Publish a Quarto Document with Python to Connect Cloud

Skip the tutorial and publish the example now

This guide builds a Quarto document using Python and deploys it to Posit Connect Cloud. Code for the project is available on GitHub.

1. Create a new GitHub repository

Sign in to GitHub and create a new, public repository.

2. Start a new project

Start a new project in your preferred development environment. In VS Code, for example, select New Window from the File Menu and then click Start >> Clone Git Repository. Paste the link to your new repository.

3. Create a virtual environment

In the terminal, create a virtual environment named venv and activate it. This will isolate the specific packages we need for the application.

python -m venv venv 
source venv/bin/activate

4. Install required packages

plotly
jupyter
pandas

This example makes use of the above Python packages and they need to be installed in your virtual environment.

Create a requirements.txt file, adding each package on a new line. This file helps install everything the application needs to run locally and will ultimately tell Connect Cloud what it needs to deploy the application.

Once you have saved requirements.txt, run the following command in the terminal to install all the packages into your virtual environment.

pip install -r requirements.txt

5. Build the document

Create a new file named dashboard.qmd. Copy and paste this code into the file.

6. Preview the document

From the terminal, run:

quarto preview dashboard.qmd

This should open a preview of the document.

Now that everything looks good and we’ve created a file to help reproduce your local environment, it is time to get the code on GitHub.

7. Push to GitHub

Before syncing your project with the new repository, create a .gitignore file so that you don’t add the virtual environment to the repo.

touch .gitignore

Add the virtual environment folder to the .gitignore file.

venv/

You are now ready to sync the project with your new repo. Run the following lines in the terminal, replacing https://github.com/account-name/repo-name.git with your repository’s link.

git init .
git commit -m "first commit"
git branch -M main
git remote add origin https://github.com/account-name/repo-name.git
git push -u origin main

Finally, refresh your GitHub repository page. You should see everything that was in your local directory with the exception of the virtual environment folder, which was excluded in the .gitignore file.

8. Deploy to Posit Connect Cloud

Follow the steps below to deploy your project to Connect Cloud.

  1. Sign in to Connect Cloud.

  2. Click the Publish icon button on the top of your Profile page

  3. Select Quarto

  4. Select the public repository that you created in this tutorial

  5. Confirm the branch

  6. Select dashboard.qmd as the primary file

  7. Click Next

  8. Click Publish

Publishing will display status updates during the deployment process. You will also find build logs streaming on the lower part of the screen.

Congratulations! You successfully deployed to Connect Cloud and are now able to share the link with others.

9. Republish the application

If you update the code to your application or the underlying data source, commit and push the changes to your GitHub repository.

Once the repository has the updated code, you can republish the application on Connect Cloud by going to your Content List and clicking the republish icon.