Specifying an R environment with a runtime.txt file

Jupyter+R:

RStudio:

RShiny:

Binder supports using R and RStudio, with libraries pinned to a specific snapshot on MRAN.

You need to have a runtime.txt file that is formatted like:

r-<YYYY>-<MM>-<DD>

where YYYY-MM-DD is a snapshot at MRAN that will be used for installing libraries. In this line, you can request a specific version of R. To do this list the version between the 'r' and the year, as in r-3.6-2019-09-24. Right now the default version of R is 3.6.

You also need a Python notebook file such as this one.

You can also have an install.R file that will be executed during build, and can be used to install libraries.

Both RStudio and IRKernel are installed by default, so you can use either the Jupyter notebook interface or the RStudio interface.

This repository also contains an example of a Shiny app.

Last, note that if your Binder URL points to a folder, as in

http://mybinder.org/v2/gh/binder-examples/r/master?urlpath=shiny/bus-dashboard/,

you will need (1) to put in the final slash in the URL, and (2) to avoid converted spaces-'%20'-in the URL, instead placing a hyphen.

Note: An alternative is to use the excellent holepunch package for R.