RStudio Shiny ERROR: there is no package called "shinydashboard"
r, shiny
Solution
The problem is that shiny-server cannot find the packages that you install because it runs them as a different user which is called `shiny`. This user is created upon installation of shiny-server
The easiest (and safest IMHO) way to solve this is to just install the packages as the shiny user, using the following steps.
- Set a password for the user using `sudo passwd shiny`, now enter and confirm a password
- Switch to the shiny account using: `su - shiny`
- Call up `R` using `$ R` (without sudo)
- Install the required packages, in this case: `install.packages("shinydashboard")`
Note that if you have rstudio-server installed on the same machine then you can perform steps 2-4 using that interface. Simply go the same domain/ip and use :8787 for the rstudio-server interface instead of :3838 for shiny-server.
Problem
I am trying to get http://rstudio.github.io/shinydashboard/ working on my Ubuntu 14.10 laptop. I followed the installation instructions here: http://rstudio.github.io/shinydashboard/get_started.html Basic `shiny` pages work. For example: http://localhost:3838/sample-apps/hello/ But when I try one of the `shinydashboard` examples, I get the error: http://localhost:3838/sample-apps/shiny/ ``` ERROR: there is no package called "shinydashboard" ``` If I run an R session in a terminal, I can load the `shinydashboard` library, and I get a browser window with the dashboard if I copy+paste this code in the R session: ``` library(shiny) library(shinydashboard) ui <- dashboardPage( dashboardHeader(), dashboardSidebar(), dashboardBody() ) server <- function(input, output) { } shinyApp(ui, server) ``` It says: ``` Attaching package: 'shinydashboard' The following object is masked from 'package:graphics': box > > ui <- dashboardPage( + dashboardHeader(), + dashboardSidebar(), + dashboardBody() + ) > > server <- function(input, output) { } > > shinyApp(ui, server) Listening on http://127.0.0.1:7093 ``` I tried to install the devel version of the shiny server, but that also didn't help. Here is my `sessionInfo()`: ``` > sessionInfo() R version 3.1.1 (2014-07-10) Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit) locale: [1] LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 LC_NUMERIC=C [3] LC_TIME=en_GB.UTF-8 LC_COLLATE=en_GB.UTF-8 [5] LC_MONETARY=en_GB.UTF-8 LC_MESSAGES=en_GB.UTF-8 [7] LC_PAPER=en_GB.UTF-8 LC_NAME=C [9] LC_ADDRESS=C LC_TELEPHONE=C [11] LC_MEASUREMENT=en_GB.UTF-8 LC_IDENTIFICATION=C attached base packages: [1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base other attached packages: [1] shinydashboard_0.2.3 shiny_0.11.1.9002 loaded via a namespace (and not attached): [1] bitops_1.0-6 devtools_1.7.0 digest_0.6.8 htmltools_0.2.6 [5] httpuv_1.3.2 httr_0.6.1 mime_0.2 R6_2.0.1 [9] Rcpp_0.11.3 RCurl_1.95-4.5 stringr_0.6.2 tools_3.1.1 [13] xtable_1.7-4 ``` EDITED: More info: ``` ls -ld /usr/local/lib/R/site-library drwxrwsr-x 11 root staff 4096 Mar 1 12:47 /usr/local/lib/R/site-library ``` Any ideas why I is it not working on http://localhost:3838 ? Which packaged need installing as root ?