Shiny Dashboard- How to add text for Sidebar items - r

Question

I was trying to add website information on my shiny dashboard and for the "About" section (See image) I want few lines to be displayed on the dashboard body when clicked on that tab. how could i possibly achieve it? I could successfully add href for the "contact" section.

Answer 1

Maybe I do not understand your question properly, but what about:
library(shiny)
library(shinydashboard)
header <- dashboardHeader()
sidebar <- dashboardSidebar(
sidebarMenu(
id = "tabs",
menuItem("About", icon = icon("info"), tabName = "about"),
menuItem("Contact", icon = icon("phone"), tabName = "contact")
)
)
)
body <- dashboardBody(
tabItems(
tabItem("about",
h1("About")),
tabItem("contact",
h1("Contact"))
)
)
shinyApp(
ui = dashboardPage(header, sidebar, body),
server = function(input, output) { }
)
When you click on About you get a new tab in the dashboardBody where you can display whatever you want.
Update
Based on your clarification you can use shinyjs to hide/show the relevant part:
library(shiny)
library(shinydashboard)
library(shinyjs)
header <- dashboardHeader()
sidebar <- dashboardSidebar(
sidebarMenu(
id = "tabs",
menuItem("About", icon = icon("info"), tabName = "about"),
menuItem("Contact", icon = icon("phone"), tabName = "contact")
)
)
)
body <- dashboardBody(
useShinyjs(),
fluidPage(
fluidRow(id = "mainContent",
column(12, h1("Main Content"))
),
hidden(fluidRow(id = "contact", h1("Contact Info")))
)
)
shinyApp(
ui = dashboardPage(header, sidebar, body),
server = function(input, output) {
observe({
if (input$tabs == "contact") {
hideElement("mainContent")
showElement("contact")
} else {
hideElement("contact")
showElement("mainContent")
}
})
}
)
When you now click on Contact the main part is hidden and the contact is shown. I have, however, the feeling that is a bit mis-using the idea of shinydashboard.

Answer 2

#thothal, it did not allow me to add as a comment coz of the length, hence posting my comment(below) as an answer.
I am sorry if I was unclear. However, your answer helped me partially. I have incorporated tabItems part in my dashboardBody section, as shown below:
dashboardBody(
fluidPage(
fluidRow(
column(12, div(dataTableOutput("dataTable")))
)
),
tabItems(
tabItem("About", h1("text to be displayed"))
)
)
but the "text to be displayed" shows up below the table.
What I want is, About section (when clicked) should display only the text and not the table. I understand this is just formatting of the code in dashboardBody section but I don't know how to do it.
Just to be more clear, my dashboard's section should display the datatable at all times and the about section when clicked should show up the text and not the datatable. I really hope this is clear. Thanks a ton for your help :)