Select plotly charts via drop-down list - r

Question

I wrote a loop that made 10 graphs in R:
library(plotly)
for (i in 1:10)
{
d_i = data.frame(x = rnorm(100,100,100), y = rnorm(100,100,100))
title_i = paste0("title_",i)
p_i = plot_ly(data = d_i, x = ~x, y = ~y) %>% layout(title = title_i)
htmlwidgets::saveWidget(as_widget(p_i), paste0("plot_",i, ".html"))
}
I have this code (Input menu contents do not overflow row box in flexdashboard) that makes a dashboard in R:
---
title: "Test Dashboard"
output:
flexdashboard::flex_dashboard:
orientation: rows
vertical_layout: fill
runtime: shiny
---
```{r setup, include=FALSE}
library(flexdashboard)
library(shiny)
```
Column {data-width=100}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
### Window 1
```{r}
selectInput("project", label = NULL, choices = c("A","B","C","D"))
```
Column {data-width=400}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
### Chart B
```{r}
renderPlot({
plot(rnorm(1000), type = "l", main = paste("Project:",input$project, " Data:", input$data))
})
```
I would like to adapt this code so that the drop down menu allows the user to load the previously created graph/html file (e.g. from "My Documents") that is being searched for. For example, if the user searches for "plot_7", then plot_7 is displayed.
I tried the following code:
---
title: "Test Dashboard"
output:
flexdashboard::flex_dashboard:
orientation: rows
vertical_layout: fill
runtime: shiny
---
```{r setup, include=FALSE}
library(flexdashboard)
library(shiny)
```
Column {data-width=100}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
### Window 1
```{r}
plots = rep("plot", 10)
i = seq(1:100)
choice = paste0(plots, "_",i)
selectInput("project", label = NULL, choices = choice)
```
Column {data-width=400}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
### Chart B
```{r}
renderPlot({
<object class="one" type="text/html" data="plot_i.html"></object>
})
```
But this returns the following error:
Error: <text<:2:1 unexpected '<'
1: renderPlot({
2:<
^
Can someone please show me how I can fix this? And is it possible to do this WITHOUT shiny? (i.e. only in flexdashboard)
Thank you!

