Documentation Link

It is very useful to have links to the appropriate documentation for your app within the app itself. The documentationLink widget puts such a link on your page.

documentationLinkUI arguments

The documentationLinkUI function takes a single argument in addition to ‘id’:

# documentationLink_ui.R
documentationLinkUI <- function(id, isHeader = TRUE)

where setting isHeader to TRUE reduces the icon size in a manner appropriate for inclusion in a step header or box title, the most appropriate placement in many widgets.

For example:

# module_ui.R
documentationLinkUI(ns(id))

documentationLinkServer arguments

The documentationLinkServer function takes various arguments in addition to ‘id’:

# documentationLink_server.R
documentationLinkServer <- function(
    id, 
    gitUser = "MiDataInt",
    repository = NULL,
    docPath = NULL,
    anchor = NULL,
    url = NULL
)

where:

• id = the id of the settings widget
• gitUser = the GitHub user or organization
• repository = the base repository name, if not “midataint.github.io”
• docPath = the relative file path to the documentation target, e.g., “path/to/docs.html” (“.html” is optional)
• anchor = the name of an optional heading anchor on the page, e.g., “first-heading”
• url = use this web address, ignoring all values for gitUser, repository, docPath, and anchor

For example:

# module_server.R
documentationLinkServer(id, "wilsontelab", "svx-mdi-tools", "path/to/README")

Step-level documentation

Many appStep modules have a dedicated documentation page. First, activate the documentation icon link in ui.R:

# <appStep>/<appStep>_ui.R
<appStep>UI <- function(id, options) {
    ns <- NS(id)    
    standardSequentialTabItem(
        HTML(paste( options$longLabel, documentationLinkUI(ns('documentation')) ))
        # etc.
    )
}

Then activate the documentation server in server.R:

# <appStep>/<appStep>_server.R
<appStep>Server <- function(id, options, bookmark, locks) {
    moduleServer(id, function(input, output, session) {
    documentationLinkServer('documentation',  ...)
    # etc.
})}