Shiny dashboard with conditional plotOut

Question

I am just starting with shiny and dashboard, so any help is greatly appreciated!

I have a shinydashboard app displaying one row with two elements: A tabBox on the left with two tabPanels, and a box on the right (to display a plot).

What I want is to display a particular plot in the box depending on the active tabPanel. The plot should be not clickable when the first tab is active, but clickable when the second tab is active.

My problem is that I only know how to set up the clickable property in the ui through the plotOutput function using the option click = "plot_click". But this sets both plots as clickable. Of course, removing the option click = "plot_click" sets both plots as not-clickable. How can I make the clickable property depend on the active tab?

What I tried: Place an if statement inside box() such that, depending on the id of the tabPanel, it would activate the option click = "plot_click" for the correct plot. I failed at this.

Here's the code. You can play with either plot by (un)commenting the desired plot inside box().

library(shiny)
library(shinydashboard)
library(ggplot2)

ui <- dashboardPage(

  dashboardHeader(title = "Conditional plotOutput click", titleWidth = 450),

  dashboardSidebar(disable = TRUE), 

  dashboardBody(

    fluidRow(
      tabBox(title = "Choose tab", id = "choose.tab", height = 250, selected = "Automatic", 
             tabPanel(title = "Automatic", id = "auto", sliderInput("slider", "Nobs:", 1, 10, 5)), 
             tabPanel(title = "Manual", id = "man")
      ), 

      box(title = "Plot", solidHeader = TRUE, 
          # plotOutput("plot1", height = 250)                     # Try me!
          plotOutput("plot2", height = 250, click = "plot_click") # Or me!
      )
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  set.seed(123)

  react.vals <- reactiveValues( 
    df     = data.frame(x = numeric(), y = numeric()), 
    plot1  = ggplot(), 
    plot2  = ggplot()
  )

  # Plot 1 - Automatic scatterplot:
  observe({
    scatter.data     <- data.frame(x = runif(input$slider), y = runif(input$slider))
    react.vals$plot1 <- ggplot(scatter.data, aes(x, y)) + geom_point(color = "red", size = 4) + 
      scale_x_continuous("x", breaks = seq(0, 1, .2), limits = c(0, 1), expand = c(0,0)) +
      scale_y_continuous("y", breaks = seq(0, 1, .2), limits = c(0, 1), expand = c(0,0)) + 
      theme(panel.grid.major = element_blank(), panel.grid.minor = element_blank())
  })
  observeEvent(react.vals$plot1, { 
    output$plot1 <- renderPlot({ react.vals$plot1 })
  })

  # Plot 2 - Manual scatterplot through clicking:
  observeEvent(input$plot_click, {
    new.point     <- data.frame(x = input$plot_click$x,
                                y = input$plot_click$y)
    react.vals$df <- rbind(react.vals$df, new.point)
  })
  observe({
    react.vals$plot2 <- ggplot(react.vals$df, aes(x = x, y = y)) + geom_point(color = "red", size = 4) + 
      scale_x_continuous("x", breaks = seq(0, 1, .2), limits = c(0, 1), expand = c(0,0)) +
      scale_y_continuous("y", breaks = seq(0, 1, .2), limits = c(0, 1), expand = c(0,0)) + 
      theme(panel.grid.major = element_blank(), panel.grid.minor = element_blank())
  })
  observeEvent(react.vals$plot2, { 
    output$plot2 <- renderPlot({ react.vals$plot2 })
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Thanks in advance, jorge

Answer 1

You can use uiOutput to define the characteristics of plotOutput according to the active tabPanel. Below is your example adapted with uiOutput:

library(shiny)
library(shinydashboard)
library(ggplot2)

ui <- dashboardPage(

  dashboardHeader(title = "Conditional plotOutput click", titleWidth = 450),

  dashboardSidebar(disable = TRUE), 

  dashboardBody(

    fluidRow(
      tabBox(title = "Choose tab", id = "choose_tab", height = 250, selected = "Automatic", 
             tabPanel(title = "Automatic", id = "auto", sliderInput("slider", "Nobs:", 1, 10, 5)), 
             tabPanel(title = "Manual", id = "man")
      ), 

      box(title = "Plot", solidHeader = TRUE, 
          uiOutput("test")
      )
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output) {
  set.seed(123)

  react.vals <- reactiveValues( 
    df     = data.frame(x = numeric(), y = numeric()), 
    plot1  = ggplot(), 
    plot2  = ggplot()
  )

  observe({
    if (input$choose_tab == "Automatic") {
      output$test <- renderUI({
        plotOutput("plot1", height = 250)
      })
    }
    else if(input$choose_tab == "Manual") {
      output$test <- renderUI({
        plotOutput("plot2", height = 250, click = "plot_click")
      })
    }
  })

  # Plot 1 - Automatic scatterplot:
  observe({
    scatter.data     <- data.frame(x = runif(input$slider), y = runif(input$slider))
    react.vals$plot1 <- ggplot(scatter.data, aes(x, y)) + geom_point(color = "red", size = 4) + 
      scale_x_continuous("x", breaks = seq(0, 1, .2), limits = c(0, 1), expand = c(0,0)) +
      scale_y_continuous("y", breaks = seq(0, 1, .2), limits = c(0, 1), expand = c(0,0)) + 
      theme(panel.grid.major = element_blank(), panel.grid.minor = element_blank())
  })
  observeEvent(react.vals$plot1, { 
    output$plot1 <- renderPlot({ react.vals$plot1 })
  })

  # Plot 2 - Manual scatterplot through clicking:
  observeEvent(input$plot_click, {
    new.point     <- data.frame(x = input$plot_click$x,
                                y = input$plot_click$y)
    react.vals$df <- rbind(react.vals$df, new.point)
  })
  observe({
    react.vals$plot2 <- ggplot(react.vals$df, aes(x = x, y = y)) + geom_point(color = "red", size = 4) + 
      scale_x_continuous("x", breaks = seq(0, 1, .2), limits = c(0, 1), expand = c(0,0)) +
      scale_y_continuous("y", breaks = seq(0, 1, .2), limits = c(0, 1), expand = c(0,0)) + 
      theme(panel.grid.major = element_blank(), panel.grid.minor = element_blank())
  })
  observeEvent(react.vals$plot2, { 
    output$plot2 <- renderPlot({ react.vals$plot2 })
  })
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Edit: Fixed a small typo in the R code.