How run a shiny app inside of a function? - r

Question

I would like to run a function that has a shiny app inside, but I can't.
Running this example separately, I first remove column one from my input data frame; then I run shiny to change whatever is necessary in the data frame and, when I close the window, a new object is saved with the changes; and finally I create a new column in the data frame.
This is an example script, but I would like that, when executing the function, the shiny window opens and some things are changed in the data frame for the user interactively. Could someone help?
library(shiny)
library(rhandsontable)
my_function <- function(x){
select <- x[,-1]
ui <- fluidPage(
fluidRow(
column(
width = 12,
rHandsontableOutput("myTable")
)))
server <- function(input, output, session) {
# dummy dataframe
df = select
# convert it to a "rhansontable" object
output$myTable <- renderRHandsontable({rhandsontable(df)
})
observeEvent(input$myTable, {
test_df = hot_to_r(input$myTable)
assign('my_data_frame',test_df,envir=.GlobalEnv)
# browser() # uncomment for debugging
})
}
shinyApp(ui, server)
my_data_frame2 <- my_data_frame %>%
mutate(new_column_test = "hello")
return(my_data_frame2)
}
my_function(mtcars)

Answer 1

Hi you almost made it you don't want to return anything but add the data simply using assign
library(shiny)
library(rhandsontable)
myapp_function <- function(data) {
ui <- basicPage(
actionButton("quit", label = "Close"),
actionButton("create", label = "Create copy"),
textInput("name","Set dataframe name", value = "my_data_frame"),
rHandsontableOutput("myTable")
)
server <- function(input, output, session) {
output$myTable <- renderRHandsontable({
rhandsontable(data)
})
observeEvent(input$create, {
assign( input$name, hot_to_r(input$myTable), envir=.GlobalEnv)
})
observeEvent(input$quit,{
stopApp()
})
}
## launch app
shinyApp(ui, server,options=c(shiny.launch.browser = .rs.invokeShinyPaneViewer))
}
## test
myapp_function(iris)
myapp_function(mtcars)
myapp_function(PlantGrowth)
I would suggest to create the ui and server outside of the myapp_function - otherwise it will become a very large function...also creating a function inside another function is not the best practise.