R Shiny plotly update trace colors with javascript when colourInput is build in the server

Question

This is a modified version to the previous question here

In this app (which reflects my real app better) the following situation happens:

I have 2 sets of plots,
- the 2 plots of a set show the same traces, just different columns plotted
- each plot is on a different page in my app
- The two plots should be linked to 1 set of colourInputs , on page 2
- The colourInputs are built in the server with renderUI *1

*1: for this reason, I believe that p %>% onRender(js) approach will not work as I saw earlier in THIS question for the YNbuttons there

Goal: if colourInput 'COL_button_plot1_plot2_N' changes -> change the color of trace N-1 (*2) in plot1 AND plot2

*2: trace numbers run for 0-n, thus colourinput nr -1

I altered the naming code for the colorInputs to contain the names of both plots they should target:

COLElement_1 <-    function(idx){sprintf("COL_button_plot1_plot2_%d",idx)}

I suspect that we need onclick = "toggleColor(this.id)") attached on the colourInput rather than onRender() on the plot due to the renderUI() uiOutput() of the colourInputs

So far I designed an attempt at a javascript that grabs the 2 plot IDs and data and has the restyle function in it, but I'm stuck on how to get it to work as intended in the app. It might at least help to get the idea across.

jscolor <- c(
  "function toggleColor(id){",
  "  var color = this.value;", # get the color of the colourpicker
  "  var ids = id.split('_');", # split the ids
  "  var plotAid = ids[2];", #get the id of plotA (plot1 or 3)
  "  var plotBid = ids[3];", #get the id of plotB (plot2 or 4)
  "  var index = parseInt(ids[4]) -1;", #get the trace number to target
  "  var plotA = document.getElementById(plot1id);", #get the plot element
  "  var dataA = plotA.data;", #access the plot data
  "  var markerA = dataA[index].marker;", #access the plot's markers
  "  markerA.color = color;",  # set the marker color
  "  Plotly.restyle(plotA, {marker: markerA}, [index]);", #restyle plotA
  "  var plotB = document.getElementById(plotBid);", # repeat steps for plot2
  "  var dataB = plotB.data;",
  "  var markerB = dataB[index].marker;",
  "  markerB.color = color;",
  "  Plotly.restyle(plotB, {marker: markerB}, [index]);",
  "  });"
)

THE TEST APP:

   library(plotly)
    library(shiny)
    library(colourpicker)
    library(htmlwidgets)

# jscolor <- c(......)

ui <- fluidPage(
  tags$head(
    tags$script(HTML(jscolor))  ## to add the javascript to the app
  ),
  fluidRow(
    column(4,plotlyOutput("plot1")),
    column(4,plotlyOutput("plot2")),
    column(4,uiOutput('buttons_color_1')
    )
  ),
  fluidRow(
    column(4,plotlyOutput("plot3")),
    column(4,plotlyOutput("plot4")),
    column(4,uiOutput('buttons_color_2'))
)
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
   #functions to make colorinput IDs
  COLElement_1 <-    function(idx){sprintf("COL_button_plot1_plot2_%d",idx)}
  COLElement_2 <-    function(idx){sprintf("COL_button_plot3_plot4_%d",idx)}

  TheColors <- c('#383838', '#5b195b','#1A237E', '#000080', '#224D17', '#cccc00', '#b37400',  '#990000', 
                 '#505050',  '#a02ca0',  '#000099', '#2645e0', '#099441', '#e5e500', '#cc8400', '#cc0000', 
                 '#737373', '#e53fe5', '#0000FF', '#4479e1',  '#60A830', '#ffff00','#e69500', '#ff0000', 
                 '#b2b2b2', '#eb6ceb', '#6666ff', '#d0a3ff', '#9FDA40',  '#ffff7f', '#ffa500', '#ff4c4c',
                 '#d9d9d9',  '#f198f1',  '#C5CAE9','#BBDEFB','#D9DF1D', '#ffffcc','#ffc04d', '#ff9999')

  values <- reactiveValues(colors1 = TheColors, colors2 = sort(TheColors))
  lapply(c(1:2), function(i) {
    output[[paste('buttons_color_', i,sep = '')]] <- renderUI({
      isolate({ lapply(1:3, function(x) {  ## 3 in my app changes based on clustering output of my model
        Idname <- if(i == 1) { COLElement_1(x) } else {COLElement_2(x) }
        div(colourpicker::colourInput(inputId = Idname, label = NULL,
                                      palette = "limited", allowedCols = TheColors,
                                      value = values[[paste('colors', i, sep = '')]][x],
                                      showColour = "background", returnName = TRUE),
            style = " height: 30px; width: 30px; border-radius: 6px;  border-width: 2px; text-align:center; padding: 0px; display:block; margin: 10px",
            onclick = "toggleColor(this.id)")
      })
      })})

