Run the GESLA Shiny app — run_gesla

Run the GESLA Shiny app (geslaR-app) locally. The first time this function is called, it will check if the GESLA dataset is present. If not, it will prompt to download it or not. Please note that the entire GESLA dataset is about 7GB in size, so make sure there is enough space for it. The Shiny app will only work with the entire dataset downloaded locally.

Note, however, that the dataset needs to be downloaded only once, so the next time this function is called, the app will open instantly.

The same application is hosted in an online server, with the exact same capabilities. The advantage of using the interface locally is primarily because of its speed. If you don't need the whole GESLA dataset and/or will only use a subset of it, we recommend to use the online interface to filter the desired subset. After that, you can use the read_gesla() function to import it.

Usage

run_gesla_app(
  app_dest = "./gesla_app",
  dest = paste0(app_dest, "/gesla_dataset"),
  overwrite = FALSE,
  open = TRUE
)

Arguments

app_dest: The destination directory that will host the app and the database. It will be created if it doesn't exist. By default, it will create a directory called gesla_app in the current working directory.
dest: The destination directory that will host the GESLA dataset files. By default, it will create a subdirectory under the directory defined in app_dest. It's not recommended to change this argument. If needed, change only the app_dest argument.
overwrite: Overwrite the current dataset? If TRUE and called on the same directory as the app, it will overwrite (i.e. download again) the whole dataset. This is usually not necessary, unless the dataset has really changed.
open: Should the app open in the default browser? Defaults to TRUE.

Value

The geslaR-app Shiny interface will open in your default browser.

Details

The geslaR-app Shiny interface relies on a set of packages, defined in the Suggests fiels of the package DESCRIPTION file. When called for the first time, the function will check if all the packages are available. If one or more are not installed, a message will show which one of them should be installed. Alternatively, you can install all of them at once by reinstalling the geslaR package with devtools::install_github("EireExtremes/geslaR", dependencies = TRUE). In this case, you will need to restart your R session.

When downloading the GESLA dataset for the first time, it may take a few minutes, since it depends on your internet connection and on the traffic on an Amazon AWS server. Don't stop the process before it ends completely. Note that this will be needed only the first time. Once the dataset is downloaded, the other time this function is called on the same directory, the interface should open in your browser instantly.

Author

Fernando Mayer fernando.mayer@mu.ie

Examples

if(interactive()) {
    ##------------------------------------------------------------------
    ## This will create a directory called `geslaR_app` on the current
    ## working directory and import the necessary files for the app.
    ## Also, it will create a subdirectory `gesla_app/gesla_dataset`,
    ## where the dataset will be downloaded.
    tmp <- paste0(tempdir(), "/gesla_app")
    run_gesla_app(app_dest = tmp)

    ##------------------------------------------------------------------
    ## This function call on the same directory where the app is hosted,
    ## will overwrite the whole dataset (i.e. it will be downloaded
    ## again). A prompt for confirmation will be issued.
    run_gesla_app(app_dest = tmp, overwrite = TRUE)

    ## Remove files from temporary directory
    unlink(tmp, recursive = TRUE)
}