Dynamically load data into rmarkdown html output

Question

Is there a way to have the data associated with and html output file generated via Rmarkdown be loaded dynamically (e.g., via javascript or ajax) when opening the html output?

For instance, I have this simple Rmarkdown file which produces a plot (in svg) and a table:

---
title: "test"
output: 
    html_document:
        self_contained: false
---

```{r setup, include=FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(dev = "svglite", fig.ext = ".svg")
library(svglite)
library(DT)
```

```{r, echo=FALSE}
DATA <- data.frame(a = 1:5, b = 6:10)
plot(DATA)
datatable(DATA)
```

Is there a way to feed the data to the html file so that when the data changes and I open it again the plot and table are updated automatically without having to render the Rmarkdown script?

Kat · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-29 21:48:15Z

4

+50

Yes, this is possible. You can use local data or data stored somewhere--like Google Sheets.

Step 1) Add runtime: shiny to your YAML. This does not make this "shiny", but does make it dynamic.

Updated YAML:

---
title: "test"
output: 
    html_document:
        self_contained: false
runtime: shiny
---

Step 2) Use a function to call your data.

```{r giveMe,echo=F}

giveMeData <- function(){
  read.csv("./../_data/carData.csv")
}

dataGiven <- giveMeData()
```

Whether in the Viewer pane in RStudio or in your browser, you only need to refresh the view or page after you update the data.

To test this the only other code I used is the following:

<!--- inline R code to show the data --->

The column names are `r names(dataGiven)`.
There are `r nrow(dataGiven)` observations in this data.


```{r itsGiven, echo=FALSE}
# plot the data
plot(dataGiven)
datatable(dataGiven)
```

I changed the column name to "Displacement" and refreshed (not reran, run, knit, just refresh)

answered Jan 29, 2022 at 21:48

Kat

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4 Comments

JBGruber Over a year ago

This is pretty cool! But note that ""rmarkdown will no longer compile your document into a static file. Instead it will “run” the document as a live Shiny app" (source). That means you won't get a html output and you won't be able to view the "document" when the shiny server isn't running.

Kat Over a year ago

If you change the data, you will need to execute R functions again. Essentially, shiny keeps you connected to R, so the code can be executed. If you only used widgets-based R objects (like data.table or networkD3), you might be able to link a live data source. You could write JS functions in RMarkdown for that purpose. However, you would have to make it so that no the HTML required no R functions to execute to make excluding R work. By the time you created this type of HTML script, it would probably be easier to create it outside of R Markdown.

mat Over a year ago

Thanks! However, I was looking for a solution that can standalone, that is, without shiny.

Benjamin Schwetz Over a year ago

I would agree with @Kat Essentially, you are asking for 100% client side computations and to my knowledge that is not what Rmarkdown was designed for. You would have to extend your Rmarkdown document with so much js that you might just go ahead and write in js directly.

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