Is there a way to make (force?) rappdirs::user_data_dir()to point to a local directory when app is deployed on Posit Connect? about rappdirs

[gaborcsardi]

I don't really understand this. You cannot save a file in the user's machine if they are using your app through a web browser. You can offer them a file to download, but you cannot specify where it is saved. But maybe I am misunderstanding something.

[Shelmith-Kariuki]

No. Exactly that. I thought it was possible. Thanks a lot. I'll look for an alternative

[gaborcsardi]

Now when we deploy the app to Posit Connect, rappdirs::user_data_dir() registers a dir on the posit connect server such that another user can load that saved input file.

Are you sure about this?

Aren't Connect deployments isolated from each other?

Also, what is that location? I think the Connect server runs on Linux, where the default data directory should be inside your home directory. E.g. for me:

> rappdirs::user_data_dir()
[1] "~/.local/share"

In any case, rappdirs follows the XDG spec (https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html), so you can set the XDG_DATA_HOME env var to the desired location:

> Sys.setenv("XDG_DATA_HOME" = "/tmp/")
> rappdirs::user_data_dir()
[1] "/tmp/"

[Shelmith-Kariuki]

@gaborcsardi ,

We are using the function to save an input file locally on people's machines, even though they are viewing a live deployed app. It's as though the file is being saved on the Connect server.

[gaborcsardi]

If you want to store some (small amount of) data on the user's machine, then you can use cookies:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Cookies
There is also an R package for that:
https://r4ds.github.io/cookies/
(I haven't tried it, so this is not an endorsement.)