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How to create a custom environment and launcher for a Shiny app

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If you have a Shiny app that needs additional R packages, this how-to guide will help you create a new Renku environment that includes all packages and can run the Shiny app in the browser (using R version 4.2.0).

If you have a shiny app that does not need any additional R packages, you can instead use the simpler guide How to set up a Shiny app launcher.

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We know this how-to guide is not easy, and we are hard at work to make this easier in the future! We are currently working on a feature to make it easy to add custom packages to your session environment. In the mean time, follow this how-to guide to create your own custom environment.

Attach your Shiny app code repository to your project:​

  1. How to add a code repository to your project

Create a custom Renku environment and launcher to serve your Shiny app:​

  1. Create a fork of this repository: https://gitlab.renkulab.io/bethcg/shiny-launcher, we will refer to the fork as project-fork.

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  2. In project-fork, modify the install.R file to include the required R packages for your project, as explained here.

  3. Commit your changes for project-fork.

  4. Select Deploy(4a)/Container Registry(4b) on the left menu of project-fork.

  5. Click on top of your image registry to access the tags (5).

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  6. Copy the last tagged image (registry_link).

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  7. Add a session launcher to your Renku project with the following Custom Environment option as explained in How to use your own docker image for a Renku session considering the following parameters:

    1. Container Image: *user_registry_link*

    2. Default URL: /shiny/work/<*path-to-app>*/

      where *<path-to-app>* should be the path to the folder of the file starting the Shiny app.

      Make sure to include /shiny/work/at the beginning and the slash at the end!

You can now start a session with your new shiny launcher to access the shiny app directly in your browser.