Plotly: Annotate outliers with sample names in boxplot

Question

I am trying to create a boxplot with ggplot and plotly with the dataset airquality where Month is on the x-axis and Ozone values are o

Answer 1

I've managed to achieve this with Shiny.

library(plotly)
library(shiny)
library(htmlwidgets)
library(datasets)

# Prepare data ----
data(airquality)
# add months
airquality$Month <- factor(airquality$Month,
                           labels = c("May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep"))
# add sample names
airquality$Sample <- paste0('Sample_', seq(1:nrow(airquality)))

# Plotly on hover event ----
addHoverBehavior <- c(
  "function(el, x){",
  "  el.on('plotly_hover', function(data) {",
  "    if(data.points.length==1){",
  "      $('.hovertext').hide();",
  "      Shiny.setInputValue('hovering', true);",
  "      var d = data.points[0];",
  "      Shiny.setInputValue('left_px', d.xaxis.d2p(d.x) + d.xaxis._offset);",
  "      Shiny.setInputValue('top_px', d.yaxis.l2p(d.y) + d.yaxis._offset);",
  "      Shiny.setInputValue('dx', d.x);",
  "      Shiny.setInputValue('dy', d.y);",
  "      Shiny.setInputValue('dtext', d.text);",
  "    }",
  "  });",
  "  el.on('plotly_unhover', function(data) {",
  "    Shiny.setInputValue('hovering', false);",
  "  });",
  "}")

# Shiny app ----
ui <- fluidPage(
  tags$head(
    # style for the tooltip with an arrow (http://www.cssarrowplease.com/)
    tags$style("
               .arrow_box {
                    position: absolute;
                  pointer-events: none;
                  z-index: 100;
                  white-space: nowrap;
                  background: rgb(54,57,64);
                  color: white;
                  font-size: 14px;
                  border: 1px solid;
                  border-color: rgb(54,57,64);
                  border-radius: 1px;
               }
               .arrow_box:after, .arrow_box:before {
                  right: 100%;
                  top: 50%;
                  border: solid transparent;
                  content: ' ';
                  height: 0;
                  width: 0;
                  position: absolute;
                  pointer-events: none;
               }
               .arrow_box:after {
                  border-color: rgba(136, 183, 213, 0);
                  border-right-color: rgb(54,57,64);
                  border-width: 4px;
                  margin-top: -4px;
               }
               .arrow_box:before {
                  border-color: rgba(194, 225, 245, 0);
                  border-right-color: rgb(54,57,64);
                  border-width: 10px;
                  margin-top: -10px;
               }")
  ),
  div(
    style = "position:relative",
    plotlyOutput("myplot"),
    uiOutput("hover_info")
  )
)

server <- function(input, output){
  output$myplot <- renderPlotly({
    airquality[[".id"]] <- seq_len(nrow(airquality))
    gg <- ggplot(airquality, aes(x=Month, y=Ozone, ids=.id)) + geom_boxplot()
    ggly <- ggplotly(gg, tooltip = "y")
    ids <- ggly$x$data[[1]]$ids
    ggly$x$data[[1]]$text <- 
      with(airquality, paste0(" sample: ", Sample, "
",
                              " month: ", Month, "
",
                              " ozone: ", Ozone))[ids]
    ggly %>% onRender(addHoverBehavior)
  })
  output$hover_info <- renderUI({
    if(isTRUE(input[["hovering"]])){
      style <- paste0("left: ", input[["left_px"]] + 4 + 5, "px;", # 4 = border-width after
                      "top: ", input[["top_px"]] - 24 - 2 - 1, "px;") # 24 = line-height/2 * number of lines; 2 = padding; 1 = border thickness
      div(
        class = "arrow_box", style = style,
        p(HTML(input$dtext), 
          style="margin: 0; padding: 2px; line-height: 16px;")
      )
    }
  })
}

shinyApp(ui = ui, server = server)