Parameterize an R Markdown report using Shiny components

R Markdown lets you add dynamic parameters to your report using the params YAML field (see the R Markdown book for examples); parameterized reports are also used in RStudio Connect. The values of these variables can be called inside your R Markdown document using params$field_name. There are several ways to change the values of the parameters: manually change the YAML, use the params argument in rmarkdown::render(), or knit with parameters, which launches a Shiny app to select values for each. yml_params() accepts any number of named R objects to set as YAML fields. You can also pass arguments to the underlying Shiny functions using YAML. To set a shiny component, use the shiny_*() helper functions. shiny_params() captures a Shiny output function and transforms it to YAML. However, R Markdown supports only a limited number of components; each of these is included as a function starting with shiny_*(), e.g. shiny_checkbox()

yml_params(.yml, ...)

shiny_params(.shiny)

shiny_checkbox(label, value = FALSE, width = NULL)

shiny_numeric(label, value, min = NA, max = NA, step = NA, width = NULL)

shiny_slider(
  label,
  min,
  max,
  value,
  step = NULL,
  round = FALSE,
  format = NULL,
  ticks = TRUE,
  animate = FALSE,
  width = NULL,
  sep = ",",
  pre = NULL,
  post = NULL,
  timeFormat = NULL,
  timezone = NULL,
  dragRange = TRUE
)

shiny_date(
  label,
  value = NULL,
  min = NULL,
  max = NULL,
  format = "yyyy-mm-dd",
  startview = "month",
  weekstart = 0,
  language = "en",
  width = NULL,
  autoclose = TRUE,
  datesdisabled = NULL,
  daysofweekdisabled = NULL
)

shiny_text(label, value = "", width = NULL, placeholder = NULL)

shiny_file(
  label,
  multiple = FALSE,
  accept = NULL,
  width = NULL,
  buttonLabel = "Browse...",
  placeholder = "No file selected"
)

shiny_radio(
  label,
  choices = NULL,
  selected = NULL,
  inline = FALSE,
  width = NULL,
  choiceNames = NULL,
  choiceValues = NULL
)

shiny_select(
  label,
  choices,
  selected = NULL,
  multiple = FALSE,
  selectize = TRUE,
  width = NULL,
  size = NULL
)

shiny_password(label, value = "", width = NULL, placeholder = NULL)

Arguments

.yml

a yml object created by yml(), as_yml(), or returned by a yml_*() function

...

additional named R objects, such as characters or lists, to transform into YAML

.shiny

a Shiny function call to capture and convert to YAML

label

Display label for the control, or NULL for no label.

value

Initial value (TRUE or FALSE).

width

The width of the input, e.g. '400px', or '100%'; see shiny::validateCssUnit()

min

Minimum allowed value

max

Maximum allowed value

step

Interval to use when stepping between min and max

round

TRUE to round all values to the nearest integer; FALSE if no rounding is desired; or an integer to round to that number of digits (for example, 1 will round to the nearest 10, and -2 will round to the nearest .01). Any rounding will be applied after snapping to the nearest step.

format

The format of the date to display in the browser. Defaults to "yyyy-mm-dd".

ticks

FALSE to hide tick marks, TRUE to show them according to some simple heuristics.

animate

TRUE to show simple animation controls with default settings; FALSE not to; or a custom settings list, such as those created using shiny::animationOptions()

sep

Separator between thousands places in numbers.

pre

A prefix string to put in front of the value.

post

A suffix string to put after the value.

timeFormat

Only used if the values are Date or POSIXt objects. A time format string, to be passed to the Javascript strftime library. See https://github.com/samsonjs/strftime for more details. The allowed format specifications are very similar, but not identical, to those for R's base::strftime() function. For Dates, the default is "%F" (like "2015-07-01"), and for POSIXt, the default is "%F %T" (like "2015-07-01 15:32:10").

timezone

Only used if the values are POSIXt objects. A string specifying the time zone offset for the displayed times, in the format "+HHMM" or "-HHMM". If NULL (the default), times will be displayed in the browser's time zone. The value "+0000" will result in UTC time.

dragRange

This option is used only if it is a range slider (with two values). If TRUE (the default), the range can be dragged. In other words, the min and max can be dragged together. If FALSE, the range cannot be dragged.

startview

The date range shown when the input object is first clicked. Can be "month" (the default), "year", or "decade".

