Basic basics of shinyproxy (+ some general online knowledge)

Question

Problem

When looking for ways to deploy brilliant applications, I came across ShinyProxy . From what I understand, this is an alternative for ShinyServer . However, I lack some (very simple) knowledge to follow this guide.

Questions

• Can ShinyProxy be installed on any purchased / rented server? Do I need to preinstall any other software?
• Where can I enter the commands provided in the ShinyProxy manual ?
• Do I need to install Docker on the server or is it a tool for deployment on the server and, therefore, is installed locally?
• The ShinyProxy Guide does not take into account the installation of ShinyProxy. What for? Not installed (or is installation so obvious)?
• I could not find instructions on how to launch a brilliant application using ShinyProxy.

Answer 1

Perhaps the authors of ShinyProxy can give a much better answer, but here is my understanding:

• The server needs to support Java 8 and Docker (or you can install Java 8 and Docker on your server).
• Assuming that you are accessing your server through SSH, the commands will be entered into the SSH terminal.
• Yes Docker must be installed on the server
• ShinyProxy doesn't seem to need to be installed. You just need to download it ( shinyproxy-0.5.0.jar ) to a location on the server, and then run java -jar shinyproxy-0.5.0.jar (in your SSH terminal)
• To launch a Shiny application, you first need to pack it as an R package, and then create a Docker image for the R package. The application actually runs inside the Docker container. You also need a configuration file to tell ShinyProxy where to look for the Docker image. Example here https://github.com/openanalytics/shinyproxy-demo