Answer 1

This answers your next question:
Just a question: In the first answer you provided, you were able to "type in" which plot you wanted to see. In the second answer, you can only "scroll". Is there a way to add the "type in" which plot you want to see for the second answer?
Short answer: yes
... and how to do that?
I actually tried to use selectize.js in an ironic full circle of sorts, but it didn't work out...violence was considered...but it's an inanimate object...so...ya, I lost by default
This uses the JS library/package (whatever they call it for that language) select2.
flexdashboard is SUPER FUN! It really didn't want me to add this library with JS (that would have been too easy, ya know? So this puppy had to get added to the YAML.
The YAML to make this work.
---
title: "Test Dashboard"
output:
flexdashboard::flex_dashboard:
orientation: rows
vertical_layout: fill
extra_dependencies: !expr list(htmltools::htmlDependency('select2.min.js', '1.0', src = list(href = 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/select2#4.1.0-rc.0/dist'), script='js/select2.min.js', all_files = FALSE, style = 'css/select2.min.css'))
---
By default, it will look like this.
I figured your very next question would be about appearance... so I jumped the gun.
As far as I understand it, (I'm new to select2), when widening the search box, you have to move the dropdown arrow, which accounts for the first 3 of the entries in this CSS.
The next two are for highlighting when you mouse over in the dropdown. By default, the previous selection is highlighted grey, and the currently hovered-over is highlighted light blue. I added these so that you could change the colors if you wanted to.
The final call in CSS is setting the font family. I chose the default family in Plotly (so they matched).
```{css}
.select2-container--default .select2-selection--single{
min-height: 40px;
padding: 6px 6px;
width: 175px;
position: relative;
}
.select2-container--default .select2-selection--single .select2-selection__arrow {
right: 0px;
width: 20px;
min-height: 34px; /* parent min-height, minus top padding 40 - 6 */
position: absolute;
}
.select2-dropdown { /* the chunk requires 'important' */
width: 175px !important; /* so they're the same width */
top: 50%;
padding: 6px; 12px;
}
.select2-container--default .select2-results__option--highlighted[aria-selected] {
background-color: #F5F0E3;
color: black; /* in dropdown, item hovered on bg and text */
} /* default is background-color: #5897fb; default blue */
.select2-container--default .select2-results__option--selected {
background-color: #fbfaf5;
color: black; /* in dropdown, PREVIOUS selection bg and text */
} /* default background-color: #ddd; yucky grey */
option {
font-family: verdana; /* to match plotly */
}
```
Creating the plot list, the dropdown, and rendering the plots in R code didn't change.
The JS didn't change that much.
/* doesn't catch that the first plot is default; set manually */
setTimeout(function(){
$('select').select2(); /* connect to the select2 library */
plt = document.querySelectorAll('div.plotly.html-widget');
for(i = 0; i < plt.length; i++) {
if(i === 0) {
plt[i].style.display = 'block';
} else {
plt[i].style.display = 'none';
}
}
}, 200) /* run once; allow for loading*/
/* goes with the dropdown; this shows/hides plots based on dropdown */
function getPlot(opt) {
plt = document.querySelectorAll('div.plotly.html-widget');
for(i = 0; i < plt.length; i++) { /* switched to plt from opt here */
opti = opt.options[i];
if(opti.selected) {
plt[i].style.display = 'block';
} else {
plt[i].style.display = 'none'
}
}
}
That all gives you this.
All the code altogether.
---
title: "Test Dashboard"
output:
flexdashboard::flex_dashboard:
orientation: rows
vertical_layout: fill
extra_dependencies: !expr list(htmltools::htmlDependency('select2.min.js', '1.0', src = list(href = 'https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/select2#4.1.0-rc.0/dist'), script='js/select2.min.js', all_files = FALSE, style = 'css/select2.min.css'))
---
```{r setup, include=FALSE}
library(flexdashboard)
library(plotly)
library(tidyverse)
library(htmltools)
library(shinyRPG) # devtools::install_github("RinteRface/shinyRPG")
plts <- vector(mode = "list") # store plot list
for (i in 1:10) {
d_i = data.frame(x = rnorm(100,100,100), y = rnorm(100,100,100))
title_i = paste0("title_",i)
plts[[i]] <- plot_ly( # make a list of objects; no .html
data = d_i, x = ~x, y = ~y, height = 400,
mode = "markers", type = "scatter") %>%
layout(title = title_i)
}
```
```{css}
.select2-container--default .select2-selection--single{ /* outer container of dropdown */
min-height: 40px;
padding: 6px 6px;
width: 175px;
position: relative;
}
.select2-container--default .select2-selection--single .select2-selection__arrow {
right: 0px;
width: 20px;
min-height: 34px; /* parent min-height, minus top padding 40 - 6 */
position: absolute;
}
.select2-dropdown { /* the chunk requires 'important' */
width: 175px !important; /* so they're the same width */
top: 50%;
padding: 6px; 12px;
}
.select2-container--default .select2-results__option--highlighted[aria-selected] {
background-color: #F5F0E3;
color: black; /* in dropdown, item hovered on bg and text */
} /* default is background-color: #5897fb; default blue */
.select2-container--default .select2-results__option--selected {
background-color: #fbfaf5;
color: black; /* in dropdown, PREVIOUS selection bg and text */
} /* default background-color: #ddd; yucky grey */
option {
font-family: verdana; /* to match plotly */
}
```
Column {data-width=100}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
### Window 1 {data-height=500}
```{r makeGoodChoices}
opts <- choice <- paste0("plot_", 1:100) # this line replaces last 3 lines
namedChoices = setNames(opts, choice)
newInput <- rpgSelect( # <----- I'm new; the dropdown
"selectBox",
NULL,
namedChoices,
multiple = F)
newInput$children[[2]]$attribs$onchange <- "getPlot(this)"
newInput # add dropdown to webpage
```
<!--- make space between dropdown and plot --->
<div id="plots" style="margin-top:3rem; margin-bottom:3rem;">
```{r dynoPlots,results='asis'}
tagList(plts) # print every plot (so they're all in the HTML)
```
</div>
```{r giveItUp,results='asis',engine='js'}
/* doesn't catch that the first plot is default, set manually */
setTimeout(function(){
$('select').select2(); /* connect to the select2 library */
plt = document.querySelectorAll('div.plotly.html-widget');
for(i = 0; i < plt.length; i++) {
if(i === 0) {
plt[i].style.display = 'block';
} else {
plt[i].style.display = 'none';
}
}
}, 200) /* run once; allow for loading*/
/* goes with the dropdown; this shows/hides plots based on dropdown */
function getPlot(opt) {
plt = document.querySelectorAll('div.plotly.html-widget');
for(i = 0; i < plt.length; i++) { /* switched to plt from opt here */
opti = opt.options[i];
if(opti.selected) {
plt[i].style.display = 'block';
} else {
plt[i].style.display = 'none'
}
}
}
```