weekstart

Which day is the start of the week. Should be an integer from 0 (Sunday) to 6 (Saturday).

language

The language used for month and day names. Default is "en". Other valid values include "ar", "az", "bg", "bs", "ca", "cs", "cy", "da", "de", "el", "en-AU", "en-GB", "eo", "es", "et", "eu", "fa", "fi", "fo", "fr-CH", "fr", "gl", "he", "hr", "hu", "hy", "id", "is", "it-CH", "it", "ja", "ka", "kh", "kk", "ko", "kr", "lt", "lv", "me", "mk", "mn", "ms", "nb", "nl-BE", "nl", "no", "pl", "pt-BR", "pt", "ro", "rs-latin", "rs", "ru", "sk", "sl", "sq", "sr-latin", "sr", "sv", "sw", "th", "tr", "uk", "vi", "zh-CN", and "zh-TW".

autoclose

Whether or not to close the datepicker immediately when a date is selected.

datesdisabled

Which dates should be disabled. Either a Date object, or a string in yyyy-mm-dd format.

daysofweekdisabled

Days of the week that should be disabled. Should be a integer vector with values from 0 (Sunday) to 6 (Saturday).

placeholder

A character string giving the user a hint as to what can be entered into the control. Internet Explorer 8 and 9 do not support this option.

multiple

Whether the user should be allowed to select and upload multiple files at once. Does not work on older browsers, including Internet Explorer 9 and earlier.

accept

A character vector of "unique file type specifiers" which gives the browser a hint as to the type of file the server expects. Many browsers use this prevent the user from selecting an invalid file.

A unique file type specifier can be:

• A case insensitive extension like .csv or .rds.

• A valid MIME type, like text/plain or application/pdf

• One of audio/*, video/*, or image/* meaning any audio, video, or image type, respectively.

buttonLabel

The label used on the button. Can be text or an HTML tag object.

choices

List of values to select from (if elements of the list are named then that name rather than the value is displayed to the user). If this argument is provided, then choiceNames and choiceValues must not be provided, and vice-versa. The values should be strings; other types (such as logicals and numbers) will be coerced to strings.

selected

The initially selected value. If not specified, then it defaults to the first item in choices. To start with no items selected, use character(0).

inline

If TRUE, render the choices inline (i.e. horizontally)

choiceNames, choiceValues

List of names and values, respectively, that are displayed to the user in the app and correspond to the each choice (for this reason, choiceNames and choiceValues must have the same length). If either of these arguments is provided, then the other must be provided and choices must not be provided. The advantage of using both of these over a named list for choices is that choiceNames allows any type of UI object to be passed through (tag objects, icons, HTML code, ...), instead of just simple text. See Examples.

selectize

Whether to use selectize.js or not.

size

Number of items to show in the selection box; a larger number will result in a taller box. Not compatible with selectize=TRUE. Normally, when multiple=FALSE, a select input will be a drop-down list, but when size is set, it will be a box instead.

Value

a yml object

See also

yml_params_code()

Other yml: asis_yaml_output(), bib2yml(), draw_yml_tree(), has_field(), read_json(), use_yml_defaults(), use_yml_file(), use_yml(), yml_author(), yml_blogdown_opts(), yml_bookdown_opts(), yml_citations(), yml_clean(), yml_distill_opts(), yml_latex_opts(), yml_output(), yml_pagedown_opts(), yml_pkgdown(), yml_reference(), yml_replace(), yml_resource_files(), yml_rsconnect_email(), yml_rticles_opts(), yml_runtime(), yml_site_opts(), yml_toc(), yml_vignette()

Other R Markdown: yml_clean(), yml_runtime(), yml_site_opts(), yml_vignette()

Other shiny: yml_runtime()

Examples

yml() %>%
  yml_params(
    z = "z",
    x = shiny_numeric("Starting value", 23),
    no = shiny_checkbox("No option?"),
    y = shiny_slider("Data range", 0, 1, .5, round = TRUE)
  )
#> ---
#> date: '`r format(Sys.Date())`'
#> params:
#>   z: z
#>   x:
#>     input: numeric
#>     label: Starting value
#>     value: 23.0
#>   'no':
#>     input: checkbox
#>     label: No option?
#>   'y':
#>     input: slider
#>     label: Data range
#>     min: 0.0
#>     max: 1.0
#>     value: 0.5
#>     round: true
#> ---
#>