fasstrshiny_get_started.RmdThis is broad overview of how to use this Shiny app
The first thing you’ll need to do is load some daily streamflow data. Go to Data >> Loading & Options. Here you can choose whether to load HYDAT data or your own local data from a .csv file format.
The map shows all the HYDAT stations in BC. To look at all of Canada, unselect “BC Stations Only”. Hover over stations for more information, click on a station to select that station. Below the map is a table of HYDAT stations. You can filter stations by typing into the box above each column. As you filter the stations list, the map will update to show only the stations you’ve filtered. Once you’ve decided on a station, make sure it is selected in the panel on the left and click the “Load Data” button. You can now preview the data on the “Daily Flow Plot” and “Daily Flow Table” tabs.
Click on the CSV button to change the data source to local csv. Your data must be in csv format with at least two columns: one for the date, and one for the flow value (in cms). Click on the “Browse” button to locate your file. You can preview the file on the right. Make sure the Date and Flow columns are correctly identified. If you have a Symbol column (with daily flow qualifers, Estimate, Partial day etc.) you can add that as well, otherwise leave that entry blank. If you know the basin area for your data, add it to under “Station Information”. Click “Load Data”.
If your dates are not standardized (YYYY-MM-DD) or if you have more than one flow value per date, you will be warned and will have to fix your data before it can be loaded.
You can now preview the data on the “Daily Flow Plot” and “Daily Flow Table” tabs.
Click this toggle to view and/or change the station name (used for titles throughout the app) and the upstream basin area, in square kilometres (used for area-based runoff calculations). When using HYDAT data, these will default to the provided HYDAT information, but can be modified as necessary.
Below the Load Station Data and Station Information (can click the toggles to close), explore data and date settings to customize the station information, filter your dates, adjust the types of data you’re using or handle missing dates differently (also see the section below, Settings).
Now that you’ve loaded your data, you’ll want to take a look and make sure there are no surprises. Click on Data >> Availability & Screening.
This section contains several different tools for exploring your data:
Filtering and Missing Dates. If you find any date periods that are problematic and which you would like to omit from your analysis, go to Data >> Loading, and adjust the dates under “Date Filtering”. Similarly, if you have a lot of missing data, you can specify how these values should be handled by fasstr functions under “Handling Missing Dates”.
Now that you have your data and have filtered and adjusted the settings as required, you’re ready to start analysis.
Explore the other pages on the side bar. Each page holds a different set of calculations, generally in both plot and data form.
The Analyses are more complex and computationally intensive calculations.
There are three main areas in which you can adjust the settings in this app.
First, as mentioned above, most settings are in the Data >> Loading page. These settings apply to every other page in the app. If you wish to change them, go back to the Data > Loading page and change them, then return to the page you were using.
Second, most pages have specific settings to that set of calculations. You can set these settings on the page in question, they have no bearing on any other calculations (but do apply to all tabs on a page, e.g., Plot and Table).
Finally, plots and tables sometimes have specific settings available by clicking on the “gear” button on the upper right side. These are like the page settings, but even more specific, they only apply the plot or table on that page, on that tab.
All plots and table in this app are interactive.
You can hover the mouse over any plot to get more information about the values presented.
There are also two plotly plots (Data > Loading > Daily Flows Plot and Data > Available > Symbols Flow) which can be zoomed in on by clicking and dragging over a time period.
Finally, in Analyses > Annual Trends and Analyses > Volume Frequency, you can click on specific points on the plot in order to identify years to omit from the analysis. You can also use the lasso to drag around the points to select a group.
Note that these last two special types of plots each have reminder instructions on the page itself to help you out.
Downloading. All plots can be downloaded by hovering over the plot and clicking on the small download button that appears in the upper right corner. This button looks like a small camera for plotly plots and a download icon for others. Plots that are relevant for reports also have an additional Plot download button (small blue button with download icon saying “Plot”, usually in the left hand settings tab). This results in a higher quality PNG than the other buttons.
Tables can be sorted by clicking on the desired column and exported to “Excel” or “CSV”. You can also copy the table and paste it into a spreadsheet by clicking the “Copy” button.
One table, the HYDAT stations table in Data > Loading, can also be filtered by typing filter text into the boxes above each column. This results in the HYDAT map showing only filtering stations.
Finally there is another special table in Analyses > Annual Trends. Once a trend analysis has been computed, the plot of a relevant statistic can be viewed by clicking on that statistic in the table. As with other tables you can also sort this table.
If you wish to save the status of your analysis so you can return to it later, you can click on the “Bookmark” button in the lower right corner of the window.
Note: While we have made every effort to ensure bookmarking works well, it can be slightly unstable and may not work between versions of this App. We therefore recommend using it as a helper or shortcut tool, rather than relying on it to save all your work as a complete record.
If you are using fasstrshiny from your local computer, this will save the details into a folder called shiny_bookmarks and you’ll get a link like:
http://127.0.0.1:7493/?_state_id_=a5fa7412c08683dd
The important part that identifies your bookmark is the id a5fa7412c08683dd.
Next time you run fasstr_shiny() you might have a different port (here, 7493). But if you paste the end of this link ?_state_id_=a5fa7412c08683dd to your new url and hit enter, you will recover the bookmark. Give the app a couple of seconds to reset all the inputs.
If you are using fasstrshiny from the web (shinyapps.io), then when you click the bookmark button you will get a VERY long URL. We recommend that you follow the instructions presented to shorten that URL with a service such as tinyURL. That url should then work to recover the app in future.