R Shiny - Dynamic download link in datatable

Question

I want to add a download link in each row of a datatable in shiny.

So far I have

server <- function(input, output) {

  v<-eventReactive(input$button,{
    temp<-data.frame(TBL.name=paste("Data ",1:10))
    temp<-cbind(
      temp,
      #Dynamically create the download and action links
      Attachments=sapply(seq(nrow(temp)),function(i){as.character(downloadLink(paste0("downloadData_",i),label = "Download Attachments"))})
    )
  })

  # Table of selected dataset ----
  output$table <- renderDataTable({
    v()
  }, escape = F)}

ui <- fluidPage(
  sidebarPanel(
    actionButton("button", "eventReactive")
  ),
  mainPanel(
    dataTableOutput("table")
  )
)

I have the download links in the table for each row. Now I want to add a different file location for each row. For example, each download link will result in a download of a different zip-folder. Can I use downloadHandler for this?

Answer 1

I do not believe you can embed downloadButtons/downloadLinks directly in a datatable. However, you can create hidden downloadLinks that get triggered by links embedded in your table. This produces the same end result. To do so you must:

• Dynamically generate downloadLinks/downloadButtons.
• Use css to set their visibility to hidden.
• Embed normal links/buttons in the table
• Set the onClick field of these links to trigger the corresponding hidden downloadLink.

Here is code from an example using the mtcars dataset.

library(tidyverse)
library(shiny)

ui <- fluidPage(
  tags$head(
    tags$style(HTML("

                    .hiddenLink {
                      visibility: hidden;
                    }

                    "))
    ),
  dataTableOutput("cars_table"),
  uiOutput("hidden_downloads")
)

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

  data <- mtcars

  lapply(1:nrow(data), function(i) {
    output[[paste0("downloadData", i)]] <- downloadHandler(
       filename = function() {
         paste("data-", i, ".csv", sep="")
       },
       content = function(file) {
         write.csv(data, file)
       }
    )
  })

  output$hidden_downloads <- renderUI(
    lapply(1:nrow(data), function(i) {
      downloadLink(paste0("downloadData", i), "download", class = "hiddenLink")
    }
    )
  )


  output$cars_table <- renderDataTable({


    data %>%
      mutate(link = lapply(1:n(),
        function(i)
          paste0('<a href="#" onClick=document.getElementById("downloadData',i, '").click() >Download</a>')
            ))
  }, escape = F)


}

shinyApp(ui, server)