Table of contents

1. Before we begin
2. Shiny app basics
3. Create an empty Shiny app
4. Load the dataset
5. Build the basic UI
6. Add inputs to the UI
7. Add placeholders for outputs
8. Checkpoint: what our app looks like after implementing the UI
9. Implement server logic to create outputs
10. Reactivity 101
11. Using uiOutput() to create UI elements dynamically
12. Final Shiny app code
13. Share your app with the world
14. More Shiny features to check out
15. Awesome add-on packages to Shiny
16. Resources
17. Ideas to improve our app

3.1 Alternate way to create a Shiny app: separate UI and server files

Another way to define a Shiny app is by separating the UI and server code into two files: ui.R and server.R. This is the preferable way to write Shiny apps when the app is complex and involves more code, but in this tutorial we’ll stick to the simple single file. If you want to break up your app into these two files, you simply put all code that is assigned to the ui variable in ui.R and all the code assigned to the server function in server.R. When RStudio sees these two files in the same folder, it will know you’re writing a Shiny app.

Exercise: Try making a new Shiny app by creating the two files ui.R and server.R. Rememeber that they have to be in the same folder. Also remember to put them in a new, isolated folder (not where your app.R already exists).

3.2 Let RStudio fill out a Shiny app template for you

You can also create a new Shiny app using RStudio’s menu by selecting File > New File > Shiny Web App…. If you do this, RStudio will let you choose if you want a single-file app (app.R) or a two-file app (ui.R+server.R). RStudio will initialize a simple functional Shiny app with some code in it. I personally don’t use this feature because I find it easier to simply type the few lines of a Shiny app and save the files.

5.1 Add plain text to the UI

You can place R strings inside fluidPage() to render text.

fluidPage("BC Liquor Store", "prices")

Replace the line in your app that assigns an empty fluidPage() into ui with the one above, and run the app.

The entire UI will be built by passing comma-separated arguments into the fluidPage() function. By passing regular text, the web page will just render boring unformatted text.

Exercise: Add several more strings to fluidPage() and run the app. Nothing too exciting is happening yet, but you should just see all the text appear in one contiguous block.

5.2 Add formatted text and other HTML elements

If we want our text to be formatted nicer, Shiny has many functions that are wrappers around HTML tags that format text. We can use the h1() function for a top-level header (<h1> in HTML), h2() for a secondary header (<h2> in HTML), strong() to make text bold (<strong> in HTML), em() to make text italicized (<em> in HTML), and many more.

There are also functions that are wrappers to other HTML tags, such as br() for a line break, img() for an image, a() for a hyperlink, and others.

All of these functions are actually just wrappers to HTML tags with the equivalent name. You can add any arbitrary HTML tag using the tags object, which you can learn more about by reading the help file on tags.

Just as a demonstration, try replacing the fluidPage() function in your UI with

fluidPage(
  h1("My app"),
  "BC",
  "Liquor",
  br(),
  "Store",
  strong("prices")
)

Run the app with this code as the UI. Notice the formatting of the text and understand why it is rendered that way.

For people who know basic HTML: any named argument you pass to an HTML function becomes an attribute of the HTML element, and any unnamed argument will be a child of the element. That means that you can, for example, create blue text with div("this is blue", style = "color: blue;").

Exercise: Experiment with different HTML-wrapper functions inside fluidPage(). Run the fluidPage(...) function in the console and see the HTML that it creates.

5.3 Add a title

We could add a title to the app with h1(), but Shiny also has a special function titlePanel(). Using titlePanel() not only adds a visible big title-like text to the top of the page, but it also sets the “official” title of the web page. This means that when you look at the name of the tab in the browser, you’ll see this title.

Overwrite the fluidPage() that you experimented with so far, and replace it with the simple one below, that simply has a title and nothing else.

fluidPage(
  titlePanel("BC Liquor Store prices")
)

Exercise: Look at the documentation for the titlePanel() function and notice it has another argument. Use that argument and see if you can see what it does.

5.4 Add a layout

You may have noticed that so far, by just adding text and HTML tags, everything is unstructured and the elements simply stack up one below the other in one column. We’ll use sidebarLayout() to add a simple structure. It provides a simple two-column layout with a smaller sidebar and a larger main panel. We’ll build our app such that all the inputs that the user can manipulate will be in the sidebar, and the results will be shown in the main panel on the right.

