This app is used internally by the DFO Coastal Ocean Glider Group (COGG) to summarize past and current SeaExplorer glider mission tracks. It does this by displaying the location information contained in the KML files generated by the Iris glider server software.
The app works by connecting to the data server, obtaining a list of all available KML files, and then downloading any that have not already been downloaded or any that have changed in size since the last download. The files are filtered using a file size of 10000 bytes to eliminate simulations and short tests. This has the downside of also filtering out new missions, at least until the KML file becomes large enough.
The KML file download and processing happens by running the download_data.sh script, which calls download_data.R. This is meant to be run using a CRON job on the Shiny server machine (say, every 5 minutes), but can also be run manually if the app is to be tested on a non-server machine.
In order for the app to function, it needs the be able to connect to the data server through an SSH connection. To do this without a password, the machine running the app much be configured for password-less login to the data server through a public RSA key.
The following link is a good introduction to setting up SSH keys, but it essentially amounts to adding your public RSA key to the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the remote system (the data server).