ExcelToShiny

ExcelToShiny: An R Package for Automating Shiny Dashboard Creation from Excel Templates - Published in JOSS (2025)

https://github.com/idemsinternational/exceltoshiny

Repository

A system for creating Shiny dashboards using Excel spreadsheets

README.Rmd

---
output: github_document
---



```{r, include = FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>",
  fig.path = "man/figures/README-",
  out.width = "100%"
)
```

# ExcelToShiny


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[![Lifecycle:
experimental](https://img.shields.io/badge/lifecycle-experimental-orange.svg)](https://lifecycle.r-lib.org/articles/stages.html#experimental)
[![license](https://img.shields.io/badge/license-LGPL%20(%3E=%203)-lightgrey.svg)](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl-3.0.en.html)


A system for creating Shiny dashboards using Excel spreadsheets.

## Installation

You can install the development version of ExcelToShiny from [GitHub](https://github.com/) with:

```r
install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("IDEMSInternational/ExcelToShiny")
```

## Overview

ExcelToShiny enables users to define Shiny dashboards using Excel spreadsheets. This approach makes it easy to specify dashboard components, including:

- **Main Page**: Global dashboard settings.
- **Contents Page**: Defines the structure of the Shiny app.
- **Display Pages**: Creates different visualization components.
- **Tabbed Pages**: Organises pages into tabbed layouts.
- **Download Pages**: Allows data downloads with optional access control.

## Example Usage

Below is an example of how to load an Excel file and use it to generate a Shiny dashboard:

```r
# Load libraries
library(ExcelToShiny)
library(dplyr)
library(rio)
library(NHANES)

# Load your data you want to run
data(NHANES)

# Run manipulations. Here's an example of where we use a second data frame in our Shiny Excel
NHANES_by_ind <- NHANES %>%
  dplyr::group_by(ID) %>%
  dplyr::mutate(count = 1:n()) %>%
  dplyr::filter(count == 1) %>%
  dplyr::ungroup()

# Set the key variable to be the same type
NHANES$ID <- as.character(NHANES$ID)
NHANES_by_ind$ID <- as.character(NHANES_by_ind$ID)

# Run any credentials data for downloading page
credentials_data <- data.frame(
  user = "admin",
  password = "password",
  stringsAsFactors = FALSE
)

# Call in the test data
path <- system.file("extdata", "example_data.xlsx", package = "ExcelToShiny")
all_sheets <- rio::import_list(path)

# Your shiny app
build_shiny(
  title = "Test Dashboard",
  data_list = all_sheets,
  data_frame = NHANES,
  key_var = "ID"
)
```

## Contributing, Reporting Issues, and Seeking Support
We welcome contributions from the community to enhance the `ExcelToShiny` package. If you would like to contribute, please follow these guidelines:

* Contribute to the software: If you wish to contribute new features, fix bugs, or improve the documentation, please fork the repository, create a new branch for your changes, and submit a pull request. Ensure that your code follows the existing style and include tests where applicable.

* Report issues or problems: If you encounter a bug or have a feature request, please open an issue in the [GitHub Issues](https://github.com/IDEMSInternational/ExcelToShiny/issues) section. Provide as much detail as possible, including steps to reproduce the issue if applicable.

* Seek support: For any questions or help with using `ExcelToShiny`, you can reach out by opening a discussion in the GitHub Discussions, or open a new issue with a "Question" label. We aim to respond within a week.

We appreciate your contributions and feedback!

Owner

JOSS Publication

ExcelToShiny: An R Package for Automating Shiny Dashboard Creation from Excel Templates

Published

July 21, 2025

DOI

10.21105/joss.07876

Volume 10, Issue 111, Page 7876

Authors

Lily Clements
IDEMS International

Editor

Sehrish Kanwal

Tags

Shiny open-source data visualisation automation Excel dashboard reproducibility transparency user interface data-driven interactive application

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