Storing a reactive output in a vector - Shiny R - r

Question

I am working on building a shiny App. I have used some filters and rendered a data frame and the data frame changes dynamically as per the user input. But I cannot store a particular column value from a data frame into a vector. I need to store the reactive output every time into a vector so that I can use the values later again. Here the values are stored in text_vec and i need to pass that into the API but I cannot access the values from text_vec and i have to pass the updated values every time into the API
library(dplyr)
library(shiny)
shinyApp(ui = fluidPage(
sidebarLayout(
sidebarPanel(
selectInput(inputId = "cyl",
label = "Number cylinders:",
choices = c("all",sort(unique(mtcars$cyl))),
selected = "all"),
actionButton("capture",
"capture value")
), # closes sidebarPanel
mainPanel(
tableOutput("text"),
tableOutput("text2"),
tableOutput("text3"),
tableOutput("table")
) # closes mainPanel
) # closes sidebarLayout
), # closes fluidPage
server = function(input, output) {
# some example reactive data
cars_react <- reactive({
mtcars %>%
filter(cyl == input$cyl | input$cyl == "all")
})
# simply global assignment of a reactive vector
observeEvent(cars_react(), {
# here is a globally assigned vector taken from the reactive data
# reused in a render statement it will not react to change, since it is not reactive
test_vec3 <<- unique(cars_react()$hp)
})
# here a file is written to the working directory of your shiny app
# everytime cars_react() changes write (and overwrite) vector to a file
observeEvent(cars_react(), {
test_vec = unique(cars_react()$hp)
saveRDS(test_vec, file = "test_vec.Rdata")
})
# same as above but the file is gradually growing and not overwritten
# everytime cars_react() changes add vector to a (over several sessions growing) list
observeEvent(cars_react(), {
test_vec2 = unique(cars_react()$hp)
if (file.exists("test_list.Rdata")) {
temp = readRDS("test_list.Rdata")
test_list = c(temp, list(test_vec2))
} else {
test_list = list(test_vec2)
}
saveRDS(test_list, file = "test_list.Rdata")
})
# here we access the reactive data with isolate and make it non-reactive, but can update the values through a button click
text_vec <<- eventReactive(input$capture, {
isolate(unique(cars_react()$hp))
})
# output of our reactive data as table
output$table <- renderTable({
cars_react()
})
# text output of globally assigned non-reactive vector test_vec3 (not changing!)
output$text <- renderText({
test_vec3
})
# you can capture values of reactives with isolate, but then, they don't change anymore
# text output of isolated formely reactive vector unique(cars_react()$hp (not changing!)
output$text2 <- renderText({
isolate(unique(cars_react()$hp))
})
# text output of new reactive vector (changes when input$capture button is clicked)
output$text3 <- renderText({
text_vec()
})
for (i in text_vec)
{
url = "https://oscar.com/prweb/PRRestService/"
parameters<-'{
{
"Reference":"Account"
,"ReferenceValue":""
}'
b<-fromJSON(parameters)
b["ReferenceValue"]=i
r <- POST(url, body = parameters,encode = "json")
r_c<-toJSON(content(r))
print(r_c)
}
}
)

Answer 1

A simple way to get a data frame to persist across all environments used within your Shiny app, is to use the '<<-' assignment instead of the '<-" assignment. This is not a great programming technique, but it may be what you're hoping to find.
# To get a data frame to persist, use
a <<- b
# instead of
a <- b

Answer 2

** Updated answer **
Based on your updated answer, I would wrap you API call into an observeEvent which gets triggered once the action button is pressed. Since you do not provide a working example with some real code, I am not sure whether the example below is of help. I further assume that your for loop is correct and working (on my end, I cannot know without a real API and some real values).
library(dplyr)
library(shiny)
library(httr)
library(jsonlite)
shinyApp(ui = fluidPage(
selectInput(inputId = "cyl",
label = "Number cylinders:",
choices = c("all",sort(unique(mtcars$cyl))),
selected = "all"),
actionButton("capture",
"capture value")
), # closes fluidPage
server = function(input, output) {
# some example reactive data
cars_react <- reactive({
mtcars %>%
filter(cyl == input$cyl | input$cyl == "all")
})
# here we access the reactive data with isolate and make it non-reactive, but can update the values through a button click
observeEvent(input$capture, {
for (i in unique(cars_react()$hp))
{
url = "https://oscar.com/prweb/PRRestService/"
parameters<-'{
"Reference":"Account"
,"ReferenceValue":""
}'
b<-fromJSON(parameters)
b["ReferenceValue"]=i
r <- POST(url, body = parameters,encode = "json")
r_c<-toJSON(content(r))
print(r_c)
}
})
}
)
Old answer
It is not clear from your question how, where and how often you want to use the vector of your reactive data frame. But it is an important question, since the concept of reactivity and how to access it is very hard to grasp when you come from a pure non reactive R environment.
Below is a simple example app which shows how to access vectors in reactive data frames, and how they could be used.
I hope it helps to get a better understanding of reactivity in shiny.
library(dplyr)
library(shiny)
shinyApp(ui = fluidPage(
sidebarLayout(
sidebarPanel(
selectInput(inputId = "cyl",
label = "Number cylinders:",
choices = c("all",sort(unique(mtcars$cyl))),
selected = "all"),
actionButton("capture",
"capture value")
), # closes sidebarPanel
mainPanel(
tableOutput("text"),
tableOutput("text2"),
tableOutput("text3"),
tableOutput("table")
) # closes mainPanel
) # closes sidebarLayout
), # closes fluidPage
server = function(input, output) {
# some example reactive data
cars_react <- reactive({
mtcars %>%
filter(cyl == input$cyl | input$cyl == "all")
})
# simply global assignment of a reactive vector
observeEvent(cars_react(), {
# here is a globally assigned vector taken from the reactive data
# reused in a render statement it will not react to change, since it is not reactive
test_vec3 <<- unique(cars_react()$hp)
})
# here a file is written to the working directory of your shiny app
# everytime cars_react() changes write (and overwrite) vector to a file
observeEvent(cars_react(), {
test_vec = unique(cars_react()$hp)
saveRDS(test_vec, file = "test_vec.Rdata")
})
# same as above but the file is gradually growing and not overwritten
# everytime cars_react() changes add vector to a (over several sessions growing) list
observeEvent(cars_react(), {
test_vec2 = unique(cars_react()$hp)
if (file.exists("test_list.Rdata")) {
temp = readRDS("test_list.Rdata")
test_list = c(temp, list(test_vec2))
} else {
test_list = list(test_vec2)
}
saveRDS(test_list, file = "test_list.Rdata")
})
# here we access the reactive data with isolate and make it non-reactive, but can update the values through a button click
text_vec <- eventReactive(input$capture, {
isolate(unique(cars_react()$hp))
})
# output of our reactive data as table
output$table <- renderTable({
cars_react()
})
# text output of globally assigned non-reactive vector test_vec3 (not changing!)
output$text <- renderText({
test_vec3
})
# you can capture values of reactives with isolate, but then, they don't change anymore
# text output of isolated formely reactive vector unique(cars_react()$hp (not changing!)
output$text2 <- renderText({
isolate(unique(cars_react()$hp))
})
# text output of new reactive vector (changes when input$capture button is clicked)
output$text3 <- renderText({
text_vec()
})
}
)