Add the following code after the titlePanel()

sidebarLayout(
  sidebarPanel("our inputs will go here"),
  mainPanel("the results will go here")
)

Remember that all the arguments inside fluidPage() need to be separated by commas.

So far our complete app looks like this (hopefully this isn’t a surprise to you)

library(shiny)
bcl <- read.csv("bcl-data.csv", stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

ui <- fluidPage(
  titlePanel("BC Liquor Store prices"),
  sidebarLayout(
    sidebarPanel("our inputs will go here"),
    mainPanel("the results will go here")
  )
)

server <- function(input, output) {}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

If you want to be a lot more flexible with the design, you can have much more fine control over where things go by using a grid layout. We won’t cover that here, but if you’re interested, look at the documentation for ?column and ?fluidRow.

Exercise: Add some UI into each of the two panels (sidebar panel and main panel) and see how your app now has two columns.

5.5 All UI functions are simply HTML wrappers

This was already mentioned, but it’s important to remember: the enire UI is just HTML, and Shiny simply gives you easy tools to write it without having to know HTML. To convince yourself of this, look at the output when printing the contents of the ui variable.

print(ui)

## <div class="container-fluid">
##   <h2>BC Liquor Store prices</h2>
##   <div class="row">
##     <div class="col-sm-4">
##       <form class="well">our inputs will go here</form>
##     </div>
##     <div class="col-sm-8">the results will go here</div>
##   </div>
## </div>

This should make you appreciate Shiny for not making you write horrendous HTML by hand.

6.1 Input for price

The first input we want to have is for specifying a price range (minimum and maximum price). The most sensible types of input for this are either numericInput() or sliderInput() since they are both used for selecting numbers. If we use numericInput(), we’d have to use two inputs, one for the minimum value and one for the maximum. Looking at the documentation for sliderInput(), you’ll see that by supplying a vector of length two as the value argument, it can be used to specify a range rather than a single number. This sounds like what we want in this case, so we’ll use sliderInput().

To create a slider input, a maximum value needs to be provided. We could use the maximum price in the dataset, which is $30,250, but I doubt I’d ever buy something that expensive. I think $100 is a more reasonable max price for me, and about 85% of the products in this dataset are below $100, so let’s use that as our max.

By looking at the documentation for the slider input function, the following piece of code can be constructed.

sliderInput("priceInput", "Price", min = 0, max = 100,
            value = c(25, 40), pre = "$")

Place the code for the slider input inside sidebarPanel() (replace the text we wrote earlier with this input).

Exercise: Run the code of the sliderInput() in the R console and see what it returns. Change some of the parameters of sliderInput(), and see how that changes the result. It’s important to truly understand that all these functions in the UI are simply a convenient way to write HTML, as is apparent whenever you run these functions on their own.

6.2 Input for product type

Usually when going to the liquor store you know whether you’re looking for beer or wine, and you don’t want to waste your time in the wrong section. The same is true in our app, we should be able to choose what type of product we want.

For this we want some kind of a text input. But allowing the user to enter text freely isn’t the right solution because we want to restrict the user to only a few choices. We could either use radio buttons or a select box for our purpose. Let’s use radio buttons for now since there are only a few options, so take a look at the documentation for radioButtons() and come up with a reasonable input function code. It should look like this:

radioButtons("typeInput", "Product type",
            choices = c("BEER", "REFRESHMENT", "SPIRITS", "WINE"),
            selected = "WINE")

Add this input code inside sidebarPanel(), after the previous input (separate them with a comma).

If you look at that input function and think “what if there were 100 types, listing them by hand would not be fun, there’s got to be a better way!”, then you’re right. This is where uiOutput() comes in handy, but we’ll talk about that later.

