Web Application Development with R Using Shiny

出版者:Packt Publishing

作者:Chris Beeley

页数:110

出版时间:2013-10-22

价格:USD 34.99

装帧:Paperback

isbn号码:9781783284474

具体描述

【What you will learn from this book?】

--Produce advanced analysis and graphics using R

--Implement Shiny's built-in widgets to rapidly build user interfaces

--Apply reactive programming techniques to handle user interactions with minimal coding

--Adapt and change your interfaces in response to user input to give your users an engaging and rewarding experience

--Integrate JavaScript and jQuery with Shiny to add different and exciting content and interactions to your Shiny applications

--Use HTML and CSS to style your Shiny applications and integrate them seamlessly with your own web content

--Serve your users better by allowing them to upload their own data and download the results quickly and simply

--Deploy Shiny applications over the Web using simple and free technologies

【In detail】

R is a highly flexible and powerful tool for analyzing and visualizing data. Shiny is the perfect companion to R, making it quick and simple to share analysis and graphics from R that users can interact with and query over the Web. Let Shiny do the hard work and spend your time generating content and styling, not writing code to handle user inputs.

Web Application Development with R Using Shiny is an accessible introduction to sharing interactive content from R using Shiny. You will learn by doing, with each chapter including code and examples to use and adapt for your own applications. By the end of this book, you will be able to build useful and engaging web applications with only a few lines of code – no JavaScript required.

Web Application Development with R Using Shiny will show you how to begin analyzing, visualizing, and sharing your data using practical examples.

This book will teach you how to rapidly prototype and build interactive data summaries using Shiny's built-in widgets and functions. You will learn how to integrate Shiny applications with your existing HTML and CSS, how to greatly extend the power and usability of your applications using JavaScript, and how to quickly deploy them over the Web.

The book uses practical examples to show you how to get the best out of R and Shiny, helping you to produce and share cutting-edge analytics with minimal effort.

【Approach】

This book follows a standard tutorial-based approach which will teach you how to make a web app using R and Shiny quickly and easily.

【Who this book is for?】

This book is for anybody who wants to produce interactive data summaries over the Web, whether you want to share them with a few colleagues or the whole world. You need no previous experience with R, Shiny, HTML, or CSS to begin using this book, although you will need at least a little previous experience with programming in a different language.

作者简介

【About the Author】- Chris Beeley

Chris Beeley is an Applied Researcher working in healthcare in the UK. He completed his PhD in Psychology at the University of Nottingham in 2009 and now works with Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust providing statistical analysis and other types of evaluation and reporting using routine data generated within the Trust. Chris has a special interest in the use of regression methods in applied healthcare settings, particularly forensic psychiatric settings, as well as in the collection, analysis, and reporting of patient feedback data.

Chris has been a keen user of R and a passionate advocate of open-source tools within research and healthcare settings since completing his PhD. He has made extensive use of R (and Shiny) to automate analysis and reporting for new patient feedback websites. This was funded by a grant from the NHS Institute for Innovation and made in collaboration with staff, service users, and carers within the Trust, particularly individuals from the Involvement Cent