Answer 2

This isn't exactly what you're looking for. This doesn't import the file. I'm still going to try to figure that part out.
I'm still trying to make the external file call work. Right now, it just wasn't to give me the literal HTML. I've tried a few approaches. I'm sure it's being a pain because this is probably not a good way to do this. For example, each plot will bring in the full HTML, which means that if there were 100 plots, you've got the entire plotly.js 100 times. (Whoa!)
If you're set on using external files and planning on rendering them in RMD, especially when using Shiny, you may want to consider an approach that keeps them R objects, like Rda or RData. That will use a LOT less memory.
In this version, I've only created the plots as objects (not saved, external files).
This is modified from your question. It creates an object for each for iteration.
---
title: "Test Dashboard"
output:
flexdashboard::flex_dashboard:
orientation: rows
vertical_layout: fill
runtime: shiny
---
```{r setup, include=FALSE}
library(flexdashboard)
library(shiny)
library(plotly)
library(tidyverse)
library(htmltools)
for (i in 1:10) {
d_i = data.frame(x = rnorm(100,100,100), y = rnorm(100,100,100))
title_i = paste0("title_",i)
# p_i = plot_ly(data = d_i, x = ~x, y = ~y) %>% layout(title = title_i)
assign(paste0("plot_", i, ".html"), # name them plot_1.html, plot_2.html and so on
plot_ly(data = d_i, x = ~x, y = ~y, height = 400) %>%
layout(title = title_i))
# not using right now!
# htmlwidgets::saveWidget(as_widget(p_i), paste0("plot_",i, ".html"))
}
# htmlwidgets::saveWidget(as_widget(plot_1.html), "plot_1.html") # created for testing
```
I've modified your called to selectInput, as well. I made this a named vector, so that you would have plot_1.html called when the user picked plot_1.
I've kept your code in there, so you can see what's changed.
```{r makeGoodChoices}
# plots = rep("plot", 10)
# i = seq(1:100)
# choice = paste0(plots, "_",i)
choice = paste0("plot_", 1:100) # this line replaces last 3 lines
opts <- paste0(choice, ".html")
namedChoices = setNames(opts, choice)
# selectInput("project", label = NULL, choices = choice) # originally
selectInput("project", label = NULL, choices = namedChoices)
```
Since this is an R object (not an external file), this is how you would call the plots from the dropdown.
```{r dynoPlots}
renderPlotly(get(input$project)) # show me!
```
The RMarkdown altogether
---
title: "Test Dashboard"
output:
flexdashboard::flex_dashboard:
orientation: rows
vertical_layout: fill
runtime: shiny
---
```{r setup, include=FALSE}
library(flexdashboard)
library(shiny)
library(plotly)
library(tidyverse)
library(htmltools)
for (i in 1:10) {
d_i = data.frame(x = rnorm(100,100,100), y = rnorm(100,100,100))
title_i = paste0("title_",i)
# p_i = plot_ly(data = d_i, x = ~x, y = ~y) %>% layout(title = title_i)
assign(paste0("plot_", i, ".html"), # name them plot_1.html, plot_2.html and so on
plot_ly(data = d_i, x = ~x, y = ~y, height = 400) %>%
layout(title = title_i))
# not using right now!
# htmlwidgets::saveWidget(as_widget(p_i), paste0("plot_",i, ".html"))
}
# htmlwidgets::saveWidget(as_widget(plot_1.html), "plot_1.html") # created for testing
```
Column {data-width=100}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
### Window 1 {data-height=500}
```{r makeGoodChoices}
# plots = rep("plot", 10)
# i = seq(1:100)
# choice = paste0(plots, "_",i)
choice = paste0("plot_", 1:100) # this line replaces last 3 lines
opts <- paste0(choice, ".html")
namedChoices = setNames(opts, choice)
# selectInput("project", label = NULL, choices = choice) # originally
selectInput("project", label = NULL, choices = namedChoices)
```
```{r dynoPlots}
renderPlotly(get(input$project)) # show me!
```

