Error importing xml file with fileInput

shiny
1

Hello,

I'm using fileInput() to read and then parse an xml file (with the xml2 package), and then output the selected data. My code works in a normal R script, but when I run it in shiny, after I upload the file, I get the error: no applicable method for 'read_xml' applied to an object of class "NULL".

Below is a simplified example of my app structure:

library(shiny)
library(xml2)

# make a file to upload
h <- read_html("<p>Hi!</p>")
write_xml(h, "mydata.xml", options = "format", encoding = "UTF-8")

ui <- fluidPage(
  fileInput("File", "Choose file"),
  tableOutput("Data")
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  Data <- eventReactive(input$File, {
    read_xml(input$File$datapath)

  })
  
  output$Data <- renderTable({
    head(xml_text(Data()))
  })
  
}

shinyApp(ui, server)
2

Do you get this error before or after selecting the file?

If it is before, you could try changing your eventReactive statement to this:

raw.data <- reactive({
  if (!is.null(input$file1)){
    read_xml(input$File1$datapath)
  }
})

By default inputs are NULL values. This will prevent it from trying to read the file unless there is one selected

3

Thanks tbradley,
It is after I upload the file, unfortunately. I will change my question to mention that.

4

I got it working. Nothing to do with xml I had an error in my script - "file" in fileInput and "File" in eventReactive. Definitely feel silly about that. I edited the code in the initial question to the working version.