Could not open Chrome browser in rselenium on shinyapps.io

Are you having trouble opening the Chrome browser in RSelenium on shinyapps.io? You're not alone. Many users have reported this issue, but don't worry, there are solutions! In this article, we will go over the reasons why this issue occurs and how to fix it. So, let's get started!

Why Can't I Open Chrome Browser in RSelenium on shinyapps.io?

The main reason why you can't open the Chrome browser in RSelenium on shinyapps.io is that the ChromeDriver executable is not included in the application. ChromeDriver is a separate executable that is required to run the Chrome browser with Selenium. When you run RSelenium locally, the ChromeDriver executable is included in the application, but when you deploy it to shinyapps.io, it is not.

How to Fix It?

To fix this issue, you need to include the ChromeDriver executable in your application. Here are the steps to do it:

1. Download the ChromeDriver executable from the ChromeDriver download page.
2. Extract the ChromeDriver executable to a directory in your application.
3. Set the chromeDriver argument in the rsDriver() function to the path of the ChromeDriver executable.

Here is an example of how to do it:

# Download ChromeDriver executable
chromeDriver <- "path/to/chromedriver"

# Set chromeDriver argument in rsDriver() function
rsDriver(chromeDriver = chromeDriver)

Note: Make sure to replace "path/to/chromedriver" with the actual path to the ChromeDriver executable in your application.

Additional Tips

Here are some additional tips to help you open the Chrome browser in RSelenium on shinyapps.io:

• Make sure that the Chrome browser is installed on the shinyapps.io server. You can check this by running the following command in the R console:

checkForServer("chrome")

• If the Chrome browser is not installed, you can install it by running the following command in the R console:

installChrome()

• If you are still having trouble opening the Chrome browser in RSelenium on shinyapps.io, you can try using the remoteDriver() function instead of the rsDriver() function. Here is an example of how to do it:

# Set up remoteDriver() function
rd <- remoteDriver(browserName = "chrome")

# Open remote Chrome browser
rd$open()

# Navigate to a webpage
rd$navigate("https://www.google.com")

References