Shinylive Essentials for R - Cheatsheet

Shinylive Setup & Deployment

Installation

• From CRAN:

install.packages("shinylive")

• From GitHub (recommended):

pak::pak("posit-dev/r-shinylive")

Check installed version:

shinylive::assets_info()

Export & Preview Shinylive App

Export your Shiny app as a Shinylive static webpage:

shinylive::export("myapp", "site")

Preview locally:

httpuv::runStaticServer("site")

In-depth tutorial

Creating a Basic Shinylive App

Example: Hello Shiny

Create app.R:

library(shiny)

ui <- fluidPage(
  sliderInput("bins", "Number of bins:", 1, 50, 30),
  plotOutput("distPlot")
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  output$distPlot <- renderPlot({
    x <- faithful$waiting
    bins <- seq(min(x), max(x), length.out = input$bins + 1)

    hist(x, breaks = bins, col = "skyblue", border = "white")
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Export and preview:

shinylive::export(".", "site")
httpuv::runStaticServer("site")

Detailed tutorial

Embedding Shinylive in Quarto Documents

Install Quarto extension

quarto add quarto-ext/shinylive

Enable in YAML header:

---
filters:
  - shinylive
---

Embed app directly in Quarto

```{shinylive-r}
#| standalone: true
library(shiny)

ui <- fluidPage(
  sliderInput("bins", "Number of bins:", 1, 50, 30),
  plotOutput("distPlot")
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  output$distPlot <- renderPlot({
    hist(faithful$waiting, breaks = input$bins)
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)
```

Full guide

#| '!! shinylive warning !!': |
#|   shinylive does not work in self-contained HTML documents.
#|   Please set `embed-resources: false` in your metadata.
#| standalone: true
#| viewerHeight: 650
library(shiny)

ui <- fluidPage(
  sliderInput("bins", "Number of bins:", 1, 50, 30),
  plotOutput("distPlot")
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  output$distPlot <- renderPlot({
    hist(faithful$waiting, breaks = input$bins)
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Troubleshooting & Customization Tips

Common Issues

• Missing packages:
  • Add hidden package installation:

if (FALSE) {
  library(hidden_package)
}

• Slow startup:
  • Limit app dependencies for faster loading.
• Assets management:

Check local cache:

shinylive::assets_info()

Clean old assets:

shinylive::assets_cleanup()

Multiple Apps

Export multiple apps efficiently:

shinylive::export("myapp1", "site", subdir = "app1")
shinylive::export("myapp2", "site", subdir = "app2")

Serve multiple apps:

httpuv::runStaticServer("site")

Advanced tips

Further Reading

• Introduction to Shinylive for R
• Advanced Customization for Shinylive (R)

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