Plot not rendering with inputs on the sidebar of s

For a few days I've been working on an app with the shiny library and now I would like to test the new adaptations with the shinydashboard package. The problem is that my plot does not show up (render) in the tab that I would like it to appear when I set the inputs in the sidebar.

Using only the shiny package, I've set the following code, with no menu sidebar (as in shinydashboard):

library(shiny)
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)

rm(list=ls()); gc()

#functions to order the bar graph

reorder_within <- function(x, by, within, fun = mean, sep = "___", ...) {
  new_x <- paste(x, within, sep = sep)
  stats::reorder(new_x, by, FUN = fun)
}

scale_x_reordered <- function(..., sep = "___") {
  reg <- paste0(sep, ".+$")
  ggplot2::scale_x_discrete(labels = function(x) gsub(reg, "", x), ...)
}

#setting example data 

sample_data = data.frame(Company_Name=c("Company 1","Company 2","Company 3",
                                        "Company 1","Company 2","Company 3",
                                        "Company 1","Company 2","Company 3"),
                         Profits_MM = c(20,100,80,
                                        45,120,70,
                                        50,110,130),
                         Sales_MM = c(200,800,520,
                                      300,1000,630,
                                      410,1150,1200),
                         Year=c(2016,2016,2016,
                                2017,2017,2017,
                                2018,2018,2018))


# UI
ui <- fluidPage(

  sidebarLayout(

    # Input(s)
    sidebarPanel(

      checkboxGroupInput(inputId = "sel_com",
                         label = "Company Selection:",
                         choices = c("Company 1","Company 2","Company 3"),
                         selected = "Company 1"),


      selectInput(inputId = "y", 
                  label = "Performance Variable",
                  choices = c("Profits (in Millions)" = "Profits_MM", 
                              "Sales (in Millions)" = "Sales_MM"),
                  selected = "Profits_MM"),


      sliderInput("year","Year Selection:",
                  min=2016,
                  max=2018,
                  value=c(2017,2018),
                  step=1)


    ),

    # Output(s)
    mainPanel(
      plotOutput(outputId = "barplot")
    )
  )
)

# Server
server <- function(input, output, session) {

  companies_sel <- reactive({

    req(input$sel_com)

    sample_data_gg = filter(sample_data, Company_Name %in% input$sel_com)
    #  print(sample_data_gg)
    sample_data_gg

  })

  year_sample <- reactive({

    req(input$year)
    sample_data_gg = sample_data
    if((input$year[2] - input$year[1])>1){

      Years = seq(input$year[1],input$year[2])

      sample_data_gg = filter(companies_sel(), Year %in% Years)

    }  

    if((input$year[2] - input$year[1])==1){

      sample_data_gg = filter(companies_sel(), Year %in% input$year)

    }
    #  print(sample_data_gg)
    sample_data_gg
  })


  output$barplot = renderPlot({

    sample_data_gg = year_sample()

    y <- input$y
    ggplot(data = sample_data_gg, aes(x=reorder_within(Company_Name, get( y ), Year), y = get( y ))) +
      geom_col(position="dodge", fill="darkred") +
      facet_wrap(Year~., scales = "free")  +
      scale_x_reordered() +
      theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 60, hjust = 1))


  })

}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

This code works within the shiny package and shows the type of plot that I would like to show up in the app.

But if I change this coding for the shinydashboard package -- while setting the inputs inside the sidebar -- the plot does not show up and I'm trying to figure out why. Here it is the code:

library(shiny)
library(ggplot2)
library(dplyr)
library(shinydashboard)

reorder_within <- function(x, by, within, fun = mean, sep = "___", ...) {
  new_x <- paste(x, within, sep = sep)
  stats::reorder(new_x, by, FUN = fun)
}

scale_x_reordered <- function(..., sep = "___") {
  reg <- paste0(sep, ".+$")
  ggplot2::scale_x_discrete(labels = function(x) gsub(reg, "", x), ...)
}

rm(list=ls()); gc()

sample_data = data.frame(Company_Name=c("Company 1","Company 2","Company 3",
                                        "Company 1","Company 2","Company 3",
                                        "Company 1","Company 2","Company 3"),
                         Profits_MM = c(20,100,80,
                                        45,120,70,
                                        50,110,130),
                         Sales_MM = c(200,800,520,
                                      300,1000,630,
                                      410,1150,1200),
                         Year=c(2016,2016,2016,
                                2017,2017,2017,
                                2018,2018,2018))


