Is it possible to clear the Shiny cache when reloading an app? - r

Question

Is it possible to clear the Shiny cache history when reloading an app? Specifically, I have a textInput for adding a title that doesn't clear when the app is restarted. In other words, all of the titles entered into the app on previous runs have been "remembered" and show up in a dropdown list when the app is rerun or restarted again. I have tried using shinyjs::reset, but that clears the current value and not the ones in the "history". I've also tried updateTextInput with an action button set to " ", but also clears only the current value and not the ones in the "history". I have also tried setting ui as a function using:
ui <- function(req) {
fluidPage(...)
}
as well as:
I found that cache of R Shiny server is updated when the date of creation for the file "app.R" is changed.
So, here is the trick I used:
server <- function(input, output, session) {
Trick file date creation update
onStop(function() {
# File name
p <- paste0(getwd(), "/app.R")
# Update file 'date creation'
Sys.setFileTime(p, now())
}) # onStop
} # server
The idea is to update the date of "app.R" creation after each session.
Neither of these solutions worked for me. Finally, I found this post:
I also found this post:
I have been struggling with this problem for quite a while, and thought I had tried everything, including putting a js button on the shiny sidebar to manually refresh (unfortunately that did not work either). There are two things that did work for me:
Make sure all code to read data from files is NOT in a code chunk with a name OTHER THAN global OR
Manually restart the shiny server when new data is uploaded
Obviously the first one is much more manageable, and a solution that I wish I had known weeks ago when I started playing with workarounds.
But I am not sure what is involved in implementing either, so if someone could clarify that, that would be great.
Any help would be much appreciated.