6.3 Input for country

Sometimes I like to feel fancy and only look for wines imported from France. We should add one last input, to select a country. The most appropriate input type in this case is probably the select box. Look at the documentation for selectInput() and create an input function. For now let’s only have CANADA, FRANCE, ITALY as options, and later we’ll see how to include all countries.

selectInput("countryInput", "Country",
            choices = c("CANADA", "FRANCE", "ITALY"))

Add this function as well to your app. If you followed along, your entire app should have this code:

library(shiny)
bcl <- read.csv("bcl-data.csv", stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

ui <- fluidPage(
  titlePanel("BC Liquor Store prices"),
  sidebarLayout(
    sidebarPanel(
      sliderInput("priceInput", "Price", 0, 100, c(25, 40), pre = "$"),
      radioButtons("typeInput", "Product type",
                  choices = c("BEER", "REFRESHMENT", "SPIRITS", "WINE"),
                  selected = "WINE"),
      selectInput("countryInput", "Country",
                  choices = c("CANADA", "FRANCE", "ITALY"))
    ),
    mainPanel("the results will go here")
  )
)

server <- function(input, output) {}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

7.1 Output for a plot of the results

At the top of the main panel we’ll have a plot showing some visualization of the results. Since we want a plot, the function we use is plotOutput().

Add the following code into the mainPanel() (replace the existing text):

plotOutput("coolplot")

This will add a placeholder in the UI for a plot named coolplot.

Exercise: To remind yourself that we are still merely constructing HTML and not creating actual plots yet, run the above plotOutput() function in the console to see that all it does is create some HTML.

7.2 Output for a table summary of the results

Below the plot, we will have a table that shows all the results. To get a table, we use the tableOutput() function.

Here is a simple way to create a UI element that will hold a table output:

tableOutput("results")

Add this output to the mainPanel() as well. Maybe add a couple br() in between the two outputs, just as a space buffer so that they aren’t too close to each other.

9.1 Building an output

Recall that we created two output placeholders: coolplot (a plot) and results (a table). We need to write code in R that will tell Shiny what kind of plot or table to display. There are three rules to build an output in Shiny.

1. Save the output object into the output list (remember the app template - every server function has an output argument)
   
2. Build the object with a render* function, where * is the type of output
3. Access input values using the input list (every server function has an input argument)

The third rule is only required if you want your output to depend on some input, so let’s first see how to build a very basic output using only the first two rules. We’ll create a plot and send it to the coolplot output.

output$coolplot <- renderPlot({
  plot(rnorm(100))
})

This simple code shows the first two rules: we’re creating a plot inside the renderPlot() function, and assigning it to coolplot in the output list. Remember that every output created in the UI must have a unique ID, now we see why. In order to attach an R object to an output with ID x, we assign the R object to output$x.

Since coolplot was defined as a plotOutput, we must use the renderPlot function, and we must create a plot inside the renderPlot function.

If you add the code above inside the server function, you should see a plot with 100 random points in the app.

Exercise: The code inside renderPlot() doesn’t have to be only one line, it can be as long as you’d like as long as it returns a plot. Try making a more complex plot using ggplot2. The plot doesn’t have to use our dataset, it could be anything, just to make sure you can use renderPlot().

9.2 Making an output react to an input

Now we’ll take the plot one step further. Instead of always plotting the same plot (100 random numbers), let’s use the minimum price selected as the number of points to show. It doesn’t make too much sense, but it’s just to learn how to make an output depend on an input.

output$coolplot <- renderPlot({
  plot(rnorm(input$priceInput[1]))
})

Replace the previous code in your server function with this code, and run the app. Whenever you choose a new minimum price range, the plot will update with a new number of points. Notice that the only thing different in the code is that instead of using the number 100 we are using input$priceInput[1].

What does this mean? Just like the variable output contains a list of all the outputs (and we need to assign code into them), the variable input contains a list of all the inputs that are defined in the UI. input$priceInput return a vector of length 2 containing the miminimum and maximum price. Whenever the user manipulates the slider in the app, these values are updated, and whatever code relies on it gets re-evaluated. This is a concept known as reactivity, which we will get to in a few minutes.

Notice that these short 3 lins of code are using all the 3 rules for building outputs: we are saving to the output list (output$coolplot <-), we are using a render* function to build the output (renderPlot({})), and we are accessing an input value (input$priceInput[1]).

9.3 Building the plot output

Now we have all the knowledge required to build a plot visualizing some aspect of the data. We’ll create a simple histogram of the alcohol content of the products by using the same 3 rules to create a plot output.

First we need to make sure ggplot2 is loaded, so add a library(ggplot2) at the top.

Next we’ll return a histogram of alcohol content from renderPlot(). Let’s start with just a histogram of the whole data, unfiltered.

output$coolplot <- renderPlot({
  ggplot(bcl, aes(Alcohol_Content)) +
    geom_histogram()
})

If you run the app with this code inside your server, you should see a histogram in the app. But if you change the input values, nothing happens yet, so the next step is to actually filter the dataset based on the inputs.

