RStudio and Shiny Server Information and Guides

Owned by Mengsi Wells-Lakeland
Last updated: Aug 14, 2024 by Dinusha Withanage
3 min read

The RStudio and Shiny Server (RSSS) is a stand-alone managed virtual server that supports research collaborations that use the R statistical software environment, and R Shiny as the web interactive user interface. RSSS provides convenience to researchers through a single-click server set-up mechanism inside the Research Computing Portal, and allows researchers to focus on data analysis and web content development. This Resource is not allocated to you as an individual researcher but rather to research Activities - as such an Activity is needed to access this resource.

How do I create an RStudio and Shiny Server?

  1. First add the RStudio and Shiny Server Resource to your Activity from the Home page, by clicking “Add to Activity”. If you do not have a research Activity yet, you can create one here.

  2. Now that the RStudio and Shiny Server Resource is allocated to your Activity, navigate to the Home Page and click “Create RStudio and Shiny Server”.

  3. A timer will appear on the button and when it finishes counting down, the RStudio and Shiny Server will be ready to use.

How do I connect to my RStudio and Shiny Server?

There are three ways to connect to your RStudio and Shiny Server, depending on what you want to do on the server:

 

r_shiny_connect.png

 

This option opens the RStudio Server integrated development environment, where you can develop your R and R Shiny code.

  • Clicking “Open RStudio”, will open the login page for RStudio Server. Login using your normal university username and password.

    r_shiny_1a.png

  • After logging in, use the RStudio Server interface to develop your R software.

  • To edit the code of the Shiny web app, in the RStudio Server interface, use the “Files” panel (bottom right of screen) to browse to the Shiny app source file (for example:
    /srv/shiny-server/sample-apps/hello/server.R)

Note: If you have an existing R Shiny web app that you want to copy into RSSS, please follow the below instructions “How do I upload my existing R Shiny web app to my RStudio and Shiny Server?”

This option opens the R Shiny Web App (“web front-end”). It is the end-user facing interface of R Shiny.

Click the second button, “View Shiny Site”, to connect to the Shiny Server interactive data web app.

 

This option opens the back-end Linux Virtual Machine on which your RStudio Server is running. It is useful if you need to access the file system directly, or need to do administrative work on the Linux command line.

  1. Click the third button, “Connect to Linux Server”, to open a FastX window to log into the Ubuntu Linux operating system of the RSSS. Login using your normal university username and password.

  2. Click the “+” button to launch a new session to log into the RSSS Ubuntu Linux file system.

  1. For the new session, you can choose from the GNOME graphical user interface, the Unity graphical user interface, and xterm command line terminal. For most users, Unity is the best option. Command line access is available inside Unity via the built-in Terminal app.

 

 

You can boost RStudio and Shiny Server by opening the options page (using the options icon to the right of the open button). Your Researcher Desktop will remain in the boosted state for 31 days. It will then downsize. At any time during the last 7 days of the boosted window, you can request an additional 7 days by clicking the "Extend" button. The date and time of the scheduled downsize is displayed above the "Open" button on the Home page. Note: boosting and downsizing require the RStudio and Shiny Server to reboot and any running processes or file transfers will be terminated.

How do I upload my existing R Shiny web app to my RStudio and Shiny Server?

One of the features of RStudio and Shiny Server is that the web access of the Shiny Server is pre-configured, so the end-user has one-click HTTPS access to the R Shiny web app (see above “Connecting to the R Shiny Web App”). If you have an existing R Shiny web app that you would like to host on RStudio and Shiny Server, please follow the instructions below to upload your app.

  1. Verify that the R Studio and Shiny Server web app access is working, by visiting the Shiny site (see above “Connecting to the R Shiny Web App”). You should see the “Welcome to Shiny Server!” default Shiny demo app.

  2. Open RStudio Server (see above “Connecting via RStudio Server”).

  3. In the “Files” panel at the bottom right of RStudio, check that the current working folder is /srv/shiny-server. This is the default folder that Shiny uses to store web app files.

  1. If the current working folder is /srv/shiny-server, continue to Step 5. Otherwise, click “…” on the far right of the panel to change the working folder. Enter /srv/shiny-server when prompted for a new Path to folder.

  1. Delete the files of the “Welcome to Shiny Server!” demo app:

    1. Select the checkboxes in front of index.html and sample-apps folder.

    2. Click the “Delete” icon. When prompted, confirm that you want to delete the selected files.

  1. Upload your existing R Shiny web app files into the same folder (/srv/shiny-server).

  1. The uploaded Shiny app will now be hosted on your RStudio and Shiny Server. You can verify this by visiting the Shiny site (see above “Connecting to the R Shiny Web App“). When you do so you should see your web app rather than the default welcome site.

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