What do I do when Shiny won't read my files?

Question

My Shiny app works on my local computer, but when I upload it to the shinyapps.io server, I get an error message that says:

Warning in gzfile(file, "rb") : cannot open compressed file './data/treemap_master.rds', probable reason 'No such file or directory' Error in value[3L] : cannot open the connection Calls: local ... tryCatch -> tryCatchList -> tryCatchOne -> Execution halted

You can find the full github repository at: https://github.com/ethantenison/UWATX_Shiny_App

This app is supposed to be uploaded to the Shinyapps linux server. I've made sure that all of the files use relative paths, that the app.R file is inside the directory containing all my files, and I've updated all of my packages including R itself.

library(devtools)
library(shinydashboard)
library(shiny)
library(V8)
library(shinyjs)
library(rintrojs)
library(highcharter)
library(RColorBrewer)
library(htmlwidgets)
library(dplyr)
library(stringr)
library(magrittr)
library(viridis)
library(viridisLite)
library(readr)
library(tidyr)
library(leaflet)
library(treemap)
library(leaflet.extras)
library(sf)

# ------------------------------- #
# ------------------------------- #
# ------------------------------- #
# ------------SECTION:----------- #
# ----Reference Data & Styles---- #
# ------------------------------- #
# ------------------------------- #
# ------------------------------- #

# IMPORT MAP STYLES
blank <- "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/mrw03b/cjjd6srrl7ot42so3cbjxn6ot/tiles/256/{z}/{x}/{y}?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoibXJ3MDNiIiwiYSI6IlYwb2FiOWcifQ.RWUm2a87fEC9XrDxzvZKKg"
northstar <- "https://api.mapbox.com/styles/v1/mrw03b/cj48wz0xh15td2st5hcmeqmsv/tiles/256/{z}/{x}/{y}?access_token=pk.eyJ1IjoibXJ3MDNiIiwiYSI6IlYwb2FiOWcifQ.RWUm2a87fEC9XrDxzvZKKg"
map_attr <- "© <a href='https://www.mapbox.com/map-feedback/'>Mapbox</a> | Map © <a href='http://www.unitedwayaustin.org/our-work/2gen/'>United Way of Greater Austin</a>"

full_zips_list <- "78705|78617|78641|78645|78652|78653|78660|78701|78702|78703|78704|78719|78721|78722|78723|78724|78725|78727|78728|78730|78731|78732|78733|78734|78735|78736|78738|78739|78741|78742|78743|78744|78745|78746|78747|78748|78749|78750|78751|78752|78753|78754|78756|78757|78758|78759|78654|78610|78621|78615|78669|78737|78620|78726"

filter_out <- "78712|78743"

treemap_master <- read_rds('./data/treemap_master.rds') %>%
  ungroup() %>%
  mutate(age = as.character(age))

#TREEMAP DATA - ZIP & NEEDS
needs_zip_treemap <- read_rds('./data/needs_zip_treemap.rds') %>%
  ungroup() %>% 
  janitor::clean_names() %>%
  mutate(day = as.character("01"),
         month = as.character("01")) %>% 
  unite(date, c("year", "month", "day"), sep = "-") %>% 
  mutate(date = as.Date(date, "%Y-%m-%d")) %>% 
  rename(year = date)

travis_dl <- read_rds('./data/data_4_download.rds')

travis <- read_rds('./data/data_4_analysis.rds') %>%
  filter(!str_detect(zipcode, filter_out))  %>% 
  group_by(Year, measure) %>% 
  mutate(rank = dense_rank(desc(value))) %>% 
  ungroup()

travis_summ <- read_rds('./data/summ211.rds')

travis_county_sf <- read_rds('./data/traviscounty_boundary.rds')

The app is supposed to look something like this: https://uwatx.shinyapps.io/211Explorer/

You can find the full error message here: https://uwatx.shinyapps.io/UWATX_Shiny_App/

Answer 1

From RStudio Shiny lesson 5 - "The directory that app.R appears in will become the working directory of the Shiny app".

Accordingly, you need too make sure that all the data files are in same or sub-folder of the folder with app.R. Basically -

project_dir
    |
     - app.R
    |
     - data
         |
          - treemap_master.rds

# for above structure use 
read_rds('data/treemap_master.rds') 

As per your post, "I've made sure that all of the files use relative paths, that the app.R file is inside the directory containing all my files" is probably where you went wrong.