    outputOptions(output, paste('buttons_color_', i,sep = ''), suspendWhenHidden=FALSE)
  })



  myplotly <- function(THEPLOT, xvar, setnr) {
    markersize <- input[[paste('markersize', THEPLOT, sep = '_')]]
    markerlegendsize <- input[[paste('legendsize', THEPLOT, sep = '_')]]
    colors <- isolate ({values[[paste('colors', setnr, sep = '')]]  })
    p <- plot_ly(source = paste('plotlyplot', THEPLOT, sep = '.'))
    p <-  add_trace(p, data = mtcars, x = mtcars[[xvar]], y = ~mpg, type = 'scatter', mode = 'markers', color = ~as.factor(cyl), colors = colors)
    p <- layout(p, title = 'mtcars group by cyl with switching colors')
    p <- plotly_build(p)
    p 
  }

  output$plot1 <- renderPlotly({ myplotly('plot1', 'hp', 1) })
  output$plot2 <- renderPlotly({ myplotly('plot2', 'disp', 1)})
  output$plot3 <- renderPlotly({ myplotly('plot3','hp', 2)})
  output$plot4 <- renderPlotly({ myplotly('plot4', 'disp', 2)})

}

shinyApp(ui, server)

UPDATED APP: Got the working solution thanks to the answer, but when I start changing the plot names it breaks. Here I changed all references of 'plot1' to plotx.

library(plotly)
library(shiny)
library(colourpicker)
library(htmlwidgets)

jscolor <- c(
  "function toggleColor(id){",
  "  var color = document.getElementById(id).value;", # get the color of the colourpicker
  "  var ids = id.split('_');", # split the ids
  "  var plotAid = ids[2];", #get the id of plotA (plotx or 3)
  "  var plotBid = ids[3];", #get the id of plotB (plot2 or 4)
  "  var index = parseInt(ids[4]) -1;", #get the trace number to target
  "  var plotA = document.getElementById(plotAid);", #get the plot element
  "  var dataA = plotA.data;", #access the plot data
  "  var markerA = dataA[index].marker;", #access the plot's markers
  "  markerA.color = color;",  # set the marker color
  "  Plotly.restyle(plotA, {marker: markerA}, [index]);", #restyle plotA
  "  var plotB = document.getElementById(plotBid);", # repeat steps for plot2
  "  var dataB = plotB.data;",
  "  var markerB = dataB[index].marker;",
  "  markerB.color = color;",
  "  Plotly.restyle(plotB, {marker: markerB}, [index]);",
  "};"
)

colourInput2 <- function(inputId, label, value = "white", 
                         showColour = c("both", "text", "background"), 
                         palette = c("square", "limited"), allowedCols = NULL,
                         allowTransparent = FALSE, returnName = FALSE, 
                         onchange){
  input <- colourInput(inputId, label, value, showColour, palette, 
                       allowedCols, allowTransparent, returnName)
  attribs <- c(input$children[[2]]$attribs, onchange = onchange)
  input$children[[2]]$attribs <- attribs
  input
}


ui <- fluidPage(
  tags$head(
    tags$script(HTML(jscolor))  ## to add the javascript to the app
  ),
  fluidRow(
    column(4,plotlyOutput("plotx")),
    column(4,plotlyOutput("plot2")),
    column(4,uiOutput('buttons_color_1')
    )
  ),
  fluidRow(
    column(4,plotlyOutput("plot3")),
    column(4,plotlyOutput("plot4")),
    column(4,uiOutput('buttons_color_2'))
  )
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  #functions to make colorinput IDs
  COLElement_1 <-    function(idx){sprintf("COL_button_plotx_plot2_%d",idx)}
  COLElement_2 <-    function(idx){sprintf("COL_button_plot3_plot4_%d",idx)}

  TheColors <- c('#383838', '#5b195b','#1A237E', '#000080', '#224D17', '#cccc00', '#b37400',  '#990000', 
                 '#505050',  '#a02ca0',  '#000099', '#2645e0', '#099441', '#e5e500', '#cc8400', '#cc0000', 
                 '#737373', '#e53fe5', '#0000FF', '#4479e1',  '#60A830', '#ffff00','#e69500', '#ff0000', 
                 '#b2b2b2', '#eb6ceb', '#6666ff', '#d0a3ff', '#9FDA40',  '#ffff7f', '#ffa500', '#ff4c4c',
                 '#d9d9d9',  '#f198f1',  '#C5CAE9','#BBDEFB','#D9DF1D', '#ffffcc','#ffc04d', '#ff9999')

