Publish R-markdown (Shiny doc) on remote Shiny server (in docker) - basic question

Question

This is basic educational question. I am confused about some fundamental concepts.

So I work on my local machine and I created R-markdown (Shiny doc). Now, if I want to publish it, I just click in the top right corner (where I previously established account at shinyapps.io and connected to it). Well due to some reasons, I would like to publish it different place then shinyapps.io. So my understanding is that I can accomplish it if I install and configure shiny server in docker. Is this accurate? Do I need Shiny proxy as well.

I also read about dockerizing shiny app, but this sound like to much work creating container instance for each app.

Answer 1

The publishing button works with shinyapps.io or rstudio connect. If you'd like to publish an app using free shiny-server, you won't be able to use the publishing button. You'll need to put a copy of the app in the folder tree you configure shiny-server to publish from. This is a bit more manual. You don't necessarily need Docker, but you do need a Linux computer to run shiny-server. If you want to put your apps in docker containers, you'll want to check out shinyproxy if you're trying to go the free route. RStudio has great paid options if you want to go that route.