#rstats adventures in the land of @rstudio shiny (apps)

Preamble
Colleagues and I had some sweet telemetry data, we did some simple models (& some relatively more complex ones too), we drew maps, and we wrote a paper. However, I thought it would be great to also provide stakeholders with the capacity to engage with the models, data, and maps. I published the data with a DOI, published the code at zenodo (& online at GitHub), and submitted paper to a journal. We elected not to pre-print because this particular field of animal ecology is not an easy place. My goal was to rapidly spin up some interactive capacity via two apps.

Adventures
Map app is simple but was really surprising once rendered. Very different and much more clear finding through interactivity. This was a fascinating adventure!
Model app exploring the distribution of data and the resource selection function application for this species confirmed what we concluded in the paper.

Workflow
Shiny app steps development flow is straightforward, and I like the logic!!
1. Use RStudio
2. Set up a shiny app account (free for up to 25hrs total use per month)
3. Set up a single r script with three elements
(i) ui
(ii) server
(iii) generate app (typically single line)
4. Click run app in RStudio to see it.
5. Test and play.
6. Publish (click publish button).

There is a bit more to it but not much more.

Rationale
A user interface makes it an app (haha), the server serves up the rstats or your work, and the final line generates app using shiny package. I could have an interactive html page published on GitHub and use plotly and leaflet etc, but I wanted to have the sliders and select input features more like a web app – because it is.

Main challenge to adventure was leaflet and reactive data
The primary challenge, adventure time style, was the reactive data calls and leaflet. If you have to produce an interactive map that can be updated with user input, you change your workflow a tiny bit.
a. The select input becomes an input$var that is in essence the name of vector you can use in your rstats code. So, this intuitive in conventional shiny app to me.
b. To take advantage of user input to render an updated map, I struggled a bit. You still use the input but want to filter your data to replot map. Novel elements include introducing a reactive function call to rewrite your dataframe in server chunk and then in leaflet first renderLeaflet map but them use an observe function to update the map with the reactive, i.e. user-defined, subset of the data. Simple in concept now that I get it, but it was still a bit tweaky to call specific elements from reactive data for mapping.

Summary
Apps from your work can illuminate patterns for others and for you.

Apps can provide a mechanism to interact with your models and see the best fits or outcomes in a more parallel, extemporary capacity

Apps are a gratifying mean to make statistics and data more accessible

Updates
Short-cut/parsimony coding: If you wrap your data script or wrangling into the renderPlot call, your data becomes reactive (without the formal reactive function).

The position of scripts is important – check this – numerous options where to read in data and this has consequences.

Also, consider modularizing your code.

Check out conditionalPanel function for customization across tabPanels. Tips in general here for shiny.