Recall that we have 3 inputs: priceInput, typeInput, and countryInput. We can filter the data based on the values of these three inputs. We’ll use dplyr functions to filter the data, so be sure to include dplyr at the top. Then we’ll plot the filtered data instead of the original data.

output$coolplot <- renderPlot({
  filtered <-
    bcl %>%
    filter(Price >= input$priceInput[1],
           Price <= input$priceInput[2],
           Type == input$typeInput,
           Country == input$countryInput
    )
  ggplot(filtered, aes(Alcohol_Content)) +
    geom_histogram()
})

Place this code in your server function and run the app. If you change any input, you should see the histogram update. The way I know the histogram is correct is by noticing that the alcohol content is about 5% when I selecte beer, 40% for spirits, and 13% for wine. That sounds right.

Read this code and understand it. You’ve successfully created an interactive app - the plot is changing according to the user’s selection.

To make sure we’re on the same page, here is what your code should look like at this point:

library(shiny)
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)

bcl <- read.csv("bcl-data.csv", stringsAsFactors = FALSE)

ui <- fluidPage(
  titlePanel("BC Liquor Store prices"),
  sidebarLayout(
    sidebarPanel(
      sliderInput("priceInput", "Price", 0, 100, c(25, 40), pre = "$"),
      radioButtons("typeInput", "Product type",
                  choices = c("BEER", "REFRESHMENT", "SPIRITS", "WINE"),
                  selected = "WINE"),
      selectInput("countryInput", "Country",
                  choices = c("CANADA", "FRANCE", "ITALY"))
    ),
    mainPanel(
      plotOutput("coolplot"),
      br(), br(),
      tableOutput("results")
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  output$coolplot <- renderPlot({
    filtered <-
      bcl %>%
      filter(Price >= input$priceInput[1],
             Price <= input$priceInput[2],
             Type == input$typeInput,
             Country == input$countryInput
      )
    ggplot(filtered, aes(Alcohol_Content)) +
      geom_histogram()
  })
}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

Exercise: The current plot doesn’t look very nice, you could enhance the plot and make it much more pleasant to look at.

9.4 Building the table output

Building the next output should be much easier now that we’ve done it once. The other output we have was called results (as defined in the UI) and should be a table of all the products that match the filters. Since it’s a table output, we should use the renderTable() function. We’ll do the exact same filtering on the data, and then simply return the data as a data.frame. Shiny will know that it needs to display it as a table because it’s defined as a tableOutput.

The code for creating the table output should make sense to you without too much explanation:

output$results <- renderTable({
  filtered <-
    bcl %>%
    filter(Price >= input$priceInput[1],
           Price <= input$priceInput[2],
           Type == input$typeInput,
           Country == input$countryInput
    )
  filtered
})

Add this code to your server. Don’t overwrite the previous definition of output$coolplot, just add this code before or after that, but inside the server function. Run your app, and be amazed! You can now see a table showing all the products at the BC Liquor Store that match your criteria.

Exercise: Add a new output. Either a new plot, a new table, or some piece of text that changes based on the inputs. For example, you could add a text output (textOutput() in the UI, renderText() in the server) that says how many results were found. If you choose to do this, I recommend first adding the output to the UI, then building the output in the server with static text to make sure you have the syntax correct. Only once you can see the text output in your app you should make it reflect the inputs. Protip: since textOutput() is written in the UI, you can wrap it in other UI functions. For example, h2(textOutput(...)) will result in larger text.

10.1 Creating and accessing reactive variables

One very important thing to remember about reactive variables (such as the input list) is that they can only be used inside reactive contexts. Any render* function is a reactive context, so you can always use input$x or any other reactive variable inside render functions. There are two other common reactive contexts that we’ll get to in a minute: reactive({}) and observe({}). To show you what this means, let’s try accessing the price input value in the server function, without explicitly being inside a reactive context. Simply add print(input$priceInput) inside the server function, and you will get an error when running the app:

Operation not allowed without an active reactive context. (You tried to do something that can only be done from inside a reactive expression or observer.)

