Unable to read online xmls in shinyapps.io

[billm...@g.ucla.edu]

Hey guys:

This is a weird problem I am encountering in my Shiny app. I went to a local R user mixer, and no one had a clue (well they did gave me advice to post it here):

First of all the app works totally fine in runApp() in my RStudio. But after I deploy it onto my shinyapps.io account and run it in my Chrome browser, it returns message: Error: cannot open the connection.

I did some tracking and figured out that the problem is with this line of code: form_d<-read.table(url(HTML_table[i]),fill=TRUE) with HTML_table[i] being a vector of urls linking to some SEC forms (so I guess it's not because of internet security settings).

Here are some things that I tried:

1. removing url(). Doesn't work.
2. replacing HTML_table[i] with the original url string. Doesn't work.
3. setInternet2(TRUE). Works when in runApp() in RStudio, but results in shiny app disconnected from server in shinyapps.io.
4. I also made a test app, and the original line with HTML_table[i] works completely fine in the test Shiny app, both in RStudio and in shinyapps.io.
5. 
   

Based on part 4, I was wondering maybe it was a setting problem? Here is a list of my libraries:

shiny
DT
RCurl
stringr
XML

and options:

> options()
$add.smooth
[1] TRUE

$askpass
function (prompt) 
{
    .Call(.rs.routines$rs_askForPassword, prompt)
}
<environment: 0x000000000a5c2428>

$browser
function (url) 
{
    .Call(.rs.routines$rs_browseURL, url)
}
<environment: 0x0000000009b64920>

$browserNLdisabled
[1] FALSE

$buildtools.check
function (action) 
{
    if (identical(.Platform$pkgType, "mac.binary.mavericks")) {
        .Call(.rs.routines$rs_canBuildCpp)
    }
    else {
        if (!.Call("rs_canBuildCpp")) {
            .rs.installBuildTools(action)
            FALSE
        }
        else {
            TRUE
        }
    }
}
<environment: 0x000000000a5c2428>

$buildtools.with
function (code) 
{
    .rs.addRToolsToPath()
    on.exit(.rs.restorePreviousPath(), add = TRUE)
    force(code)
}
<environment: 0x000000000a5c2428>

$CBoundsCheck 
[1] FALSE

$check.bounds
[1] FALSE

$citation.bibtex.max
[1] 1

$continue
[1] "+ "

$contrasts
        unordered           ordered 
"contr.treatment"      "contr.poly" 

$defaultPackages
[1] "datasets"  "utils"     "grDevices" "graphics"  "stats"     "methods"  

$demo.ask
[1] "default"

$deparse.cutoff
[1] 60

$device
[1] "RStudioGD"

$device.ask.default
[1] FALSE

$digits
[1] 7

$download.file.method
[1] "wininet"

$echo
[1] TRUE

$editor
function (name, file, title) 
{
    if (is.null(name) || is.function(name)) {
        if (is.null(name)) {
            if (!is.null(file) && nzchar(file)) 
                targetFile <- file
            else targetFile <- scratchFile
        }
        else {
            functionSrc <- .rs.deparseFunction(name, TRUE, FALSE)
            targetFile <- scratchFile
            writeLines(functionSrc, targetFile)
        }
        if (.Call("rs_editFile", targetFile)) {
            newFunc <- try(eval.parent(parse(targetFile)), silent = TRUE)
            if (inherits(newFunc, "try-error")) {
                stop(newFunc, "You can attempt to correct the error using ", 
                  title, " = edit()")
            }
            return(newFunc)
        }
        else {
            stop("Error occurred while editing function '", name, 
                "'")
        }
    }
    else edit(name, file, title, editor = defaultEditor)
}
<environment: 0x000000000c0dca10>

$encoding
[1] "native.enc"

$error
(function () 
{
    .rs.breakOnError(TRUE)
})()

$example.ask
[1] "default"

$expressions
[1] 5000

$ggvis.renderer
[1] "svg"

$help.search.types
[1] "vignette" "demo"     "help"    

$help.try.all.packages
[1] FALSE

$help_type
[1] "html"

$HTTPUserAgent
[1] "R (3.2.5 x86_64-w64-mingw32 x86_64 mingw32)"

$httr_oauth_cache
[1] NA

$httr_oob_default
[1] FALSE

$install.packages.compile.from.source
[1] "interactive"

$internet.info
[1] 2

$java.parameters
[1] "-Xmx512m"

$keep.source
[1] TRUE

$keep.source.pkgs
[1] FALSE

$locatorBell
[1] TRUE

$mailer
[1] "mailto"

$max.print
[1] 10000

$menu.graphics
[1] FALSE

$na.action
[1] "na.omit"

$nwarnings
[1] 50

$OutDec
[1] "."

