dcs-training / shinytutorial

Files related to the tutorial "Building interactive web applications in R using SHINY" plus a functioning example of a Shiny app.

Building interactive web applications in R using SHINY

Table of contents

• General info
• Technical background
• Repository structure
• Setup
• Project status
• Author and contact

General info

This repository contains all the files related to the tutorial "Building interactive web applications in R using SHINY", both ones necessary to create a tutorial PDF file as well as a functioning example of a Shiny app. The tutorial (DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5705151) aims at familiarizing the reader with all key stages of web app creation in R, including all key libraries.

Technical background

PDF document was knitted in RStudio (ver. 1.3.1073; R ver. 4.02), using RMarkdown library (ver. 2.7) and MiKTex (Tex distribution). Diagrams presented (Fig. 5-7, namely: AppStructure, SideLayout, TabsetLayout) were done in MS PowerPoint.

Hex sticker with a Shiny logo, presented on the opening page, was taken from the "hex-stickers" GitHub repository: https://github.com/rstudio/hex-stickers/tree/master/PNG

Repository structure

 .
 └── main
     ├── Tutorial.Rmd
     ├── Tutorial.pdf
     ├── README.md
     ├── LICENSE.md   
     ├── visual
     │   ├── AppStructure.jpg
     │   ├── Customization.jpg  
     │   ├── DCS.jpg   
     │   ├── Difference.jpg
     │   ├── GitHubRep.jpg
     │   ├── InputWidgets.jpg
     │   ├── NewShinyWebApp.jpg
     │   ├── RunningAppRStudio.jpg
     │   ├── Shiny.png
     │   ├── Shinyapp.jpg
     │   ├── SideLayout.jpg
     │   ├── Starting.jpg
     │   ├── TabsetLayout.jpg
     │   ├── TextExamples.jpg
     │   └── UoELogo.png
     └── appexample  
         └── app.R

main/ section o the repository contains (apart from the README file) Tutorial.Rmd with all the code necessary to create a tutorial pdf, already knitted Tutorial.pdf (the result of executing Tutorial.Rmd), and two folders. Folder "visual" contains all the figures used by Tutorial.Rmd. Folder "appexample" contains the app.R file, an example R app created by using Shiny library.

Setup

To be able to access Rmd file or run the app you have to have R and RStudio installed on your computer:

• R package can be downloaded from https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/base/release.htm
• RStudio can be downloaded from: https://rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/#download

If you have R and RStudio already installed:

• Install required libraries ("shiny","shinythemes","DT","ggplot2","rsconnect","shinyWidgets") to be able to run or modify the app file
• To be able to change and/or knit the Rmd document into a pdf file install required libraries ("rmarkdown","knitr") and a TeX distribution. The author suggests either TinyTeX or MiKTeX. If necessary, "devtools" may also be needed
• Download the files and folders from the repository, make sure to have it all in one folder
• Make sure the working directory in RStudio is the same as the folder in which the data is saved (getwd() for checking directory, setwd() for setting relevant directory)

Alternatively, to run the app via a link:

• Install required libraries ("shiny","shinythemes","DT","ggplot2","rsconnect","shinyWidgets")
• In RStudio, run code shiny::runGitHub("ShinyTutorial","DCS-training", ref = "main", subdir = "appexample")

Project status

7-15.10.21 -> Tutorial creation

15.10.21 -> First version knitted

15-28.10.21 -> Redrafting, proofreading, creation of final visualisations

28.10.21 -> Work completed

29.10.21 -> Repository created

13.06.22 -> Tutorial translated into Polish, see here

29.06-1.07.22 -> Fixing typos, reworking the Credits section; Readme updated

Author and contact

This tutorial was written by Andrzej A. Romaniuk, for the Centre for Data, Culture and Society, University of Edinburgh.

Andrzej A. Romaniuk

PhD (Archaeology), MSc (Osteoarchaeology)

University of Edinburgh, Research/Teaching assistance

National Museums of Scotland, Research associate

Higher Education Academy, Associate fellow

https://andrzejromaniuk.github.io/CV/

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrzej-Romaniuk

https://github.com/AndrzejRomaniuk

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4977-9241