Shiny is a framework for building web applications with R code, and this book by Hadley Wickham is designed to take you from knowing nothing about it to writing large, complex apps that stay maintainable and performant. You don’t need to know HTML, CSS, or JavaScript. The book is aimed at R users who are comfortable analyzing data and have written a few functions, as well as existing Shiny developers who want a deeper understanding of the theory behind the framework as their apps grow.
What sets the book apart is its careful treatment of reactive programming, the model that lets Shiny work out which outputs need updating when an input changes. Alongside that theory, it builds up a practical toolbox of techniques for common app challenges, illustrated with code samples, example apps, and a case study on emergency room injury data.
Across its four parts, the book covers:
- App structure, basic UI inputs and outputs, and the foundations of reactivity
- Workflow and debugging, layouts and themes, interactive graphics, and user feedback
- Uploads and downloads, dynamic UI, bookmarking, and tidy evaluation
- The reactive graph, reactive building blocks, and when to escape the graph
- Organizing code with functions, Shiny modules, and packages
- Testing, security, and improving performance with profiling and caching
The full book is free to read online under a Creative Commons license, and its code samples are in the public domain.
