Restricting applications to certain users or groups in Shiny Server Pro

With Shiny Server Pro, you can restrict access to applications by organizing them into locations, then using the required_user or required_group directive to specify who should be able to see the apps in each location.  For example:

/etc/shiny-server/shiny-server.conf

run_as shiny;
auth_passwd_file /etc/shiny-server/passwd;
log_dir /var/log/shiny-server;

# Define a server that listens on port 3838
server {
  listen 3838;

  # Define a location at the URL "/example1"
  location /example1 {
    site_dir /srv/shiny-server/example1;
    required_user bob jane maria;
  }

  # Define a location at the URL "/example2"
  location /example2 {
    site_dir /srv/shiny-server/example2;
  }

  # Define a location at the URL "/example3"
  location /example3 {
    site_dir /srv/shiny-server/example3;
    required_user andy beatrice;
  }

}

# Provide the admin interface on port 4151.
admin 4151 {
  required_user admin;
}

This configuration uses flat-file authentication and three locations.  

1. Location /example1 is restricted to the users bob, jane, and maria.  All applications deployed as subdirectories under /srv/shiny-server/example1 will only be accessible to those three users.
2. Location /example2 is not restricted.  All applications deployed as subdirectories under /srv/shiny-server/example2 are open to all users; these applications will not require a login.
3. Location /example3 is restricted to andy and beatrice.  All applications deployed as subdirectories under /srv/shiny-server/example3 will only be accessible to those two users.

This pattern holds true for any type of authentication, not just flat-file auth.  If you are using PAM, LDAP, or AD authentication, you could choose to use the required_group directive to restrict a location to members of a particular group, instead of listing out each user in the required_user directive.  For instance, this configuration would restrict the example4 location to the users in a group called shiny_group:

  # Define a location at the URL "/example4"
  location /example4 {
    site_dir /srv/shiny-server/example4;
    required_group shiny_group;
  }