ggplot not working in eventReactive() correctly in shiny - r

Question

I wasted hours to find out why my plot is automatically updating itself when I change inputs while it was supposed to wait for the Run button but it simply ignored that step and I ended up finally finding ggplot as the trouble maker!!! This is my minimal code:
library(ggplot2)
library(tidyverse)
varnames <- names(cars)
ui <- fluidPage(
sidebarLayout(
sidebarPanel(
fluidRow(
column(
width = 12,
# Variables Inputs:
varSelectInput("variables", "Select Input Variables", cars, multiple = TRUE),
selectizeInput("outvar", "Select Output Variable", choices = varnames, "speed", multiple = F),
# Run Button
actionButton(inputId = "run", label = "Run")
)
)
),
# Main panel for displaying outputs ----
mainPanel(
plotOutput("plot")
)
)
)
server <- function(input, output, session) {
df <- reactive({
cars %>% dplyr::select(!!!input$variables, input$outvar)
})
plt <- eventReactive(input$run, {
#Just creating lm formula
current_formula <- paste0(input$outvar, " ~ ", paste0(input$variables, collapse = " + "))
current_formula <- as.formula(current_formula)
#Fitting lm
fit <- lm(current_formula, data = df())
pred <- predict(fit, newdata = df())
#Plotting
ggplot(df(), aes(df()[, input$outvar], pred)) +
labs(x = "Observed", y = "Predicted") +
geom_point() +
theme_bw()
#plot(df()[, input$outvar], pred) #This one works fine!!!!
})
output$plot <- renderPlot({
plt()
})
}
# Run the application
shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)
If you run this, you'll notice that ggplot doesn't care anymore about the Run button after the 1st run and it keeps updating as you change the inputs!! However, if you use the simple base plot function (which I put in a comment in the code) there wouldn't be any problems and that works just fine! Sadly I need ggplot in my app because base plot is ugly. I am seeing suggestions for using isolate() to solve this issue but I have no clue where isolate() should be put to fix my problem also it doesn't make sense to use isolate() when base plot function works fine without it and it's the ggplot that makes the problem. Any explanation would be appreciated.

Answer 1

It seems to work fine if you follow the ggplot's preferred method of passing column names i.e using .data.
library(ggplot2)
library(shiny)
server <- function(input, output, session) {
df <- reactive({
cars %>% dplyr::select(!!!input$variables, input$outvar)
})
plt <- eventReactive(input$run, {
#Just creating lm formula
current_formula <- paste0(input$outvar, " ~ ", paste0(input$variables, collapse = " + "))
current_formula <- as.formula(current_formula)
#Fitting lm
fit <- lm(current_formula, data = df())
pred <- predict(fit, newdata = df())
#Plotting
ggplot(df(), aes(.data[[input$outvar]], pred)) +
labs(x = "Observed", y = "Predicted") +
geom_point() +
theme_bw()
})
output$plot <- renderPlot({
plt()
})
}
# Run the application
shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

Answer 2

I think the issue is that ggplot is processing things lazily. If you make one change to your code to pre-pull df() and input$outvar, the over-reactivity is fixed:
plt <- eventReactive(input$run, {
#Just creating lm formula
current_formula <- paste0(input$outvar, " ~ ", paste0(input$variables, collapse = " + "))
current_formula <- as.formula(current_formula)
#Fitting lm
fit <- lm(current_formula, data = df())
pred <- predict(fit, newdata = df())
#Plotting
dat <- df()
outv <- input$outvar
ggplot(dat, aes(dat[, outv], pred)) +
labs(x = "Observed", y = "Predicted") +
geom_point() +
theme_bw()
#plot(df()[, input$outvar], pred) #This one works fine!!!!
})
The issue is that ggplot is somehow internally preserving some of the reactivity.
(I placed the assignment to dat and outv immediately before ggplot, just for demonstration. It might be more sensible to assign them first-thing in the eventReactive block and use dat for everything, just for consistency in code (none of the other code is operating on lazy principles).