  values <- reactiveValues(colors1 = TheColors, colors2 = sort(TheColors))
  lapply(c(1:2), function(i) {
    output[[paste('buttons_color_', i,sep = '')]] <- renderUI({
      inputs <- lapply(1:3, function(x) {  ## 3 in my app changes based on clustering output of my model
        Idname <- if(i == 1) { COLElement_1(x) } else {COLElement_2(x) }
        colour_input <- colourInput2(inputId = Idname, label = NULL,
                                     palette = "limited", allowedCols = TheColors,
                                     value = isolate(values[[paste('colors', i, sep = '')]][x]),
                                     showColour = "background", returnName = FALSE, 
                                     onchange = "toggleColor(this.id)")
        div(colour_input,
            style = "height: 30px; width: 30px; border-radius: 6px;  border-width: 2px; text-align:center; padding: 0px; display:block; margin: 10px"
        )
      })
      do.call(tagList, inputs)
    })
    # useless: outputOptions(output, paste('buttons_color_', i,sep = ''), suspendWhenHidden=FALSE)
  })


  myplotly <- function(THEPLOT, xvar, setnr) {
    markersize <- 2
    markerlegendsize <- 10
    colors <- isolate ({values[[paste('colors', setnr, sep = '')]]  })
    p <- plot_ly(source = paste('plotlyplot', THEPLOT, sep = '.'))
    p <-  add_trace(p, data = mtcars, x = mtcars[[xvar]], y = ~mpg, type = 'scatter', mode = 'markers', color = ~as.factor(cyl), colors = colors)
    p <- layout(p, title = 'mtcars group by cyl with switching colors')
    p <- plotly_build(p)
    p 
  }

  output$plotx <- renderPlotly({ myplotly('plotx', 'hp', 1) })
  output$plot2 <- renderPlotly({ myplotly('plot2', 'disp', 1)})
  output$plot3 <- renderPlotly({ myplotly('plot3','hp', 2)})
  output$plot4 <- renderPlotly({ myplotly('plot4', 'disp', 2)})

}

shinyApp(ui, server)

Answer 1

There are some typos in your JS code, and this.value does not return the value of the colour picker.

jscolor <- c(
  "function toggleColor(id){",
  "  var color = document.getElementById(id).value;", # get the color of the colourpicker
  "  var ids = id.split('_');", # split the ids
  "  var plotAid = ids[2];", #get the id of plotA (plot1 or 3)
  "  var plotBid = ids[3];", #get the id of plotB (plot2 or 4)
  "  var index = parseInt(ids[4]) -1;", #get the trace number to target
  "  var plotA = document.getElementById(plotAid);", #get the plot element
  "  var dataA = plotA.data;", #access the plot data
  "  var markerA = dataA[index].marker;", #access the plot's markers
  "  markerA.color = color;",  # set the marker color
  "  Plotly.restyle(plotA, {marker: markerA}, [index]);", #restyle plotA
  "  var plotB = document.getElementById(plotBid);", # repeat steps for plot2
  "  var dataB = plotB.data;",
  "  var markerB = dataB[index].marker;",
  "  markerB.color = color;",
  "  Plotly.restyle(plotB, {marker: markerB}, [index]);",
  "};"
)

Now let's modify colourInput , allowing a onchange attribute:

colourInput2 <- function(inputId, label, value = "white", 
                         showColour = c("both", "text", "background"), 
                         palette = c("square", "limited"), allowedCols = NULL,
                         allowTransparent = FALSE, returnName = FALSE, 
                         onchange){
  input <- colourInput(inputId, label, value, showColour, palette, 
                       allowedCols, allowTransparent, returnName)
  attribs <- c(input$children[[2]]$attribs, onchange = onchange)
  input$children[[2]]$attribs <- attribs
  input
}

In server.R :

  lapply(c(1:2), function(i) {
    output[[paste('buttons_color_', i,sep = '')]] <- renderUI({
      inputs <- lapply(1:3, function(x) {  ## 3 in my app changes based on clustering output of my model
        Idname <- if(i == 1) { COLElement_1(x) } else {COLElement_2(x) }
        colour_input <- colourInput2(inputId = Idname, label = NULL,
                                     palette = "limited", allowedCols = TheColors,
                                     value = isolate(values[[paste('colors', i, sep = '')]][x]),
                                     showColour = "background", returnName = FALSE, 
                                     onchange = "toggleColor(this.id)")
        div(colour_input,
            style = "height: 30px; width: 30px; border-radius: 6px;  border-width: 2px; text-align:center; padding: 0px; display:block; margin: 10px"
        )
      })
      do.call(tagList, inputs)
    })
    # useless: outputOptions(output, paste('buttons_color_', i,sep = ''), suspendWhenHidden=FALSE)
  })