In tdhock/animint2: Animated Interactive Grammar of Graphics

Animint is an R package for creating web-based interactive graphics and animations using ggplot2’s grammar of graphics approach. Now you can embed animint plots inside shiny apps. In the shiny app below, you can change the x/y/color variables and both plots will update.

library(shiny)
shinyAppDir(
  system.file("examples/shiny", package = "animint2"),
  options = list(width = "100%", height = 500)
)

In addition to embedding a shiny application inline, we can also renderAnimint directly inside of an interactive document. To demonstrate, we use the world bank data made famous by Hans Rosling.

library(animint2)
data(WorldBank, package = "animint2")

WorldBank$region <- gsub("(all income levels)", "", WorldBank$region, fixed = TRUE)

Now, we construct a time-series and scatterplot using ggplot2's grammar with the addition of animint's clickSelects and showSelected aesthetics to create an interactive link between the plots.

ts <- ggplot() +
      make_tallrect(WorldBank, "year") +
      # plot the lines *on top of rectangles* so lines are clickable
      geom_line(aes(year, life.expectancy, group = country, colour = region),
                     clickSelects = "country",
                 data = WorldBank, size = 4, alpha = 3/5) +
      guides(color = "none")

not.na <- subset(WorldBank, !(is.na(life.expectancy) | is.na(fertility.rate)))
scatter <- ggplot() +
       geom_point(aes(fertility.rate, life.expectancy,
                      colour = region, size = population,
                      key = country), # key aesthetic for animated transitions!
                  clickSelects = "country",
                  showSelected = "year",
                  data = not.na) +
       geom_text(aes(fertility.rate, life.expectancy, label = country,
                     key = country), #also use key here!
                     showSelected = c("country", "year"),
                 data = not.na) +
       scale_size_animint(breaks = 10^(5:9)) +
       make_text(WorldBank, 5, 85, "year")

# just to make sure everything fits in one line
ts <- ts + theme_animint(width = 360, height = 360)
scatter <- scatter + theme_animint(width = 360, height = 360)

In this example, the plot aesthetics are fixed, but we could integrate shiny's reactive components into animint's options such as the animation speed.

getPlotList <- reactive({
  # think of animint objects as a list of ggplots and specially named options
  list(# the plots we constructed earlier
       ts = ts,
       scatter = scatter,
       time = list(variable = "year", ms = input$time),
       duration = list(year = input$duration),
       first = list(year = 1975, country = c("United States", "Vietnam")),
       selector.types = list(country = "multiple"))
})

inputPanel(
  sliderInput("time", "Display time for each frame (in milliseconds)", 
              min = 10, max = 10000, value = 3000, step = 10),
  sliderInput("duration", "Time between frames (in milliseconds)", 
              min = 10, max = 5000, value = 1000, step = 10)
)

renderAnimint({
  getPlotList()
})