Shiny is very clear about what the error is: we are trying to access a reactive variable outside of a reactive context. To fix this, we can use the observe({}) function to access the input variable. Inside the server, replace print(input$priceInput) with observe({ print(input$priceInput) }), and now the app should run fine. Note that this observe({}) statement depends on input$priceInput, so whenever you change the value of the price, the code inside this observe({}) will run again, and the new value will be printed. This is actually a very simple yet useful debugging technique in Shiny: often you want to know what value a reactive variable holds, so you need to remember to wrap the cat(input$x) or print(input$x) by an observe({}).

So far we only saw one reactive variable: the input list. You can also create your own reactive variables using the reactive({}) function. The reactive({}) function is similar to observe({}) in that it is also a reactive context, which means that it will get re-run whenever any of the reactive variables in it get updated. The difference between them is that reactive({}) returns a value. To see it in action, let’s create a variable called priceDiff that will be the difference between the maximum and minimum price selected. If you try to naively define priceDiff <- diff(input$priceInput), you’ll see the same error as before about doing something outside a reactive context. This is because input$priceInput is a reactive variable, and we can’t use a reactive variable outside a reactive context. Since we want to assign a value, we use the reactive({}) function. Try adding the following line to your server:

priceDiff <- reactive({
  diff(input$priceInput)
})

Now your app will run. If you want to access a reactive variable defined with reactive({}), you must add parentheses after the variable name, as if it’s a function. To demonstrate this, add observe({ print(priceDiff()) }) to your server function. Notice that we use priceDiff() rather than priceDiff. It’s very important to remember this, because you can get confusing unclear errors if you simply try to access a custom reactive variable without the parentheses.

You can think of reactivity as causing a chain reaction: when one reactive value changes, anything that depends on it will get updated. If any of the updated values are themselves reactive variables, then any reactive contexts that depend on those variables will also get updated in turn. As a concrete example, let’s think about what happens when you change the value of the priceInput on the page. Since input$priceInput is a reactive variable, any expression that uses it will get updated. This means the two render functions from earlier will execute because they both depend on input$priceInput, as well as the priceDiff variable because it also depends on it. But since priceDiff is itself a reactive variable, Shiny will check if there is anything that depends on priceDiff, and indeed there is - the observe({}) function that prints tthe value of priceDiff. So once priceDiff gets updated, the observe({}) function will run, and the value will get printed.

Reactivity is usually the hardest part about Shiny to understand, so if you don’t quite get it, don’t feel bad. Try reading this section again, and I promise that with time and experience you will get more comfortable with reactivity. Once you do feel more confident with reactivity, it may be a good idea to read more advanced documentation describing reactivity, since this section greatly simplifies ideas to make them more understandable. A great resource is RStudio’s tutorial on reactivity.

Before continuing to the next section, you can remove all the observe({}) and reactive({}) functions we wrote in this section since they were all just for learning purposes.

Exercise: Read this section again and really understand what a reactive variable means, what the 3 main reactive contexts are, how you can define reactive variables, and how a reactivity chain of events works.

10.2 Using reactive variables to reduce code duplication

You may have noticed that we have the exact same code filtering the dataset in two places, once in each render function. We can solve that problem by defining a reactive variable that will hold the filtered dataset, and use that variable in the render functions.

The first step would be to create the reactive variable. The following code should be added to the server function.

filtered <- reactive({
  bcl %>%
    filter(Price >= input$priceInput[1],
           Price <= input$priceInput[2],
           Type == input$typeInput,
           Country == input$countryInput
    )
})

The variable filtered is being defined exactly like before, except the body is wrapped by a reactive({}), and it’s defined in the server function instead of inside the individual render functions. Now that we have our reactive variable, we can use it in the output render functions. Try it yourself, and when you think you’re done, check the code below. Don’t forget that in order to access the value of a reactive expression, you must follow the name of the variable with parentheses! This is how your server function should look like now.

server <- function(input, output) {
  filtered <- reactive({
    bcl %>%
      filter(Price >= input$priceInput[1],
             Price <= input$priceInput[2],
             Type == input$typeInput,
             Country == input$countryInput
      )
  })
  
  output$coolplot <- renderPlot({
    ggplot(filtered(), aes(Alcohol_Content)) +
      geom_histogram()
  })

  output$results <- renderTable({
    filtered()
  })
}

As a reminder, Shiny creates a dependency tree with all the reactive expressions to know what value depends on what other value. For example, when the price input changes, Shiny looks at what values depend on price, and sees that filtered is a reactive expression that depends on the price input, so it re-evaluates filtered. Then, because filtered is changed, Shiny now looks to see what expressions depend on filtered, and it finds that the two render functions use filtered. So Shiny re-executes the two render functions as well.

