Polish and share your own shiny app

SISBID 2025
https://github.com/dicook/SISBID

Your turn

  • Join forces with your neighbours or work alone
  • Make your own app, or interactive document, on a topic of your choice
  • Some ideas are data from TidyTuesday or fivethirtyeight
  • Your app needs to have
    • at least one interactive plot
    • some GUI element like a menu or checkboxes
    • some nice styling

😱 If you are not confident going alone, work through the steps in the next few slides instead, to make an app.

Out of ideas? Try the TidyTuesday Cocktail Data and this prompt

RStudio Connect and ShinyApps

  • Sign up for an account on https://www.shinyapps.io/

  • Authenticate your account

  • Install the library rsconnect (this is the part that may require admin access to your machine)

  • Follow the instructions on ShinyApps.io to authenticate and upload your first app!

Initiate

✅ Using the RStudio File menu,

  • choose New file,
  • choose “Shiny web app”
  • Give it a name, and choose Single file

This will create a folder in your workspace with the same name as you gave your app. It will also open the app.R file in your text editor pane.

🛑 Click the Run App button on the RStudio window.

✅ Click Publish to upload your app to the shinyapps.io server.

㊗️ You’ve just published your first app

Make it yours

Change the plot to use ggplot, this involves changing the server function to be this:

server <- function(input, output) {
    output$distPlot <- renderPlot({
        ggplot(faithful, aes(x=waiting)) + geom_histogram(bins = input$bins)
    })
}

You will also need to add library(ggplot2) at the top of the file, just after library(shiny).

🛑 Click the Run App button on the RStudio window. (Fix any errors)

✅ Click Publish to re-upload your app to the shinyapps.io server.

㊗️ You’ve just published your first modified app

Make the plot interactive

Change from a static ggplot plot, to an interactive plotly plot, by

Change the server function to look like this. Note renderPlotly

server <- function(input, output) {

    output$distPlot <- renderPlotly({
        p <- ggplot(faithful, aes(x=waiting)) +
            geom_histogram(bins = input$bins)
        print(ggplotly(p))
    })
}

Change the ui function to render plotly output

mainPanel(
  plotlyOutput("distPlot")
)

Add library(plotly) to the top of the file.

🛑 Click the Run App button on the RStudio window. (Fix any errors)

Change the UI

Convert the slide into a numeric input, by changing the ui function to be:

sidebarLayout(
  sidebarPanel(
    numericInput("bins", "nbins", 30)
  ),

(The numericInput replaces the sliderInput code)

🛑 Click the Run App button on the RStudio window. (Fix any errors)

✅ Click Publish to re-upload your app to the shinyapps.io server.

㊗️ You’ve just published your second modified app

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