using {shinylive} to host the shiny app on github

[jkatam]

I am reaching out regarding hosting a Shiny app on GitHub Pages instead of shinyapps.io. I followed the steps outlined in the link Using Shinylive to host Shiny app on GitHub Pages | Training-modules.

The app runs smoothly in RStudio, and the interface opens without issues. However, after using Shinylive to generate the static HTML and WebR files in the docs directory, the app opens but displays a blank page. There are no errors, but no content is visible.

I used the following code to export the app to docs:

shinylive::export(appdir = "demo", destdir = "docs")

To check the app locally, I ran:

httpuv::runStaticServer("docs/", port = 8008)

could you please let me know what is the reason for this

Here is the hosted app link:

Shiny App

Additionally, I've attached screenshots of the GitHub repo structure. The demo folder contains the app.R file, and the docs folder holds the static HTML files.

Could you please help me identify why the app appears blank despite running without errors?

Thank you for your time and support.

[nrennie]

When you run the app locally using httpuv::runStaticServer("docs/", port = 8008) do you also get a blank page? What version of shinylive (and shinylive assets) are you using?

If you inspect the console (Right click -> Inspect -> Console), you can see there's an error message about packages not installing correctly. Which versions of other packages are you using?

This might help debugging: Run shiny Applications in the Browser • shinylive
And this for installing manually: https://repo.r-wasm.org/

[jkatam]

Thank you Nicola for your prompt response. Sorry for asking but when I inspect the console (Right click -> Inspect -> Console), i dont see any errors, it appears blank

Yes, when i use httpuv I get the blank page, however when i run the app in Rstudio it executes well and can see the app.

httpuv::runStaticServer("docs/", port = 8008)

seems like we are good, as per the error the glue package required is 1.8.0 and we have the same version of glue

however i see we have some warnings as below, should we fix them

[Simon_Smart]

The problem is with #5 - curl is not available in webR and it is unfortunately a common dependency. You can read Fetching external data via httr, Curl not available · Issue #31 · posit-dev/r-shinylive · GitHub for some details on why it is not supported. In short, it's unlikely there is anything you can change to get your app running in shinylive.