Shiny: Translating R code into interactive web applications
As a data analyst in a scientific organization, I often work closley with individuals who are not familiar with coding or R. Ultimately, this makes it challenging for me to share my R code with them. With shiny, an R package that provides a web framework for building web applications, I learned that it’s possible to build web applications from R code which can then be shared with colleagues in an easy-to-use format. After you build the shiny application, all you have to do is host the app on a server such as Shiny Server or shinyapps.io and share the link to your app with your colleagues.
Shiny web application for the R-package IA-SVA
As an example of how useful Shiny can be, I developed a shiny application for the R package IA-SVA. This application is hosted on shinyapps.io and contains much of the R code and functions included in the IA-SVA package.
Check out the shiny app for IA-SVA here.
Please note that the app has a built in interactive tutorial (click the Click here for a guided tutorial of the app button near the top left corner), and also a word document you can download (click the Download Tutorial Document button near the top left corner) containing instructions for how to use the app as shown below:
Note: Please note that this app was designed for the analysis of gene expression data (RNA-seq, single cell RNA-seq, etc). Please read more about the app features/uses in the Tutorial document.
Overview of features included in IA-SVA shiny
- Identify hidden sources of heterogeneity in single cell RNA-seq data
- Discover marker genes associated with a variable of interest
- Determine molecular pathways associated with the identified marker genes
- Interactive visualization of data