I'm interested to learn if there is a precedent for building standalone Shiny applications on a not-quite-production scale. Some context: We have several clients for which we've built small Shiny tools for their internal use. Some applications are deployed to Shinyapps.io, some have been shared locally (requiring the user to have R and other dependencies installed). Neither of these are ideal solutions.
Limitations:
Having clients install applications locally is tricky for a number of reasons, things like: extra mental load on clients, issues regarding dependencies, etc. Deployment to shinyapps.io or a Shiny server is not ideal because: 1) We, as a smaller company, lack employees to manage extra IT infrastructure. 2) shinyapps.io can be a bit rigid (some clients might like to share the application internally). 3) Some of these projects are very small and don't warrant the development time of configuring a Shiny server.
Possible Solutions:
R Portable Paired with Chrome Portable
I have successfully built and shared a standalone Shiny application using the code and instructions from this repository. This seems like a fair solution for windows machines, assuming you're comfortable with clients having access to your source code. My main question is: is this solution secure? Are there security concerns regarding sharing installations R-Portable and Chrome-Portable with clients? The general consensus seems to be that portableapps.com is safe, at least for personal use. But is it secure to the point of sharing it with a client?
Photon/Electron
I know there are a number of resources which provide tools to package Shiny applications with Electron (Photon, RInno, electricShine). However, after looking into a number of these tools, many of them seem like they aren't actively being maintained. Is this a concern? Are folks using any of these tools, and if so, what has been your experience?
Any insight is appreciated! Thank you :)
