Content-Shaped Loading Placeholders for 'shiny' Outputs

Shows a grey placeholder in the shape of the content while a 'shiny' output loads, in place of a spinner. The user can thus see what is coming, and not only that something happens. The shape comes from the type of the output. The placeholder keeps the space of the content, so the page does not move when the content arrives. When an output calculates again, the old content stays on the screen, dimmed, and a placeholder does not replace it.

bones

Content-shaped loading placeholders for Shiny outputs.

A spinner tells the user to wait. A skeleton tells the user what is coming.

library(shiny)
library(bones)

ui <- fluidPage(
  withBones(plotOutput("chart")),
  withBones(tableOutput("results"), rows = 8)
)

That is all. The shape comes from the output that you wrap.

To give every output a skeleton at once, give the whole UI to bones_auto():

ui <- bones_auto(fluidPage(
  plotOutput("chart"),
  tableOutput("results")
))

Installation

# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("tenmeh/bones")

Then run the demo:

shiny::runApp(system.file("examples/demo", package = "bones"))

The demo is a tour. It has a tab for charts, tables, text and cards, and maps and networks, and each output shows the skeleton of its shape. The sidebar sets the load time and the animation, turns stale on and off, and turns on the dark mode. The tables tab uses DT, reactable and gt, and the maps tab uses leaflet and visNetwork. If a package is not installed, its card tells you so, and the rest of the demo still runs.

The idea

A spinner gives one piece of information: something happens. A skeleton also shows the shape of the content that comes next. The page does not look empty, and the eye of the user can go to the place where the content will be.

bones gets that shape from the output that you give it:

You can change each of these:

withBones(uiOutput("cards"),  type = "cards", n = 4)
withBones(uiOutput("kpis"),   type = "value", n = 3, height = "90px")
withBones(plotOutput("map"),  height = "600px", animation = "pulse")

Chart shapes

A chart can have the shape of its kind:

withBones(plotOutput("sales"),  type = "bar")
withBones(plotOutput("trend"),  type = "line")
withBones(plotOutput("growth"), type = "area")
withBones(plotOutput("fit"),    type = "scatter")
withBones(plotOutput("ages"),   type = "histogram")
withBones(plotOutput("share"),  type = "pie")
withBones(plotOutput("corr"),   type = "heatmap")

bones cannot find the kind for you. plotOutput() only says that a plot will be there. renderPlot() decides the kind later, on the server. With no type, a plot gets the bar shape.

Maps, networks and other widgets

A visualisation widget also says what it is, so bones gives it its shape with no type:

ggmap and other ggplot2 maps draw into a plotOutput(), so give them type = "map".

Table shapes

A table package is different: its output says which package it is. So bones gives DT, reactable, gt and rhandsontable their own shape with no type:

withBones(DT::DTOutput("patients"), rows = 10)
withBones(gt::gt_output("summary"), rows = 8, cols = 5)

Set rows to the number of rows on a page. DT and reactable show 10 by default. Before gt 1.0.0, gt_output() did not mark its output as a gt table, so with an older gt, give type = "gt". The space kept for each package was measured in a browser, so the page does not move when the table arrives.

What a spinner cannot do

It keeps the content that the user reads

On the first load, the user sees a skeleton. When the output calculates again, the user does not. The old content stays on the screen, dimmed.

This is on purpose. The user is possibly in the middle of a chart. Grey rectangles in its place would remove information. The old numbers are an answer, and a better answer replaces them a moment later. A skeleton would be worse than the old content.

All outputs show the recalculation at the same time. This is true when several outputs use one slow reactive, and Shiny calculates them one after the other.

Turn it off for one output if you prefer a skeleton:

withBones(plotOutput("chart"), stale = FALSE)

It does not flicker

A skeleton that shows for a moment is worse than no skeleton. So the skeleton, and the dimming of old content, wait for 300 ms. A load that ends sooner shows nothing. When a skeleton has appeared, it stays for at least 500 ms, so a load that ends a moment after the delay does not flash it for one frame. The space of the content is kept from the start.

withBones(plotOutput("chart"), delay = 150, min_time = 400)
bones_defaults(delay = 0)   # show the skeleton at once, for every output

It keeps the space of the content

Until the content arrives, the placeholder keeps the height of the output. The page thus does not move when the content arrives. If the output sets a height, the placeholder uses it: plotOutput() sets 400px by default. If not, the height comes from rows, lines or n, or you can set height yourself.

When the content arrives, the content sets the height. If the estimate was too tall, the space closes. No gap stays under the content.

An estimate can be wrong. So when the content arrives, the browser stores its real height, and on the next visit the placeholder keeps that height in place of the estimate. From the second visit, the page does not move at all. Only an estimated height is stored, per page and per output, and it is used only at almost the same width. Turn it off with remember = FALSE.

A note about the implementation

The content is hidden with visibility: hidden, not with display: none. The skeleton is on top of the content, with absolute position.

This is more important than it looks. An element with display: none has a width of zero. renderPlot() makes its image at the width of the element. An output hidden in that way thus gets a plot at the wrong size. Shiny keeps that image, and it looks broken until something causes a new render. When the output keeps its box and only the paint is hidden, this problem cannot occur.

Theming

bones_defaults(
  animation = "wave",      # or "pulse", "cascade", "sweep" or "none"
  color     = "#e9ecef",
  highlight = "#f8f9fa",
  radius    = "0.5rem",
  speed     = 1.4          # seconds for each cycle
)

The default colours come from the theme of the page. They are the text colour of the bslib theme, made faint, so a skeleton takes the tint of a branded theme and turns light in a dark theme, with no configuration. The corners follow the rounding of the theme too. Each part of the page follows its own theme, so a skeleton in a dark card is light even on a light page. With no Bootstrap 5 theme, as with fluidPage(), or in an old browser, the colours are neutral greys that work on light and on dark pages. A colour from bones_defaults() is stronger than the theme.

There are five animations:

Users who ask their system to reduce motion get no animation. A placeholder that moves is exactly what that setting is for.

Your own placeholder

When no built-in shape fits, give your own with skeleton. Build it from bones_block(), a grey block with the colours and the animation of bones:

person <- div(
  style = "display: flex; gap: 0.75rem; align-items: center;",
  bones_block(40, 40, shape = "circle"),
  div(
    style = "flex: 1; display: grid; gap: 0.4rem;",
    bones_block("40%"),
    bones_block("80%", "0.6rem")
  )
)

withBones(uiOutput("people"), skeleton = tagList(person, person, person))

The tags at the top level stack with a small gap. The placeholder behaves as a built-in shape does: it waits for delay, keeps the space of the content, and leaves the old content on the screen when stale is TRUE.

Placeholders on their own

When you need a placeholder where there is no Shiny output:

bones_skeleton("table", rows = 5, cols = 3)
bones_skeleton("text", lines = 4)

The placeholder brings its stylesheet, and it uses the animation and the colours from bones_defaults().

Accessibility

The placeholder has aria-hidden="true". Shiny already sets aria-busy on an output while it calculates, and treats outputs as live regions. A message from the placeholder as well would only repeat that for users of a screen reader.

Development

man/ is made by roxygen2 and is in the repository, so an install from GitHub has the help pages. After a change to the roxygen comments:

devtools::document()
devtools::test()
devtools::check()

The browser tests in tests/testthat/test-app-smoke.R need a headless Chrome. They skip on CRAN, and when no browser can start. Set NOT_CRAN=true to run them.

License

MIT