shiny.js refresh function crashes Shiny on RStudio Workbench

[ckx]

I've found that shiny.js::refresh() crashes the Shiny window if RStudio Workbench is used but not using a "regular" version of RStudio.

An example of how to use refresh() can be found at (refresh: Refresh the page in shinyjs: Easily Improve the User Experience of Your Shiny Apps in Seconds). On my version of RStudio Workbench, clicking the "Refresh" button causes the Shiny window to close, although R remains running in the background.

Is this due to a peculiarity of my RStudio Workbench configuration or is it a general issue. Are there perhaps workarounds available?

[agus]

Hi John!

I tried running the shinyjs::refresh() example on both RStudio Desktop and Workbench:

 library(shiny)
 library(shinyjs)

  ui <- fluidPage(
    useShinyjs(),
    textInput("text", "Text", "text"),
    actionButton("refresh", "Refresh")
  )

  server <- function(input, output, session) {
    observeEvent(input$refresh, {
      refresh()
    })
  }

 shinyApp(ui, server)

and it works fine on both.

Maybe we need more information to underpin the exact issue.

To this end, could you expand a bit on the details of:

1. Your setup (R version, {shiny} and {shinyjs} versions, workbench version
2. What you specifically mean by "Shiny window" (is it a browser tab, the viewer pane, a window viewer?)

Thanks!

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[ckx]

Hi Agus,

Thanks for your efforts! I just gave the refresh example code another try on RSW and saw the same behaviour as before, i.e. the popup window closed but R remains active until I click the "Stop" button. In this session, I'm running R 4.2.1 but I've had the same issue running R 4.1.0.

I'll discuss this next week with our RSW admin, it looks like this is specific to our site. Thanks for providing that insight!

[agus]

Hi John!

Glad to be of some help

In the meantime, could you see what happens if you change where the app launches, by running (in the R console):

options(shiny.launch.browser = .rs.invokeShinyWindowExternal)

and then using the run button in the GUI or just shiny::runApp()?
This should launch the app in a new browser tab.

You may also try with

options(shiny.launch.browser = .rs.invokeShinyPaneViewer)

which would launch the app in the viewer pane inside RStudio.

This way, we could understand whether the issue has to do with the launching interface.

Cheers!

---

This post was published by an Appsilon team member. Our company can help you get the most out of RShiny and Posit/RStudio products.

Check our open positions here.

Appsilon: Building impactful RShiny Dashboards and providing R coding services.

[ckx]

Hi Agus,

I tried running the sample code using

options(shiny.launch.browser = .rs.invokeShinyWindowExternal)

The app opened in a new Browser tab. If I clicked on the "refresh" button, the browser tab greyed out, then reappeared, but the text was not reset to "Test". This also happens if I run the app in the usual manner, then click on the "Open in browser" button.

If I run

options(shiny.launch.browser = .rs.invokeShinyPaneViewer)

instead, the app runs in the view pane as expected. If I click the "refresh" button, the view pane becomes empty but R keeps running until I click the "stop" button.

[ckx]

This problem is due to Firefox. If I try it using Chrome, the refresh button works properly. Our RSW admin tried this out on RStudio Connect and got the same results: refresh work on Chrome but not on Firefox. Surprising, RShiny Workgroups/Connect work otherwise fine on Firefox.

I'm using Firefox "102.6.0esr (64-bits)" by the way, and Chrome "Version 108.0.5359.125 (Official Build) (64-bit)". Both are managed by our IT department.