Answer 3

I decided to make this an entirely different answer because it really is a different question.
This is based on the assumption that you won't import external files. This does not use Shiny runtime, but does the same thing as above.
BTW, I didn't check if selectInput would work, I went with shinyRPG because I knew it would work.
Here's a summary of changes from the answer to your original question:
dropped shiny: runtime from YAML
dropped library(shiny)
added library(shinyRPG)
dropped plot names (they're in a list now)
added list to store plots; sent plots to list when created
dropped .html from dropdown option names (they can be anything you want now)
rpgSelect replaced selectInput
added JS to connect plots to the dropdown
Here's what the bare bones looks like (almost exactly the same)
All of the code to make this happen with notes in the code for explanation. If anything is unclear, let me know.
---
title: "Test Dashboard"
output:
flexdashboard::flex_dashboard:
orientation: rows
vertical_layout: fill
---
```{r setup, include=FALSE}
library(flexdashboard)
library(plotly)
library(tidyverse)
library(htmltools)
library(shinyRPG) # devtools::install_github("RinteRface/shinyRPG")
plts <- vector(mode = "list") # stores plots
for (i in 1:10) {
d_i = data.frame(x = rnorm(100,100,100), y = rnorm(100,100,100))
title_i = paste0("title_",i)
plts[[i]] <- plot_ly( # make a list of objects
data = d_i, x = ~x, y = ~y, height = 400,
mode = "markers", type = "scatter") %>%
layout(title = title_i)
}
```
Column {data-width=100}
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
### Window 1 {data-height=500}
```{r makeGoodChoices}
opts <- choice <- paste0("plot_", 1:100) # this line replaces last 3 lines
namedChoices = setNames(opts, choice)
newInput <- rpgSelect( # <----- I'm new; the drop down (used same args)
"selectBox",
NULL,
namedChoices,
multiple = F)
newInput$children[[2]]$attribs$onchange <- "getPlot(this)"
newInput # add dropdown to webpage
```
<!--- make space between dropdown and plot --->
<div id="plots" style="margin-top:3rem; margin-bottom:3rem;">
```{r dynoPlots,results='asis'}
tagList(plts) # print every plot (so they're all in the HTML)
```
</div>
```{r giveItUp,results='asis',engine='js'}
/* doesn't catch that the first plot is default, set manually */
setTimeout(function(){
plt = document.querySelectorAll('div.plotly.html-widget');
for(i = 0; i < plt.length; i++) {
if(i === 0) {
plt[i].style.display = 'block';
} else {
plt[i].style.display = 'none';
}
}
}, 200) /* run once; allow for loading*/
/* goes with the drop down; this shows/hides plots based on drop down */
function getPlot(opt) {
plt = document.querySelectorAll('div.plotly.html-widget');
for(i = 0; i < opt.length; i++) {
opti = opt.options[i];
if(opti.selected) {
plt[i].style.display = 'block';
} else {
plt[i].style.display = 'none'
}
}
}
```