Important
A development version with new features and bug fixes is available. It adds exact expected variances for interactions of any order, built-in checks of the printed code, and fixes for printed code that could fail or simulate a different model. See what's new and fixed and how to install it. Found a bug? Please try the development version first, as it may already be fixed.
shinySim is a point-and-click interface to the squidSim package. It lets you build structured simulations — hierarchical data structures, predictors, and variance components across levels — without writing the simulation call by hand.
- Build a data structure interactively. Define nested and crossed levels, sample sizes, and repeat observations, or pass in a structure you already have.
- Set variance components per level. Specify predictors, betas, and (co)variances for each grouping factor.
- See the equations as you go. The app writes out the model being simulated, so what you are building stays legible.
- Inspect simulated variances. Check that the realised variance components match what you asked for before you commit to a design.
- Get the code back. The equivalent
squidSimcall is returned as code you can copy so simulations remain reproducible outside the app. - Runs locally. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
shinySim is not on CRAN, but you can install it from GitHub using the devtools package. There are two versions:
Stable version (the main branch):
install.packages("pak")
pak::pak("squidgroup/shinySim")Development version (the development branch), with the latest features and
bug fixes (what's new and
fixed):
pak::pak("squidgroup/shinySim@development")To check which version you have, run packageVersion("shinySim"): 0.0.0.9000 is
the stable version and 0.0.0.9001 the development version. To switch between
them, run the other install command.
Then load it with library(shinySim).
This will also install squidSim, which is not on CRAN.
The only function is shinySim(). It can be run without any arguments:
library(shinySim)
shinySim()Or you can provide a data structure created in squidSim (or elsewhere):
library(shinySim)
data_test <- squidSim::make_structure(
"sex(2)/individual(10)",
repeat_obs = 2,
level_names = list(sex = c("F", "M"))
)
shinySim(data.struc = data_test)| Argument | Purpose |
|---|---|
data.struc |
A data structure created with squidSim::make_structure() or an equivalent data frame. Optional — leave empty to build one in the app. |
Please file issues and feature requests at https://github.com/squidgroup/shinySim/issues. Pull requests are welcome.
Before reporting a bug, please install the development version (see
Installation) and check whether the problem is still there.
Many bugs are already fixed on the development branch; they are listed in
NEWS.md. When
you file an issue, please include the output of packageVersion("shinySim") and
sessionInfo().
Issues with the underlying simulation engine belong upstream at squidgroup/squidSim.
- squidSim — the simulation engine this app drives
- SQuID — the Statistical Quantification of Individual Differences group
Please cite the package:
Ivimey-Cook, E. R., & Pick, J. L. (2026). shinySim: Shiny interface to the squidSim simulation package. R package version 0.0.0.9000. https://github.com/squidgroup/shinySim
A machine-readable CITATION.cff is included, so GitHub's
"Cite this repository" button gives formatted APA and BibTeX.
Edward R. Ivimey-Cook — e.ivimeycook@gmail.com — ORCID 0000-0003-4910-0443
Released under the MIT License.