2. Create a Shiny site

In this section you will create a Shiny site.

Starting point: you should be logged in to DataLabs, in a project you have admin permissions for. This project should contain a blank RStudio notebook.

In order to begin, open your RStudio notebook and create a new project ensuring to select "Shiny". This will trigger some actions like initialising renv and may take a few minutes.

NOTE: When working on more advanced Shiny sites that use custom packages, you should always enable renv when you create the RStudio project. This will track all dependencies used in the project, and they can be loaded by the Shiny site once it has been created by initialising renv in the Shiny code itself. While this isn't required for this minimal example, generally it's advisable to work this way.

Once complete, this should have generated a new folder with an existing app.R file in which serves as a good example on how to work with Shiny.

Next from DataLabs, on the left-hand side, select Sites.

Select Create Site and fill out the form. In this form, the Source Path should point to where your app.R code exists within your Project Storage, for example /data/notebooks/rstudio-notebook/tutorial. (Assuming the project created in RStudio was called tutorial).

When creating a site you can select a visibility status depending on the target audience. These are as follows;

• Private - This option should be chosen when working alone with no need to share access to the site.
• Project - When you wish to share access to the site with others within the project in which you are working.
• Public - If you wish there to be no authentication in place - allowing you to share access with the site with anyone on the internet.

Note that if you wish to change the visibility status after the notebook this is also possible.

At this stage it is also possible to attach assets to your site, see this page for further information.

By default, the Shiny site will look for app.R or main.R/server.R. If nothing is present it will simply show a blank index page. The site will still be able to access other files in the directory if necessary, such as data files and scripts.

When happy with the settings, click Create.

Once created, you will be able to see your Site appear in the list, and its status will change from Requested to Ready once it is available to launch.