Rendering A Local Image File in Shiny - r

Question

I am trying to render a local image file onto the Shiny app interface using a snippet of the example code provided by Shiny website below:
ui <- fluidPage(
imageOutput("plot3")
)
server <- function(input, output, session) {
# Send a pre-rendered image, and don't delete the image after sending it
# NOTE: For this example to work, it would require files in a subdirectory
# named images/
output$plot3 <- renderImage({
filename <- normalizePath(file.path('./images',
paste('image', '2', '.jpeg', sep='')))
# Return a list containing the filename
list(src = filename, alt = "Alternate text")
}, deleteFile = FALSE)
}
shinyApp(ui, server)
It didn't work when I ran the application. However when I added back the interactive() function that was originally in the example code, encase the main code body, I was able to display the local image file without any problems.
if (interactive()) {
ui <- fluidPage(
imageOutput("plot3")
)
server <- function(input, output, session) {...
}
This puzzles me as many of Shiny's tutorials and demonstrations showed rendering can be done without encasing the code body in a scope.
Is there anyone who encounter a similar scenario such as this? Rendering a local image file into a Shiny app?

Answer 1

I just discovered what was wrong with the code through trial and error. The directory which the shiny code app is saved in a different location from the location where the image file is saved. So the solution is either to place a setwd([www image folder location]) or relocate image folder www to where the shiny app resides which it worked - the image is successfully rendered.