How to add the same inputs into two tabItems in shinydashboard? - r

Question

I am using shinydashboard to create the interface of my shiny App. However I want one input which appear in the two tabMenu. In the example below, I want to textInput i_test appears in menu menu1 and menu2.
How should I implement it? Thanks for any suggestions.
library(shiny)
library(shinydashboard)
# Side bar boardy
sidebar <- dashboardSidebar(
sidebarMenu(
id = 'menu_tabs'
, menuItem('menu1', tabName = 'menu1')
, menuItem('menu2', tabName = 'menu2')
, menuItem('menu3', tabName = 'menu3')
)
)
# Body board
body <- dashboardBody(
tabItems(
tabItem(
tabName = 'menu1',
textInput('i_test', 'Test')
),
tabItem(
tabName = 'menu2'
)
)
)
# Shiny UI
ui <- dashboardPage(
title = 'test',
dashboardHeader(),
sidebar,
body
)
server <- function(input, output, session) {
}
shinyApp(ui, server)

Answer 1

It seems that shiny always renders two distinct elements, even if you try to build the same element a second time.
Thats why i could only come up with a solution that only makes it look like the two text iputs are the same.
Check the Code:
library(shiny)
library(shinydashboard)
# Side bar boardy
sidebar <- dashboardSidebar(
sidebarMenu(
id = 'menu_tabs'
, menuItem('menu1', tabName = 'menu1')
, menuItem('menu2', tabName = 'menu2')
, menuItem('menu3', tabName = 'menu3')
)
)
# Body board
body <- dashboardBody(
tabItems(
tabItem(
tabName = 'menu1',
textInput('i_test_1', 'Test')
),
tabItem(
tabName = 'menu2',
textInput('i_test_2', 'Test')
),
tabItem(
tabName = 'menu3'
)
)
)
# Shiny UI
ui <- dashboardPage(
title = 'test',
dashboardHeader(),
sidebar,
body
)
server <- function(input, output, session) {
observe({
text1 <- input$i_test_1
updateTextInput(session, 'i_test_2', value = text1)
})
observe({
text2 <- input$i_test_2
updateTextInput(session, 'i_test_1', value = text2)
})
}
shinyApp(ui, server)