Data Visualization in R and Python

16Advanced Shiny Dashboards

Dataset

The Himalayan Database Version 2, The Himalayan Database a Nonprofit Organization, Ann Arbor, Michigan, US (https://www.himalayandatabase.com/index.html). It contains information on all expeditions to Himalayan peaks, from 1905 to the Spring of 2022. For the examples, we have selected data regarding expeditions to Mount Everest.

Copyright: Released to the general public at no charge. (https://www.himalayandatabase.com/downloads.html)

16.1 First Version: Sidebar, Widgets, Customized Themes, and Reactive/Observe

With this second Shiny dashboard, we increase the complexity level by adding other graphical elements, reactive events, a more elaborate layout, and finally by integrating interactive Altair plots. The first element we will consider is very typical of dashboards and it can be seen in almost all instances: the sidebar, the left-side panel where widgets, options, and selectors are usually placed. We will add some new widgets to the sidebar, but in particular we will discuss a special case: a widget whose aim is not just to let the user make a choice among some alternatives but to modify the actions of other widgets.

Data and the dashboard organization will require more elaborate actions and the usage of both reactive() and observe() functions for managing the different types of reactive events, those aimed at recalculating values (i.e., reactive) and those triggered to execute other actions different from recalculating values (i.e., ...