1 Introduction

This book was compiled by the NEFSC R shiny group to showcase how we have used R shiny apps to enhance our work. Each chapter describes a different shiny app developed at the Northeast Fisheries Center. Many of the apps shared here are under ongoing development and the purpose of this book is to share our work and the lessons we’ve learned through developing these apps.

1.1 Welcome

Welcome to the NEFSC Shiny Group! We are a group of R enthusiasts that support an inclusive community where folks of all experience levels can advance skills, share knowledge, and explore R. We promote open science principles of collaboration, reproducibility, and transparency, and provide training opportunities for members.

This book was compiled by the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) Shiny Group to showcase how we have used Shiny apps to enhance our work. Each chapter describes a different Shiny app developed at the NEFSC. Many of the apps shared here are under ongoing development and the purpose of this book is to share our work and the lessons we’ve learned through developing these apps. If you are here then there is a good chance you are either interested in finding out what apps the group are working on or you are considering collaborating on or creating an app yourself. Information on this page should help get you started.

1.2 Getting Started

All apps developed by the Shiny Group are located on the internal server shiny1. Anyone who is inside of the NEFSC firewall (either physically or via VPN) should be able to run any of the apps developed by the Shiny Group. (Login credentials are required to contribute an app or to collaborate with others on the development of an app.)

Each app developed by a particular user will reside in a unique folder under their account name. The following url format is used to run any app http://shiny1.nefsc.noaa.gov:3838/username/appname. The app is physically located at \\net.nefsc.noaa.gov\shiny1\username\appname

1.3 Required Credentials

Credentials are required to access the source code of any app.

  • An account/permissions to access the shiny1 server
  • If working remotely then a VPN account is also required.

The VPN account is needed (only if working remotely) to run the app and to update/develop an app on the server

Please contact ITD for help in setting up accounts and providing access.

1.4 Saving the app

A Shiny app can be developed:

  • locally (and then copied to the server) or
  • directly on the server.

Rstudio is installed on the Shiny (shiny1) server to help with live testing of an app. To launch Rstudio in a browser use the following url: http://shiny1.nefsc.noaa.gov then log in with credentials.

Save apps to \\net.nefsc.noaa.gov\shiny1\username\appname