Sidebar layouts

Layout functions allow inputs and outputs to be visually arranged in the UI. A well-chosen layout makes a Shiny app aesthetically more appealing, and also improves the user experience.

In this exercise, you will modify the layout of a Shiny app that lets users explore the popularity of trendy names. Your final app should visually resemble this:

An app where the name selector appears in the left sidebar, while the graph appears on the right in the main panel

This exercise is part of the course

Building Web Applications with Shiny in R

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Exercise instructions

Modify the layout of this app so that the name selector appears in the sidebar and the plot and table appear on the right.

Hands-on interactive exercise

Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.

ui <- fluidPage(
  # MODIFY CODE BELOW: Wrap in a sidebarLayout
    # MODIFY CODE BELOW: Wrap in a sidebarPanel
    selectInput('name', 'Select Name', top_trendy_names$name),
    # MODIFY CODE BELOW: Wrap in a mainPanel
    plotly::plotlyOutput('plot_trendy_names'),
    DT::DTOutput('table_trendy_names')
)

# DO NOT MODIFY
server <- function(input, output, session){
  # Function to plot trends in a name
  plot_trends <- function(){
     babynames %>% 
      filter(name == input$name) %>% 
      ggplot(aes(x = year, y = n)) +
      geom_col()
  }
  output$plot_trendy_names <- plotly::renderPlotly({
    plot_trends()
  })
  
  output$table_trendy_names <- DT::renderDT({
    babynames %>% 
      filter(name == input$name)
  })
}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)

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