plotly: Updating data with dropdown selection - r

Question

I am not sure if this is possible, but here is what I would like to do. I would like to update the data in a plotly plot by selecting from a dropdown menu.
As a simple example, let's assume I have a data frame
df <- data.frame(x = runif(200), y = runif(200), z = runif(200))
from which I use df$x and df$y in a scatter plot. Two scenarios of data manipulation I would like to achieve using a dropdown:
Replace df$y with df$z
Plot only the first n values of df$x and df$y
I looked at the following two examples, which I can easily reproduce:
https://plot.ly/r/dropdowns/
However, I have no idea how to pass the information regarding the data to be plotted based on the dropdown selection. For scenario 2 e.g. I have tried it with args = list("data", df[1:n,]) which did not work.
For scenario 1 the (only?) way to go (according to the examples) seems to be hiding/showing the traces respectively. Is that the only way for scenario 2 as well?
Any alternative ideas?
Update 1: Add reproducible example
So here is an example which achieve what I would like in scenario 1.
require(plotly)
df <- data.frame(x = runif(200), y = runif(200), z = runif(200))
Sys.setenv("plotly_username"="xxx") #actual credentials replaced
Sys.setenv("plotly_api_key"="xxx") #actual credentials replaced
p <- plot_ly(df, x = df$x, y = df$y, mode = "markers", name = "A", visible = T) %>%
add_trace(mode = "markers", y = df$z, name = "B", visible = T) %>%
layout(
title = "Drop down menus - Styling",
xaxis = list(domain = c(0.1, 1)),
yaxis = list(title = "y"),
updatemenus = list(
list(
y = 0.7,
buttons = list(
list(method = "restyle",
args = list("visible", list(TRUE, TRUE)),
label = "Show All"),
list(method = "restyle",
args = list("visible", list(TRUE, FALSE)),
label = "Show A"),
list(method = "restyle",
args = list("visible", list(FALSE, TRUE)),
label = "Show B")))
))
plotly_POST(p)
Result here: https://plot.ly/~spietrzyk/96/drop-down-menus-styling/
This is based on the example from https://plot.ly/r/dropdowns/
However, I am wondering if one could pass the data to be plotted instead of triggering changes to the visible property of individual traces.
The one thing I tried was the following:
p <- plot_ly(df, x = df$x, y = df$y, mode = "markers", name = "A", visible = T) %>%
layout(
title = "Drop down menus - Styling",
xaxis = list(domain = c(0.1, 1)),
yaxis = list(title = "y"),
updatemenus = list(
list(
y = 0.7,
buttons = list(
list(method = "restyle",
args = list("y", df$y),
label = "Show A"),
list(method = "restyle",
args = list("y", df$z),
label = "Show B")))
))
Result here: https://plot.ly/~spietrzyk/98/drop-down-menus-styling/
This approach cannot work, as the data from df$z is not posted to the grid (https://plot.ly/~spietrzyk/99/).
So I was wondering is there anyway to manipulate the data to be plotted based on dropdown selection, beyond plotting all traces and than switching the visible property by dropdown selections.

Answer 1

Is this what you were after?
require(plotly)
df <- data.frame(x = runif(200), y = runif(200), z = runif(200))
p <- plot_ly(df, x = ~x, y = ~y, mode = "markers", name = "A", visible = T) %>%
layout(
title = "Drop down menus - Styling",
xaxis = list(domain = c(0.1, 1)),
yaxis = list(title = "y"),
updatemenus = list(
list(
y = 0.7,
buttons = list(
list(method = "restyle",
args = list("y", list(df$y)), # put it in a list
label = "Show A"),
list(method = "restyle",
args = list("y", list(df$z)), # put it in a list
label = "Show B")))
))
p

Answer 2

On the top of #jimmy G's answer.
You can automatically create the buttons so that you don't have to manually specify every single variable you want in the plot.
library(plotly)
df <- data.frame(x = runif(200), y = runif(200), z = runif(200), j = runif(200), k = rep(0.7, 200), i = rnorm(200,0.6,0.05))
create_buttons <- function(df, y_axis_var_names) {
lapply(
y_axis_var_names,
FUN = function(var_name, df) {
button <- list(
method = 'restyle',
args = list('y', list(df[, var_name])),
label = sprintf('Show %s', var_name)
)
},
df
)
}
y_axis_var_names <- c('y', 'z', 'j', 'k', 'i')
p <- plot_ly(df, x = ~x, y = ~y, mode = "markers", name = "A", visible = T) %>%
layout(
title = "Drop down menus - Styling",
xaxis = list(domain = c(0.1, 1)),
yaxis = list(title = "y"),
updatemenus = list(
list(
y = 0.7,
buttons = create_buttons(df, y_axis_var_names)
)
))
p
Hope you find it useful.