11.1 Basic example of uiOutput()

As a very basic example, consider this app:

library(shiny)
ui <- fluidPage(
  numericInput("num", "Maximum slider value", 5),
  uiOutput("slider")
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  output$slider <- renderUI({
    sliderInput("slider", "Slider", min = 0,
                max = input$num, value = 0)
  })
}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

If you run that tiny app, you will see that whenever you change the value of the numeric input, the slider input is re-generated. This behaviour can come in handy often.

11.2 Use uiOutput() in our app to populate the countries

We can use this concept in our app to populate the choices for the country selector. The country selector currently only holds 3 values that we manually entered, but instead we could render the country selector in the server and use the data to determine what countries it can have.

First we need to replace the selectInput("countryInput", ...) in the UI with

uiOutput("countryOutput")

Then we need to create the output (which will create a UI element - yeah, it can be a bit confusing at first), so add the following code to the server function:

output$countryOutput <- renderUI({
  selectInput("countryInput", "Country",
              sort(unique(bcl$Country)),
              selected = "CANADA")
})

Now if you run the app, you should be able to see all the countries that BC Liquor stores import from.

11.3 Errors showing up and quickly disappearing

You might notice that when you first run the app, each of the two outputs are throwing an error message, but the error message goes away after a second. The problem is that when the app initializes, filtered is trying to access the country input, but the country input hasn’t been created yet. After Shiny finishes loading fully and the country input is generated, filtered tries accessing it again, this time it’s successful, and the error goes away.

Once we understand why the error is happening, fixing it is simple. Inside the filtered reactive function, we should check if the country input exists, and if not then just return NULL.

filtered <- reactive({
  if (is.null(input$countryInput)) {
    return(NULL)
  }    
  
  bcl %>%
    filter(Price >= input$priceInput[1],
           Price <= input$priceInput[2],
           Type == input$typeInput,
           Country == input$countryInput
    )
})

Now when the render function tries to access the data, they will get a NULL value before the app is fully loaded. You will still get an error, because the ggplot function will not work with a NULL dataset, so we also need to make a similar check in the renderPlot() function. Only once the data is loaded, we can try to plot.

output$coolplot <- renderPlot({
  if (is.null(filtered())) {
    return()
  }
  ggplot(filtered(), aes(Alcohol_Content)) +
    geom_histogram()
})

The renderTable() function doesn’t need this fix applied because Shiny doesn’t have a problem rendering a NULL table.

Exercise: Change the product type radio buttons to get generated in the server with the values from the dataset, instead of being created in the UI with the values entered manually. If you’re feeling confident, try adding an input for “subtype” that will get re-generated every time a new type is chosen, and will be populated with all the subtype options available for the currently selected type (for example, if WINE is selected, then the subtype are white wine, red wine, etc.).

13.1 Host on shinyapps.io

RStudio provides a service called shinyapps.io which lets you host your apps for free. It is integrated seamlessly into RStudio so that you can publish your apps with the click of a button, and it has a free version. The free version allows a certain number of apps per user and a certain number of activity on each app, but it should be good enough for most of you. It also lets you see some basic stats about usage of your app.

Hosting your app on shinyapps.io is the easy and recommended way of getting your app online. Go to www.shinyapps.io and sign up for an account. When you’re ready to publish your app, click on the “Publish Application” button in RStudio and follow their instructions. You might be asked to install a couple packages if it’s your first time.

After a successful deployment to shinyapps.io, you will be redirected to your app in the browser. You can use that URL to show off to your family what a cool app you wrote.

13.2 Host on a Shiny Server

The other option for hosting your app is on your own private Shiny server. Shiny Server is also a product by RStudio that lets you host apps on your own server. This means that instead of RStudio hosting the app for you, you have it on your own private server. This means you have a lot more freedom and flexibility, but it also means you need to have a server and be comfortable administering a server. I currently host all my apps on my own Shiny server just because I like having the extra control, but when I first learned about Shiny I used shinyapps.io for several months.

If you’re feeling adventurous and want to host your own server, you can follow my tutorial for hosting a Shiny server.

