Making a predefined layout for plotly in R

Question

I would like to make a predefined layout that I can use for my plot functions that I have created so as not to repeat myself everytime I make a plot. For example, I tried to do sth like the following which doesn't work and gives an error:

custom_layout <- function(){
  plotly::layout(
    xaxis = list(title = ""),
    yaxis = list(title = ""),
    title = list(text = title, y = 0.98)
  )
}

plot_bar <- function(title, dt, x, y, fill){
  plot_ly(dt, x =  ~x, y =  ~y, type = "bar",
          color =  ~ fill, split =  ~ fill) %>% 
    custom_layout()}

plot_line <- function(title, dt, x, y, fill){
  plot_ly(dt, x = ~x, y = ~y, type="scatter",
          split = ~fill, mode="lines+markers") %>% 
    custom_layout()}

I call these 2 plotting functions multiple times in my code. I have also other predefined plotting functions like plot_line and plot_bar and I use the same layout for them as well but now manually adding the layout like in the following:

plot_bar <- function(title, dt, x, y, fill){
  plot_ly(dt, x =  ~x, y =  ~y, type = "bar",
          color =  ~ fill, split =  ~ fill) %>% 
  layout(
    xaxis = list(title = ""),
    yaxis = list(title = ""),
    title = list(text = title, y = 0.98)

Ideally, I would like to define it like in the first scenario with a predefined layout that I could use later for every plotting function which is not working for me. Is there a way to do it with native plotly and not ggplot2?

DaveArmstrong · Accepted Answer · 2020-09-26 13:10:42Z

2

You need to make the custom_layout() function take p as its first argument (just like layout() does).

library(tibble)
dt <- tibble(x=1:4, y=3:6, fill=1:4)

custom_layout <- function(p, title){
  plotly::layout(p,
                 xaxis = list(title = ""),
                 yaxis = list(title = ""),
                 title = list(text = title, y = 0.98)
  )
}

plot_bar <- function(title, dt, x, y, fill){
  plot_ly(dt, x =  ~x, y =  ~y, type = "bar",
          color =  ~ fill, split =  ~ fill) %>% 
    custom_layout(title=title)}


plot_bar(title="myplot", dt, "x", "y", "fill")

edited Sep 26, 2020 at 13:10

answered Sep 26, 2020 at 12:37

DaveArmstrong

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5 Comments

Jack Over a year ago

Hi Dave thank you for your help. It still doesn't work even with your example code. I get the following error message: Error in unique.default(x) : unique() applies only to vectors

DaveArmstrong Over a year ago

@Jack Do you get that with the example data, too or is the error happening with your own data?

Jack Over a year ago

I get it with the example data :( Maybe I need to update the plotly package because that is very weird that it works for you and not for me with the exact same data.

DaveArmstrong Over a year ago

@Jack Seems like it was a problem for me, too. I fixed it by making the custom layout a function of title as well and then passing the title argument from plot_bar() down to custom_layout(). Give that a try.

Jack Over a year ago

That worked like a charm. It makes also more sense now to make it a custom function of title as well. Thank you so much for your help.

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