2, with function names changed to match.
What is rollupTree?
The recursive-computation engine under massProps grows the accessors its consumer needed
rollupTree performs recursive computations over tree and DAG structures — the generic engine that its author's massProps package uses to roll mass properties up an assembly breakdown. It is small and moves slowly: five releases in a year, of which two are README and vignette work. The current surface added row-level get and set accessors by key and by id at 0.4.0.
aftables vs rollupTree: editorial side-by-side
aftables
0.0INFRA · APIS
Accessible government spreadsheets in R, rebuilt on openxlsx2 and renamed along the way.
◆ Current state
aftables generates spreadsheets that meet the UK Analysis Function's accessibility guidance, taking structured input and producing a formatted workbook with cover, contents, notes and table sheets. Version 2.0.0 replaced the workbook engine with openxlsx2 and added configuration through a config.yaml file, with create_config_yaml() exporting a template and generate_workbook() gaining arguments to point at it. The package was previously called a11ytables and was renamed in 1.0.2, with function names changed to match.
◆ Where it's heading
The history reads in two phases. As a11ytables the work was about what belongs in an accessible spreadsheet, adding arbitrary pre-table metadata rows and enforcing rules such as rejecting tab titles that start with a numeral. Since the rename the work has been structural: a new backend, and configuration moved out of function arguments into a file that can be version-controlled and shared across a team. That second phase suits the audience, since government analysts producing recurring statistical releases want the same document properties applied every time rather than re-specified per run.
◆ Prediction
Expect the config.yaml surface to grow to cover more of what is currently passed as arguments, given it arrived alongside alternative author, title and keywords arguments that it plainly supersedes. With the openxlsx2 migration complete, further releases are likely to be formatting fixes surfaced by real departmental publications, as 2.0.1 already was.
rollupTree
0.0INFRA · APIS
The recursive-computation engine under massProps grows the accessors its consumer needed
◆ Current state
rollupTree performs recursive computations over tree and DAG structures — the generic engine that its author's massProps package uses to roll mass properties up an assembly breakdown. It is small and moves slowly: five releases in a year, of which two are README and vignette work. The current surface added row-level get and set accessors by key and by id at 0.4.0.
◆ Where it's heading
The package develops in response to its one visible consumer. The 0.4.0 accessors appeared in January 2026 and massProps switched to them thirteen days later; 0.4.1 then fixed missing column names in the setters, which is the kind of defect only real use surfaces. Before that, 0.3.0's default_validate_dag() extended validation past strict trees to directed acyclic graphs, widening what structures the engine will accept.
◆ Prediction
On the established pattern the next release will be whatever massProps needs next, discovered by using it. A DAG validator suggests non-tree structures are in scope, but nothing in these notes says that path is being pushed further.
Alternatives to aftables and rollupTree
Other Infra & APIs 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 aftables or rollupTree.
PINstimation
A market-microstructure toolkit that keeps adding estimators as the papers land.
nzilbb.vowels
A vowel-analysis package trimming dependencies after an email address got it archived.
emuR
The R half of the EMU speech database system, fixing what was quietly broken.
BAS
A Bayesian model-averaging package spending its 2.0 on memory, not methods.
tidyplots
tidyplots keeps rebuilding its own foundations rather than layering around them.
See all aftables alternatives → · See all rollupTree alternatives →
Recent activity from aftables and rollupTree
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 4mo agoaftablesrlang import restored for older R versions
- 5mo agoaftablesWorkbook engine moved to openxlsx2; config.yaml introduced ⚡
- 6mo agorollupTreeMissing column names in the new row setters
- 6mo agorollupTreeRow-level get and set accessors by key and by id
- 1y agorollupTreeMinor vignette improvements
- 1y agorollupTreeBadges and GitHub Actions added to the README
- 1y agorollupTreedefault_validate_dag() extends validation past strict trees
- 1y agoaftablesPackage renamed from a11ytables to aftables
- 2y agoaftablesTab titles beginning with a numeral now rejected
- 2y agoaftablescustom_rows allows arbitrary pre-table metadata
- 2y agoaftablesTable count spelled out; README spelling corrected
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between aftables and rollupTree?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. aftables and rollupTree 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 aftables better than rollupTree?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. aftables and rollupTree 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 Infra & APIs products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to aftables?
Top aftables alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "aftables alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/aftables for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to rollupTree?
Top rollupTree alternatives in Infra & APIs are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "rollupTree alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/rolluptree for the full list with editorial commentary on each.