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rshiny-serverggvis

using ggvis view_static to export html file and dependencies

I am using ggvis (0.4) to make a simple scatter plot, that I want to show on a website. I am using view_static to generate the html file. The docs say I can set the dest parameter to specify the target directory for the html file and dependencies. However, no matter what I put there, I end up with the files in my tmp directory.

For example, if I do

library(ggvis)
test_plot <- mtcars %>% ggvis(~wt, ~mpg) %>% layer_points()
view_static(test_plot, dest = tempfile(pattern = 'ggvis_test'))

I would expect my file to be something like my/path/tmp/RtmpZw3qDp/ggvis_test7b3166824329/index.html. Instead, it is my/path/tmp/RtmpZw3qDp/viewhtml7b3166824329/index.html, so did not adopt the pattern I specified.

Ideally, I would like to say view_static(test_plot, dest = tempfile(pattern = '~/target_dir')) and find the output directory target_dir in my home directory.

Am I doing something wrong when calling view_static, or is there another way of exporting the html or embedding it somewhere?

EDIT - THERE IS A WORKAROUND

I have submitted an issue on the github development site for ggvis - Winston Chang confirmed that the dest parameter is now deprecated. However as a workaround it was suggested one use view_static and html_print eg.

outfile <- mtcars %>% ggvis(~wt, ~mpg) %>% view_static() %>% htmltools::html_print()
outfile
# [1] "/tmp/Rtmps5hgoi/viewhtml266b14fd08f8/index.html"

to get the location of the output file and then copy it to the target directory from there. Works fine.

Solution

  • It doesn't look like you're doing anything wrong. Here's the contents of view_static:

    > ggvis::view_static
function (x, plot_id = rand_id("plot_"), dest = tempfile(pattern = "ggvis")) 
{
    spec <- as.vega(x, dynamic = FALSE)
    htmltools::browsable(ggvisLayout(plot_id, length(x$controls) > 
        0, spec, shiny = FALSE))
}
<environment: namespace:ggvis>

    It doesn't seem to pass dest on to anything. (same hold true for the dev version)