$pager
function (files, header, title, delete.file) 
{
    for (i in 1:length(files)) {
        if ((i > length(header)) || !nzchar(header[[i]])) 
            fileTitle <- title
        else fileTitle <- header[[i]]
        .Call(.rs.routines$rs_showFile, fileTitle, files[[i]], 
            delete.file)
    }
}
<environment: 0x000000000a5c2428>

$papersize
[1] "letter"

$pdfviewer
[1] "C:/PROGRA~1/R/R-32~1.5/bin/x64/open.exe"

$pkgType
[1] "both"

$prompt
[1] "> "

$RCurlOptions
$RCurlOptions$cainfo
[1] "D:/Documents/R/win-library/3.2/RCurl/etc/ca-bundle.crt"


$repos
                                CRAN                            CRANextra 
         "https://cran.rstudio.com/" "http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/pub/RWin" 
attr(,"RStudio")
[1] TRUE

$restart
function (afterRestartCommand = "") 
{
    afterRestartCommand <- paste(as.character(afterRestartCommand), 
        collapse = "\n")
    .Call(.rs.routines$rs_restartR, afterRestartCommand)
}
<environment: 0x000000000a5c2428>

$scipen
[1] 999

$shiny.launch.browser
function (url) 
{
   invisible(.Call("rs_shinyviewer", url, getwd(), 3))
}
<environment: 0x000000000a5c2428>
attr(,"shinyViewerType")
[1] 3

$shinygadgets.showdialog
function (caption, url, width = NULL, height = NULL) 
{
    if (!is.character(caption) || (length(caption) != 1)) 
        stop("caption must be a single element character vector.", 
            call. = FALSE)
    if (!is.character(url) || (length(url) != 1)) 
        stop("url must be a single element character vector.", 
            call. = FALSE)
    if (is.null(width)) 
        width <- 600
    if (is.null(height)) 
        height <- 600
    if (!is.numeric(width) || (length(width) != 1)) 
        stop("width must be a single element numeric vector.", 
            call. = FALSE)
    if (!is.numeric(height) || (length(height) != 1)) 
        stop("height must be a single element numeric vector.", 
            call. = FALSE)
    invisible(.Call("rs_showShinyGadgetDialog", caption, url, 
        width, height))
}
<environment: 0x0000000009b64920>

$show.coef.Pvalues
[1] TRUE

$show.error.messages
[1] TRUE

$show.signif.stars
[1] TRUE

$str
$str$strict.width
[1] "no"

$str$digits.d
[1] 3

$str$vec.len
[1] 4


$str.dendrogram.last
[1] "`"

$stringsAsFactors
[1] TRUE

$timeout
[1] 60

$ts.eps
[1] 0.00001

$ts.S.compat
[1] FALSE

$unzip
[1] "internal"

$useFancyQuotes
[1] TRUE

$verbose
[1] FALSE

$viewer
function (url, height = NULL) 
{
    if (!is.character(url) || (length(url) != 1)) 
        stop("url must be a single element character vector.", 
            call. = FALSE)
    if (identical(height, "maximize")) 
        height <- -1
    if (!is.null(height) && (!is.numeric(height) || (length(height) != 
        1))) 
        stop("height must be a single element numeric vector or 'maximize'.", 
            call. = FALSE)
        invisible(.Call("rs_viewer", url, height))
}
<environment: 0x0000000009b64920>

$warn
[1] 0

$warning.length
[1] 1000

$width
[1] 94

$windowsTimeouts
[1] 100 500

$xlsx.date.format
[1] "m/d/yyyy"

$xlsx.datetime.format
[1] "m/d/yyyy h:mm:ss"

It might also be related to shinyapps.io server settings, but i have no idea where to check that.

Anyone have any ideas?