Shiny is a package for the widely used open source R programming language that allows users to build interactive documents, dashboards, and web applications. It works by compiling R code into HTML, CSS, and Javascript, thus allowing developers to focus on a single language when building interactive data visualization applications. Although, the R language does have an initial steep learning curve, due to its growing popularity, particularly among scientist and other practitioners who are not programmers by training, this obstacle is diminished by a robust ecosystem of documentation and training materials. In this spirit, we are offering this workshop in an effort to jumpstart interest and community-building in the library world.

Workshop outcomes will include:

• Review basic principles of data visualization
• Learn to build a Shiny application
• Learn how to connect to a variety of data sources, including files, databases, and API’s
• Explore deployment options for Shiny applications
• Learn which elements of the R language to focus on learning to get up to speed as a Shiny developer

In this class we will use Library data as an example. 

Programming experience: Previous experience with R and Data Visualization will be helpful, but not essential. Since Shiny is code-based (as opposed to a GUI-based tool like Tableau), those with little or no experience writing code to manipulate data will be at a disadvantage.