In editbl: 'DT' Extension for CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) Applications in 'shiny'

Let's say you already use DT::datatable() to display your data, but want to switch to editbl::eDT() to be able to edit it. What should you look out for?

• eDTOutput() uses an id argument instead of outputId since it's actually a shiny module.
• eDT() adds extra (hidden) columns to your datatable. Try to format using column names instead of indexes.
• Your datatable now exists within a module (e.g. child namespace). This means your own chosen outputId is now moduleId-DT. This influences for example the values accessible under input. Example: switch from input$outputId_cell_clicked to input[["moduleId-DT_cell_clicked"]].
• eDT() accepts all arguments of DT::datatable(), but has some different defaults for convenience.
• Any additional formatting should be done by passing a function to the format argument of eDT().
• As always be careful when using extensions or custom javascript, not everything works well together. The KeyTable and AutoFill extensions of datatable are used by default and should be well integrated.

Here is an example covering the above:

library(shiny)
library(DT)
library(editbl)

ui <- fluidPage(DTOutput("DT"))
server <- function(input, output, session){
  output$DT <- renderDataTable({
    datatable(mtcars)  %>%
     formatRound('disp', 1)
  })  
  observe({
      print(input[["DT_cell_clicked"]])
   })
}
shinyApp(ui, server)

Reworked into eDT():

ui <- fluidPage(eDTOutput("DT"))
server <- function(input, output, session){
  editbl::eDT(
    id = "DT",
    data = mtcars,
    format = function(x){formatRound(x,'disp', 1)})

   observe({
      print(input[["DT-DT_cell_clicked"]])
   })
}
shinyApp(ui, server)

editbl documentation built on April 3, 2025, 6:21 p.m.