Changelog • dashboardr

dashboardr (development version)

Unified Stacked Bar Chart Function

viz_stackedbar() is now a unified function that supports two modes:

Mode 1: Grouped/Crosstab (use x_var + stack_var)

# Show how one variable breaks down by another
viz_stackedbar(data, x_var = "education", stack_var = "gender")

Mode 2: Multi-Variable/Battery (use x_vars)

# Compare multiple survey questions side-by-side
viz_stackedbar(data, x_vars = c("q1", "q2", "q3"))

This eliminates confusion between viz_stackedbar() and viz_stackedbars() - you now only need to remember one function! The function automatically detects which mode to use based on the parameters you provide.

Migration from viz_stackedbars(): Simply change the function name - all parameters work the same way:

# Old way (still works, shows deprecation notice)
viz_stackedbars(data, x_vars = c("q1", "q2", "q3"))

# New preferred way
viz_stackedbar(data, x_vars = c("q1", "q2", "q3"))

The viz_stackedbars() function is soft-deprecated and will continue to work, but we recommend using viz_stackedbar() for all new code.

Breaking Changes

Visualization Function Renaming

All create_* visualization functions have been renamed to viz_* for clarity and to distinguish them from dashboard-level creation functions:

Old Name	New Name
`create_histogram()`	`viz_histogram()`
`create_bar()`	`viz_bar()`
`create_stackedbar()`	`viz_stackedbar()`
`create_stackedbars()`	`viz_stackedbars()`
`create_timeline()`	`viz_timeline()`
`create_heatmap()`	`viz_heatmap()`
`create_scatter()`	`viz_scatter()`
`create_map()`	`viz_map()`
`create_treemap()`	`viz_treemap()`

The old function names are deprecated and will show a warning when used. They will be removed in a future version.

Migration: Simply replace create_ with viz_ in your code.

Timeline Parameter Renaming

Timeline chart parameters have been renamed for consistency with other visualization types:

Old Name	New Name
`response_var`	`y_var`
`response_filter`	`y_filter`
`response_filter_combine`	`y_filter_combine`
`response_filter_label`	`y_filter_label`
`response_levels`	`y_levels`
`response_breaks`	`y_breaks`
`response_bin_labels`	`y_bin_labels`

New Features

Error Bars Support in Bar Charts

viz_bar() now supports error bars for displaying uncertainty in mean values:

New value_var parameter: When provided, bars show the mean of this variable per category (instead of counts)
New error_bars parameter: Choose from “none” (default), “sd” (standard deviation), “se” (standard error), or “ci” (confidence interval)
New ci_level parameter: Set confidence level for CI (default 0.95 for 95% CI)
Customizable appearance via error_bar_color and error_bar_width parameters
Works with both simple and grouped bar charts

Example usage:

# Bar chart with means and 95% CI
viz_bar(
  data = mtcars,
  x_var = "cyl",
  value_var = "mpg",
  error_bars = "ci",
  title = "Mean MPG by Cylinders"
)

# Grouped bars with standard error
viz_bar(
  data = mtcars,
  x_var = "cyl",
  group_var = "am",
  value_var = "mpg",
  error_bars = "se"
)

Early Validation for Visualizations

preview() now automatically validates all visualization specs before rendering, catching missing required parameters (like stack_var for stacked bar charts) and invalid column names early with helpful error messages
New validate_specs() function for manual validation of content collections
print(collection, check = TRUE) validates specs while viewing the structure

New Visualization Types

viz_density(): Create kernel density estimate plots for visualizing continuous distributions. Supports grouped densities, adjustable bandwidth, rug marks, and weighted estimation.
viz_boxplot(): Create interactive box-and-whisker plots. Supports grouped boxplots, horizontal orientation, outlier display, and weighted percentiles.

Histogram Improvements

Fixed handling of character-numeric values (e.g., “25”, “30”) - now correctly converted to numeric for binning
Improved default bin labels to show readable ranges (e.g., “18-29” instead of “[18,30)”)
Added data_labels_enabled parameter to control display of value labels on bars

Data Labels Control

Added data_labels_enabled parameter to viz_histogram(), viz_bar(), viz_stackedbar(), and viz_stackedbars() - allows hiding value labels on bars for cleaner visualizations
Renamed show_labels to data_labels_enabled in viz_treemap() for consistency (old parameter still works with deprecation warning)
viz_heatmap() already had data_labels_enabled - now all viz functions use the same parameter name

Documentation

Added new visualization vignettes: density_vignette, boxplot_vignette, histogram_vignette, scatter_vignette, treemap_vignette, map_vignette
Interactive inputs demo and documentation in vignette("advanced-features")
Improved cross-references between vignettes

Bug Fixes

Fixed Unicode/emoji rendering issues in console output
Fixed nested tabgroup rendering in preview()
Fixed parameter mapping for stackedbars visualization type