目录信息

Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: Installing R and Shiny and Getting Started!
Chapter 2: Building Your First Application
Chapter 3: Building Your Own Web Pages with Shiny
Chapter 4: Taking Control of Reactivity, Inputs, and Outputs
Chapter 5: Running and Sharing Your Creations
Index
Preface
Up
Chapter 1: Installing R and Shiny and Getting Started!
Installing R
The R console
Code editors and IDEs
Simple and well-featured
Complex and extensible
Learning R
Getting help
Loading data
Dataframes, lists, arrays, and matrices
Variable types
Functions
Objects
Base graphics and ggplot2
Bar chart
Line chart
Installing Shiny and running the examples
Summary
Up
Chapter 2: Building Your First Application
Program structure
ui.R of minimal example
server.R of minimal example
Optional exercise
Widget types
Google Analytics application
The UI
Data processing
Reactive objects
Outputs
A note on the application code
Optional exercise
Summary
Up
Chapter 3: Building Your Own Web Pages with Shiny
Running the applications and code
Shiny and HTML
Custom HTML links in Shiny
ui.R
server.R
server.R – data preparation
server.R – server definition
Minimal HTML interface
index.html
server.R
JavaScript and Shiny
ui.R
server.R
jQuery
index.html – body
server.R
jQuery
Exercise
Summary
Up
Chapter 4: Taking Control of Reactivity, Inputs, and Outputs
Showing and hiding elements of the UI
Giving names to tabPanel elements
Reactive user interfaces
Reactive user interface example – server.R
Reactive user interface example – ui.R
Advanced reactivity
Using reactive objects and functions efficiently
Controlling the whole interface with the submitButton() function
Controlling specific inputs with the isolate() function
Running reactive functions over time
More advanced topics in Shiny
Finely controlling inputs and outputs
Reading client information and GET requests in Shiny
Custom interfaces from GET strings
Animation
Advanced graphics options
Downloading graphics
Downloading and uploading data
Summary
Up
Chapter 5: Running and Sharing Your Creations
Sharing with the R community
Sharing over GitHub
Introduction to Git
Sharing applications using Git
Sharing using .zip and .tar
Sharing with the world
Glimmer
Shiny Server
Browser compatibility
Summary
Up
Index
· · · · · · (收起)

用户评价

这本关于 R 语言 Shiny 框架构建 Web 应用的书籍，在当前数据科学和可视化日益重要的背景下，显得尤为及时。我最初抱有很高的期望，希望能找到一本既能深入讲解 Shiny 的底层机制，又能提供大量实际项目案例的“宝典”。然而，阅读体验下来，感觉这本书更像是一本翔实的技术手册，它详尽地罗列了 Shiny 的各个组件和函数，代码示例丰富，这一点毋庸置疑。对于初学者来说，它提供了一个坚实的起点，让你能够快速理解响应式编程的核心思想。但如果期待它能带领你走过从零开始构建一个企业级、高性能、高可用性应用的完整旅程，这本书可能略显不足。它在架构设计、性能优化（比如如何处理大量并发用户或巨型数据集的内存管理）方面着墨不多，更侧重于“如何实现某个功能”，而非“如何构建一个健壮的系统”。我花费了大量时间对照书中的例子，试图将其中的小部件组合成一个更复杂的、包含多页导航和复杂状态管理的实际应用，过程中发现，许多高级技巧需要查阅官方文档或其他社区资源来补充。总而言之，它是一个扎实的工具箱，但如果你想成为一名建筑大师，还需要自己去钻研蓝图设计。

作为一个已经使用 Shiny 有一段时间的用户，我购买这本书是希望能够找到一些“不为人知”的优化技巧或者鲜为人知的高级用法。坦白讲，这本书的价值主要体现在对 Shiny 核心机制的清晰梳理上，对于那些刚刚接触 Shiny 的人来说，它能帮你迅速建立起对响应式系统的直观认识。但是，对于中高级用户而言，这本书的边际贡献递减得非常快。比如，关于 Shiny Server Pro 的部署和安全性配置，书中只是一笔带过，没有深入探讨企业级部署中必须考虑的 SSO 集成、负载均衡策略等关键议题。此外，书中对性能调试工具的使用介绍得不够深入，我期望能看到更多关于如何使用 Rprof 或 Shiny 专用的性能分析工具来定位代码瓶颈的实战教程。目前的案例分析更侧重于展示“功能实现”，而非“效率提升”。因此，对于寻求突破瓶颈、将 Shiny 应用推向生产环境下一阶段的开发者来说，这本书提供的洞察力可能还不够尖锐和实用。

