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Extension:Shiny/Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

< Extension:Shiny

For installing the Shiny extension are three or four steps are necessary:

  1. Install a current R version
  2. Install the Shiny server
  3. Install the Shiny extension
  4. Optionally tweak the Apache configuration

For all steps it is assumed that a LAMP server and MediaWiki is installed and you are logged in as root.

R

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You may install a R version which comes with your linux distribution by 

 apt-get install r-recommended

However, the instructions for the Shiny server urge to use the latest R version which may not (yet) part of the repositories of your linux distribution.

  • Therefore you need to add a CRAN repository to the file /etc/apt/sources.list
deb https://<my.favorite.cran.mirror>/bin/linux/ubuntu trusty/
See https://cran.r-project.org/mirrors.html for the list of CRAN mirrors
  • Then run
apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E084DAB9
apt-get update
apt-get install r-recommended

After that R should have been installed (or updated) from the choosen CRAN mirror.

Shiny server

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  • Install the shiny package in R
R -e "install.packages('shiny', repos='https://cran.rstudio.com/')"
  • Install the gdebi package
apt-get install gdebi-core

wget https://download3.rstudio.org/ubuntu-12.04/x86_64/shiny-server-1.4.2.786-amd64.deb
  • Install the Shiny server to your system
gdebi shiny-server-1.4.2.786-amd64.deb
  • To check if the shiny server works enter in your browser: http://<my.domain>:3838
  • Add a path and permissions to store the shiny apps
cd /srv/shiny-server
mkdir mediawiki
chown www-data:www-data mediawiki

MediaWiki

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  • After the installation of your wiki go to the extensions directory
cd <my.wiki>/extensions
  • If necessary then install git
apt-get install git
  • Clone the Shiny extension from github.com
git clone https://github.com/sigbertklinke/Shiny
  • Edit your <my.wiki>/LocalSettings.php and add at the end
wfLoadExtension( 'Shiny' );

Apache

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The Apache webserver listens to port 80 and the Shiny server to port 3838. Usually I modify the Apache configuration file such that any URL with starts with http://<my.domain>/shiny is redirected to the Shiny server:

  • Go to the Apache configuration directory
cd /etc/apache2
  • Enable the proxy_http module
a2enmod proxy_http
  • Edit the Apache configuration file /etc/apache2/sites-available/000.default.conf and add at the end
<VirtualHost *:80>
... some other config stuff ...
  <Proxy /shiny/>
    Allow from localhost
  </Proxy>
  ProxyPreserveHost On
  ProxyPass /shiny/ http://localhost:3838/
  ProxyPassReverse /shiny/ http://localhost:3838/
</VirtualHost>
  • Restart the apache server
service apache2 restart
  • To check if this works properly enter in your browser: http://<my.domain>/shiny/ (and when you enter http://<my.domain>:3838/ you should see the same page)
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