shiny-server fails when trying to source an R file - r

Question

I updated shiny server (open source) and now i cannot source an R file from within the app code. The .R file referenced is just a simple set of functions, all using base R. The file is also within the same dir as the app resides. I even chmod 777 everything to try to get it to run and it still returns the 'error has occurred' on port 3838. Yet it runs just fine locally (within RStudio). shiny-server.conf is unchanged, user runs as shiny, etc. I updated all packages and even uninstalled and reinstalled shiny and shiny-server with no luck. Its literally only failing on trying to source a file.
source('/srv/shiny-server/basicFls.R')
library(shiny)
ui <- fluidPage(
titlePanel("Hello Shiny!"),
sidebarLayout(
sidebarPanel(
sliderInput(inputId = "bins",
label = "Number of bins:",
min = 1,
max = 50,
value = 30)
),
mainPanel(
plotOutput(outputId = "distPlot")
)
)
)
server <- function(input, output) {
output$distPlot <- renderPlot({
x <- faithful$waiting
bins <- seq(min(x), max(x), length.out = input$bins + 1)
hist(x, breaks = bins, col = "#75AADB", border = "white",
xlab = "Waiting time to next eruption (in mins)",
main = "Histogram of waiting times")
})
}
shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

Answer 1

You need to have the path of the source() function set relative to the working directory of the app. In this case, the app directory should be referenced as ".". So a file called code.R located in the app director is referenced as:
source("./code.R")
If the file is located in a directory called "srv" in the same directory as the app, you reference the file as:
source("./srv/code.R")
So, in the following example, the contents of code.R is below, and the file is stored in a directory called "srv" off the root of the app directory.
# code.R
makePlot <- function(x_name) {
ggplot(mtcars, aes_string(x=x_name, y="disp")) + geom_point()
}
Here's the app code that works for that:
library(shiny)
library(ggplot2)
source('./srv/code.R')
ui <- fluidPage(
titlePanel("Basic App"),
sidebarLayout(
sidebarPanel(
selectInput("xaxis", "X axis:", choices=c("mpg", "qsec"))
),
mainPanel(
plotOutput("plot")
)
)
)
server <- function(input, output) {
output$plot <- renderPlot(
# ggplot(mtcars, aes_string(x=input$xaxis, y="disp")) + geom_point()
makePlot(input$xaxis)
)
}
shinyApp(ui, server=server)