Shiny Apps Workshop

Welcome!

In this workshop we will be walking through the steps needed to install and use a Shiny App on your computer.

This workshop has three main sections:

1. Installing Software
2. Introducing the software
3. Exploring the software

Installing Software

The first step is to install the software. In our case, we will be installing

• R
• RStudio
• bcgwcat (a Shiny App)
• bcaquiferdata (a Shiny App)

R & RStudio

We can install R and RStudio by clicking on the links above and following the download instructions.

Note: For our minimal use of R, we could probably get away with not installing RStudio, so if you would prefer, you may skip the RStudio step.

R packages

Now we will open RStudio (which will use R; or we can skip RStudio and just open R) and will install the Apps.

Install pak

First, we need to install an R package called ‘pak’.

To do this, we’re going to send some commands to the R console.

• First we’ll open R/RStudio
• Next we’ll locate the console
  • This is an open window with the name “console” or with text referring to the R version:

  R version 4.3.2 (2023-10-31) -- "Eye Holes"
  Copyright (C) 2023 The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
  Platform: ...

• Now, in the console, at the prompt (>) type (or copy/paste) the following and hit Enter

install.packages("pak", dependencies = TRUE)

• Wait for this installation to complete
  • When complete you’ll see the prompt again (>) as well as * DONE (pak)

Awesome! You just installed your first R package 🎉

Install Build Tools

• Automatically with R
• Troubleshooting

Now we’ll check that our computers have what they need to install the other packages. Because we’re using custom software tools, some systems (Windows for one), often need R-specific build tools to install them.

Run the following at the prompt (>), and install build tools if prompted.

pkgbuild::check_build_tools()

Best is to use the check_build_tools() function to automate this, but if you have trouble installing the build tools, you can install them by hand here: https://cran.r-project.org/bin/windows/Rtools/rtools43/files/rtools43-5958-5975.exe

Install Shiny Apps

• Installing
• Troubleshooting

Now that we have pak and our systems are ready, we can install the packages we want to play with.

Why two different ways of installing packages?

pak is a package stored on the CRAN server, so we can download it directly with install.packages(), however, many of our custom R packages used at BC Gov are stored on GitHub, and so need to be installed from there. The pak package provides functions we can use to do that.

Again in the console, at the prompt (>) we’ll type the following commands and hit Enter after each.

pak::pkg_install("bcgov/bcgwcat", upgrade = TRUE)
pak::pkg_install("bcgov/bcaquiferdata", upgrade = TRUE)

Here, we’re using the pak function, pkg_install() to install two R packages (with Shiny Apps) from the bcgov organization on GitHub.

Generally speaking, the vast majority of problems arise through out of date packages. R and R packages change constantly and the best way to avoid problems is to keep things up-to-date. This is why the installation code says upgrade = TRUE to ensure that packages are always updated.

This process is actually installing a bunch of packages upon which our focal packages depend. So if we run into problems with any of these, we’ll need to fix them before we can resume installing our packages.

If you run into problems with a specific package, the best thing to do is to try installing that package directly with pak. For example, if we have a hard time with the ‘dplyr’ package, we could try…

pak:pkg_install("dplyr")

If that succeeds, we’ll try again with the installation of our focal package…

pak:pkg_install("bcgov/bcgwcat")

Rinse and repeat 😉

Introducing the Software

In this section, Steffi will guide you through the use of the two Shiny Apps we just downloaded, and will demonstrate use of a third which is currently under development.

bcgwcat

• Documentation and Website - https://bcgov.github.io/bcgwcat/

• Shiny App Tutorial - https://bcgov.github.io/bcgwcat/articles/bcgwcat.html

• To launch the Shiny App

  bcgwcat::gw_app()

• EMS IDs we will be playing with today

EMS ID	WTN	Aquifer #	OW#	Location	Aquifer Type
1401077	25272	1271	124	Charlie Lake	Bedrock
1401059	26549	15	8	Abbotsford	Unconsolidated
E218240	41479	97	320	Cobble Hill	Unconsolidated
E105920	14947	158	217	Grand Forks	Unconsolidated
1401808	44358	464	262	Kelowna	Unconsolidated
1401448	42266	1216	255	Chilliwack	Bedrock
E282789	85327	211	388	Nanaimo	Bedrock
E284491	102925	664	389	Qualicum Beach	Unconsolidated
E255156	84697	41	360	Langley	Unconsolidated
E311344	115691	194	467	Osoyoos	Unconsolidated

You can play with them one at a time, or copy and paste a series of them:

1401077, 1401059, E218240, E105920, 1401808, 1401448, E282789, E284491, E255156, E311344

bcaquiferdata

• Documentation and Website - https://bcgov.github.io/bcaquiferdata/

• Shiny App Tutorial - https://bcgov.github.io/bcaquiferdata/articles/bcaquiferdata.html

• To launch the Shiny App

  bcaquiferdata::aq_app()

• The shape files we will be playing with will be provided as a link during the workshop

fasstrshiny

• Documentation and Website - https://bcgov.github.io/fasstrshiny/

Exploring the Software

Now it’s your turn!

Try exploring some EMS data with bcgwcat.

Try out your own watershed shape file with bcaquiferdata.

• Try to break the software!
• If anything doesn’t work as you think it should, let Steffi know
• Get an error? Let Steffi know
• Have a great idea of what it should/could do? Let Steffi know

Enjoy!