Evolution of Sex Roles in Birds exploratory app

Anna Krystalli @annakrystalli

for the Sheffield R Users Group meetup, 27 Oct 2015

Evolution of Sex Roles in Birds project


Compile large dataset on bird reproductive, morphological, life history and ecological traits across as many bird species as possible


  • 1,171,153 data points
  • 181 variables
Data management and data access considerations
sometimes conflicting

Initial Data Structure & Reporting



Initial wide data structure

Example Report

Eureka moment - let's build an app


Key functions:

  • allow user to explore dataset
  • be flexible and interactive
  • allow data extraction

Features:

  • Used shiny to build a user friendly interface to access only information of interest
  • Integrate plotly to make plots interactive - give user control
  • Publish online with shinyapps.io: easy access for all members of group

App structure & demo


Backend: 2 datasets

  1. long database of datapoints
  2. metadata file

Launch Demo

App info


my code on github https://github.com/annakrystalli/birds/tree/master/bird%20app in case the link isn't working

additional code required to run plotly

by cldougl
more info here


pay particular attention to file: global.R,

I believe plotlyGraphWidget.R, and www/plotlyGraphWidget.js are deprecated