Permanently expanded accordion in shinydashboard - r

Question

Is there any way to set shinydashboard menu to permanently expanded like on image below:
I know accordion menus behave like this (I mean only one can be expanded at the same time) due to documentation but maybe there is some trick to do this or some alternative to implement in my shiny app?
Here is code:
library(shiny)
library(shinydashboard)
header <- dashboardHeader()
sidebar <- dashboardSidebar(
sidebarMenu(
# Setting id makes input$tabs give the tabName of currently-selected tab
id = "tabs",
menuItem("Dashboard", tabName = "dashboard", icon = icon("dashboard")),
menuItem("Widgets", icon = icon("th"), tabName = "widgets",
menuSubItem("Sub-item 1", tabName = "subitem1"),
menuSubItem("Sub-item 2", tabName = "subitem2"),
startExpanded = TRUE),
menuItem("Charts", icon = icon("bar-chart-o"),
menuSubItem("Sub-item 3", tabName = "subitem3"),
menuSubItem("Sub-item 4", tabName = "subitem4"),
startExpanded = TRUE
)
)
)
body <- dashboardBody(
tabItems(
tabItem("dashboard",
div(p("Dashboard tab content"))
),
tabItem("widgets",
"Widgets tab content"
),
tabItem("subitem1",
"Sub-item 1 tab content"
),
tabItem("subitem2",
"Sub-item 2 tab content"
)
)
)
shinyApp(
ui = dashboardPage(header, sidebar, body),
server = function(input, output) { }
)

Answer 1

Ok, this is very hacky and there may be a better way to do this, but you can use CSS styling to move the links "below" the other content so they cant be clicked using z-index. Unfortunately it looks like you have to code each menu item by hand, referencing its href. Please see this example:
library(shiny)
library(shinydashboard)
header <- dashboardHeader()
sidebar <- dashboardSidebar(
sidebarMenu(
tags$head(tags$style(HTML('
a[href="#shiny-tab-widgets"] {
z-index: -99999;
}
a[href="#"] {
z-index: -99999;
}
'))),
# Setting id makes input$tabs give the tabName of currently-selected tab
id = "tabs",
menuItem("Dashboard", tabName = "dashboard", icon = icon("dashboard")),
menuItem("Widgets", icon = icon("th"), tabName = "widgets",
menuSubItem("Sub-item 1", tabName = "subitem1"),
menuSubItem("Sub-item 2", tabName = "subitem2"),
startExpanded = TRUE),
menuItem("Charts", icon = icon("bar-chart-o"),
menuSubItem("Sub-item 3", tabName = "subitem3"),
menuSubItem("Sub-item 4", tabName = "subitem4"),
startExpanded = TRUE
)
)
)
body <- dashboardBody(
tabItems(
tabItem("dashboard",
div(p("Dashboard tab content"))
),
tabItem("widgets",
"Widgets tab content"
),
tabItem("subitem1",
"Sub-item 1 tab content"
),
tabItem("subitem2",
"Sub-item 2 tab content"
)
)
)
shinyApp(
ui = dashboardPage(header, sidebar, body),
server = function(input, output) { }
)