secret_santa

This repo is too build a simple R shiny app that automatically does secret santa drawings and sends out emails to the participants.

It will also collect some of the tips and tricks I used to build this implementation.

Basic Architecture

This app will have a web form for users to input:

• Email and Name of each person in the drawing
• (Optional) Any restricted pairings
• (Optional) Admin email- the email of a person to receive a table of all of the assignments.

SMTP infrastructure

Because I want to deploy this app to shinyapps.io, I cannot use the $sendmailR$ package (see post). Thus I need to use a separate SMTP server to actually send the email. While it is possible to configure my own macbook to do this, I want this app to live on its own. There are several options out there for free SMTP servers, each with their own pros and cons (link) but I decided with using the free level of the Gmail service (mostly because I want as much flexibility as my cheap self will allow).