这本书在 R 语言生态系统中的定位非常清晰：它旨在将 R 语言的用户群体与 Web 开发的世界连接起来。从这个角度看，它成功地搭建了一座桥梁。它细致地介绍了如何使用 R 语言特有的语法结构来驱动前端界面的变化，这对于习惯于 R 代码的分析人员来说非常友好。然而，当这本书试图深入讲解“Web Application Development”这一核心时，其广度稍有欠缺。我注意到一个明显的倾向：它更倾向于使用 Shiny 自己的语法糖来解决所有问题，而较少提及如何有效地与其他成熟的 Web 技术栈（如 FastAPI 或 Django）进行松耦合的集成。例如，在处理身份验证时，如果能提供更多关于如何与 OAuth2 流程集成的示例，而非仅仅停留在简单的 Session 管理，那本书的实用价值会大幅提升。总的来说，它是一本出色的 R 语言 Shiny 入门与进阶指南，但若将其视为一本全面的“现代 Web 应用开发”教材，则略显单薄，它更像是一个优秀的“Shiny 专用工具手册”。

说实话，当我翻开这本书时，我最期待的是能看到一些颠覆性的、前沿的 Shiny 应用开发范式。市场上的 Shiny 教程很多，大多停留在制作简单的数据展示看板，这本书的封面暗示着它会深入到“Web Application Development”的层面，这意味着它应该涵盖路由管理、API 集成、用户认证等更贴近传统 Web 开发的主题。遗憾的是，全书的重点似乎仍然紧紧围绕着 `ui.R` 和 `server.R` 的经典模式展开，虽然提到了模块化编程（module），但讲解深度仍停留在基础封装层面，远未达到可以用来管理复杂、多团队协作项目的那种工程化实践。更让我感到困惑的是，它在处理异步操作和高级服务器性能调优上的论述非常保守和简略。对于需要实时更新大量图表或对接外部服务的场景，书中的解决方案显得有些力不从心，似乎没有充分利用 R 生态系统中其他并行处理库的潜力，也没有深入探讨如何利用 NGINX 或其他反向代理技术来优化 Shiny 的部署环境。这本书更像是一本优秀的入门级“速查手册”，适合想快速上手 Shiny 的数据分析师，而不是希望用 Shiny 来替代传统后端语言的资深开发者。

这本书的排版和插图质量相当不错，这对于技术书籍来说是一个重要的加分项。每一章的逻辑衔接相对流畅，从基础的数据绑定到响应式表达式的介绍，过渡得比较自然，这让我的阅读过程没有太多卡壳的感觉。然而，叙事风格上，它显得有些过于学术化和刻板。作者倾向于用教科书式的语言来解释每一个概念，虽然准确无误，但缺乏一种“同行交流”的亲切感。例如，在讲解 `observeEvent` 和 `reactivePoll` 的区别时，可以结合一些生动的实际场景来对比它们的优劣势和适用边界，但书中更多的是并列描述函数的功能，需要读者自行去消化和领悟其在真实世界中的细微差异。我花了很长时间才习惯这种略显干燥的叙述方式。而且，书中案例虽然数量多，但多数应用场景都集中在标准的统计报表和简单的交互式图表展示，对于涉及到数据库操作（比如使用 DBI 进行复杂查询优化）、或者需要与 JavaScript 生态进行深度互操作（比如自定义前端组件的深度绑定）的部分，介绍得相对蜻蜓点水，需要读者自行跳跃到其他资源进行补充学习。

有实用性

有些api比较老了，需要去翻shiny新的官方文档；另外我个人比较喜欢shinydashboard的二次封装，但这本书似乎没有提及。

这种书难以规避的弊端就是，所讲的主题需要多种技能的组合，于是都要兼顾，最后只能泛泛而谈，其实还不如StackOverflow来得快。

这种书难以规避的弊端就是，所讲的主题需要多种技能的组合，于是都要兼顾，最后只能泛泛而谈，其实还不如StackOverflow来得快。

有些api比较老了，需要去翻shiny新的官方文档；另外我个人比较喜欢shinydashboard的二次封装，但这本书似乎没有提及。