# UI
ui <- dashboardPage(
      dashboardHeader(title = "Dashboard Test"),
      dashboardSidebar(

      sidebarMenu(id="tab",
                  menuItem("Data Selection", tabName = "dc", icon = icon("dashboard"),
      checkboxGroupInput(inputId = "sel_com",
                         label = "Company Selection:",
                         choices = c("Company 1","Company 2","Company 3"),
                         selected = "Company 1"),
      selectInput(inputId = "y", 
                  label = "Performance Variable",
                  choices = c("Profits (in Millions)" = "Profits_MM", 
                              "Sales (in Millions)" = "Sales_MM"),
                  selected = "Profits_MM"),
      sliderInput("year","Year Selection:",
                  min=2016,
                  max=2018,
                  value=c(2017,2018),
                  step=1)))),


      dashboardBody(

        tabItems(
          # First tab content
          tabItem(tabName = "dc",

                  fluidRow(column(width=12,box(plotOutput("plot1")))


        )
      )
    )
  )
)


# Server
server <- function(input, output, session) {

  companies_sel <- reactive({

    req(input$sel_com)

    sample_data_gg = filter(sample_data, Company_Name %in% input$sel_com)
    #  print(sample_data_gg)
    sample_data_gg

  })

  year_sample <- reactive({

    req(input$year)
    sample_data_gg = sample_data
    if((input$year[2] - input$year[1])>1){

      Years = seq(input$year[1],input$year[2])

      sample_data_gg = filter(companies_sel(), Year %in% Years)

    }  

    if((input$year[2] - input$year[1])==1){

      sample_data_gg = filter(companies_sel(), Year %in% input$year)

    }
    #  print(sample_data_gg)
    sample_data_gg
  })


  output$barplot = renderPlot({

    sample_data_gg = year_sample()

    y <- input$y
    ggplot(data = sample_data_gg, aes(x=reorder_within(Company_Name, get( y ), Year), y = get( y ))) +
      geom_col(position="dodge", fill="darkred") +
      facet_wrap(Year~., scales = "free")  +
      scale_x_reordered() +
      theme(axis.text.x = element_text(angle = 60, hjust = 1))


  })

}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

I believe I might be missing some interaction between the barplot and the input selection in the sidebar, but I cannot figure exactly what is wrong.

You actually had a few issues in your code that were collectively causing the issue:

First: The first was identified in the comments - your use of rm(list=ls()) was deleting functions that you needed later.

Second: Your plotOutput() was using the id "plot1" while your renderPlot was referring to "barplot". I assume that was a simple translation error from when you were switching over to shinydashboard. Make them the same and that will help.

Third: This was the more serious of the three. shinydashboard has a known issue, described very well here, where multiple elements within menuItem cause the loss of the attributes that link the content to tabItems. You can overcome that with a custom function that sets those values manually, and then wrap your menuItem calls in that function, taking care to specify the tabName in the function.

convertMenuItem <- function(mi,tabName) {
  mi$children[[1]]$attribs['data-toggle']="tab"
  mi$children[[1]]$attribs['data-value'] = tabName
  mi
}

Updated UI for your situation would look like this:

ui <- dashboardPage(
      ... #Other elements remain unchanged
      dashboardSidebar(
        sidebarMenu(
          convertMenuItem(menuItem("Data Selection", tabName = "dc", icon = icon("dashboard"),
              checkboxGroupInput(inputId = "sel_com",
                                label = "Company Selection:",
                                choices = c("Company 1","Company 2","Company 3"),
                                selected = "Company 1"),
              selectInput(inputId = "y", 
                                 label = "Performance Variable",
                                 choices = c("Profits (in Millions)" = "Profits_MM", 
                                             "Sales (in Millions)" = "Sales_MM"),
                                 selected = "Profits_MM"),
              sliderInput("year","Year Selection:",
                          min=2016,
                          max=2018,
                          value=c(2017,2018),
                          step=1)), tabName="dc")
        )
      ),
     ... #Other elements remain unchanged
     )