Why does R Shiny not recognize my line break command?

Question

I have a simple app where I want to have a text pop up, but because the text is long, I want to add line breaks. For some reason, R isn't recognizing my line breaks, even though I've added
, like I read in this example.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

library(shiny)

long_text <- paste0(htmltools::HTML("I have a lot of text. <br><br>And I want it on different lines.<br><br> This should work, but R is being....<br><br>difficult."))


ui <- fluidPage(

    sidebarLayout(
        sidebarPanel(
            br(),
            actionButton(inputId = "text_info", 
                         label = "My R Sob Story", style = "color: #FFFFFF; background-color: #CA001B; border_color: #CA001B")
        ),

        mainPanel(
        )
    )
)

# Define server logic required to draw a histogram
server <- function(input, output) {

    observeEvent(input$text_info, {
        showModal(modalDialog(long_text, title = strong("Why R you doing this to me?")))
    })
}

# Run the application 
shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

Here's what it looks like now:

Answer 1

If you paste after changing the text to HTML, it will be character again.

library(shiny)

long_text <- htmltools::HTML("I have a lot of text. <br><br>And I want it on different lines.<br><br> This should work, but R is being....<br><br>difficult.")



ui <- fluidPage(
  
  sidebarLayout(
    sidebarPanel(
      br(),
      actionButton(inputId = "text_info", 
                   label = "My R Sob Story", style = "color: #FFFFFF; background-color: #CA001B; border_color: #CA001B")
    ),
    
    mainPanel(
    )
  )
)

# Define server logic required to draw a histogram
server <- function(input, output) {
  
  observeEvent(input$text_info, {
    showModal(modalDialog(long_text, title = strong("Why R you doing this to me?")))
  })
}

# Run the application 
shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)