bones_auto: Wrap every Shiny output in a UI in a skeleton placeholder

In bones: Content-Shaped Loading Placeholders for 'shiny' Outputs

Wrap every Shiny output in a UI in a skeleton placeholder

Description

Gives skeletons to an app with no change to each output. bones_auto() looks through a UI and puts each Shiny output in withBones(). Each one gets the shape of its output, as with withBones(output): a plotOutput() gets a chart, a tableOutput() gets rows, a DT table gets the shape of DT, and so on.

Usage

bones_auto(ui, ..., exclude = NULL)

Arguments

ui	A UI: a page, a tag, or a tag list.
...	Arguments for withBones(), used for every output that is wrapped: for example stale = FALSE or animation = "pulse". Not type, because each output gets the shape of its own kind.
exclude	The ids of outputs to leave alone.

Details

Give it the whole page, or only a part of it:

ui <- bones_auto(page_sidebar(...))
ui <- page_sidebar(sidebar = ..., bones_auto(navset_card_tab(...)))

Value

ui, with each output in a placeholder container. A page keeps its class and its theme.

What it leaves alone

• An output that is already in withBones(). To give one output its own shape or options, wrap it yourself: bones_auto() keeps that wrapper.

• An output whose id is in exclude.

• An inline output, such as textOutput("n", inline = TRUE). The wrapper is a block, so it would break the line of text.

A uiOutput() can hold anything, so it gets the text shape. Wrap it yourself to give it another shape, such as type = "cards".

bones_auto() sees only the UI that you give it. Outputs that a renderUI() makes later are not in it. Call bones_auto() on the UI inside that renderUI() to give them skeletons too.

Examples

if (requireNamespace("shiny", quietly = TRUE)) {
  library(shiny)

  ui <- bones_auto(fluidPage(
    plotOutput("chart"),
    tableOutput("results"),
    textOutput("count", inline = TRUE),         # inline: left alone
    withBones(uiOutput("cards"), type = "cards") # wrapped already: kept
  ))
}

bones documentation built on Oct. 16, 2026, 5:06 p.m.