14.1 Shiny in Rmarkdown

You can include Shiny inputs and outputs in an Rmarkdown document! This means that your Rmakdown document can be interactive. Learn more here. Here’s a simple example of how to include interactive Shiny elements in an Rmarkdown.

---
output: html_document
runtime: shiny
---

```{r echo=FALSE}
sliderInput("num", "Choose a number",
            0, 100, 20)

renderPlot({
    plot(seq(input$num))
})
```

14.2 Use conditionalPanel() to conditionally show UI elements

You can use conditionalPanel() to either show or hide a UI element based on a simple condition, such as the value of another input. Learn more with ?conditionalPanel.

library(shiny)
ui <- fluidPage(
  numericInput("num", "Number", 5, 1, 10),
  conditionalPanel(
    "input.num >=5",
    "Hello!"
  )
)
server <- function(input, output) {}
shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

14.3 Use navbarPage() or tabsetPanel() to have multiple tabs in the UI

If your apps requires more than a single “view”, you can have separate tabs. Learn more with ?navbarPage or ?tabsetPanel.

library(shiny)
ui <- fluidPage(
  tabsetPanel(
    tabPanel("Tab 1", "Hello"),
    tabPanel("Tab 2", "there!")
  )
)
server <- function(input, output) {}
shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

14.4 Use DT for beautiful, interactive tables

Whenever you use tableOutput() + renderTable(), the table that Shiny creates is a static and boring-looking table. If you download the DT package, you can replace the default table with a much sleeker table by just using DT::dataTableOutput() + DT::renderDataTable(). It’s worth trying. Learn more on DT’s website.

14.5 Use isolate() function to remove a dependency on a reactive variable

When you have multiple reactive variables inside a reactive context, the whole code block will get re-executed whenever any of the reactive variables change because all the variables become dependencies of the code. If you want to suppress this behaviour and cause a reactive variable to not be a dependency, you can wrap the code that uses that variable inside the isolate() function. Any reactive variables that are inside isolate() will not result in the code re-executing when their value is changed. Read more about this behaviour with ?isolate.

14.6 Use update*Input() functions to update input values programmatically

Any input function has an equivalent update*Input function that can be used to update any of its parameters.

library(shiny)
ui <- fluidPage(
  sliderInput("slider", "Move me", value = 5, 1, 10),
  numericInput("num", "Number", value = 5, 1, 10)
)
server <- function(input, output, session) {
  observe({
    updateNumericInput(session, "num", value = input$slider)
  })
}
shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

Note that we used an additional argument session when defining the server function. While the input and output arguments are mandatory, the session argument is optional. You need to define the session argument when you want to use functions that need to access the session. The session parameter actually has some useful information in it, you can learn more about it with ?shiny::session.

14.7 Scoping rules in Shiny apps

Scoping is very important to understand in Shiny once you want to support more than one user at a time. Since your app can be hosted online, multiple users can use your app simultaneously. If there are any variables (such as datasets or global parameters) that should be shared by all users, then you can safely define them globally. But any variable that should be specific to each user’s session should be not be defined globally.

You can think of the server function as a sandbox for each user. Any code outside of the server function is run once and is shared by all the instances of your Shiny app. Any code inside the server is run once for every user that visits your app. This means that any user-specific variables should be defined inside server. If you look at the code in our BC Liquor Store app, you’ll see that we followed this rule: the raw dataset was loaded outside the server and is therefore available to all users, but the filtered object is constructed inside the server so that every user has their own version of it. If filtered was a global variable, then when one user changes the values in your app, all other users connected to your app would see the change happen.

You can learn more about the scoping rules in Shiny here.

14.8 Use global.R to define objects available to both ui.R and server.R

If there are objects that you want to have available to both ui.R and server.R, you can place them in global.R. You can learn more about global.R and other scoping rules here.

14.9 Add images

You can add an image to your Shiny app by placing an image under the “www/” folder and using the UI function img(src = "image.png"). Shiny will know to automatically look in the “www/” folder for the image.

14.10 Add JavaScript/CSS

If you know JavaScript or CSS you are more than welcome to use some in your app.

library(shiny)
ui <- fluidPage(
  tags$head(tags$script("alert('Hello!');")),
  tags$head(tags$style("body{ color: blue; }")),
  "Hello"
)
server <- function(input, output) {
  
}
shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

If you do want to add some JavaScript or use common JavaScript functions in your apps, you might want to check out shinyjs.