How to debug R-Shiny code with VS Code

Question

Is there any way to debug Shiny (R) inside VS Code? I can easily debug Shiny apps inside RStudio but I like to code inside VS Code so looking for the way to debug R code inside VS Code.

Answer 1

Seems, shiny can be debugged in VSCode using browser-statements 🙌

Prerequisites

• Setup this VSCode extensions (VSCode R Guide)
  • R (by Yuki Ueda)
  • R Debugger
• Use a default app structure (see docs of appDir when running ?shiny::runApp for possible setups)
• Set your VSCode workspace to the R projects root (e.g. File -> Open Folder... -> myProject)

Debugging

• Set your breakpoints using browser() (RStudio Article)
• Run R-Debugger in Launch R-Workspace mode
• Execute shiny::runApp() in the Debug Console as soon the Debugger pauses
• Your app should fire up in a browser and the breakpoints pause the execution 🎉

Further Ressources

• VSCode Article on debugging (can be very helpfull)
• Issue on this topic in the VSCode-R-Debugger repo