Developing R

Graphical User
Interfaces
SETIA PRAMANA

Outlines

2
R GUI

Motivations
R GUI
IsoGeneGUI
neaGUI

How to develop an R GUI?

Independent GUI
Embedded GUI (RcmdrPlugin.BiclustGUI)

Summary

R Pros and Con

3
R GUI

Free open source and widely used.

Can be integrated with other languages (C/C++,

Java).

R can interact with many data sources and other

statistical packages (SAS, Stata, SPSS, and Minitab).

For the high performance computing task

multiple cores, either on a single machine or across a
network.

Users type commands to perform a

statistical analysis.

Is preferred for advanced users allows

direct control, more accurate, flexible and
the analysis is reproducible.

4
R GUI

R: A Command line
interface (CLI)

Requires good knowledge of the language

difficult for beginners or less frequent
users.

R provides tools for building GUIs

RGUI

5
R GUI

R: A Command line
interface (CLI)

6
R GUI

Graphical User Interface

(GUI)

A tool to provide an event-driven user interface.

An extra layer between the user and the program

Based on menus, dialog boxes, icons and controls.

Window, icon, menu, and pointing device

(WIMP) paradigm

R GUI Projects

7
R GUI

Integrated development environment (IDE)/Script

Editors aimed to provide feature-rich environments to
edit R scripts and code: Rstudio (www.rstudio.com),
and architect (www.Openanalytics.eu)

Web based application: the Rweb (Banfield, 1999),

R.Net (www.u.arizona.edu/~ryckman/Net.php), or
gWidgetsWWW (Verzani, 2012).

R Studio

R GUI

Download from
Rstudio.com

Powerfull IDE
(Integrated
Development
Environment) for
R.

R GUI Projects

9
R GUI

Python: OpenMeta-Analyst (Wallace et al, 2012)

Java: JGR (Java GUI for R), Deducer (Fellows,
2012), and Glotaran (Snellenburg, 2012).
Php: R-php (http://dssm.unipa.it/R-php/)
Shiny
C++, C#
Other extensions connect R to graphical
toolboxes for developing menus and dialog
boxes: Tcltk, Gtk.
We focus on Tcltk and Shiny

R GUI Tcl/Tk

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R GUI

Most commonly used: easy, no additional

software needed and ready to be used in R
(tcltk package)
R-Tcl/Tk interface from the tcltk package
(Dalgaard, 2001 and Welch, 2000).

The tcltk package allows the use of the Tk

(toolkit) graphical user interface elements
within R by embedding Tk commands into
the R language.

11

R GUI

RGUI Developed using

tcltk

R GUI Tcl/Tk

12
R GUI

R GUIs developed by using tcl/tk or RGtk:

LimmaGUI (Wettenhall and Smyth, 2004),

LMMNorm (Haldermans, 2010),

IsoGeneGUI (Pramana et al. , 2010,

2012)

NeaGUI (Pramana et.al, 2013)

Rcommander (Fox, 2005)

RcmdrPlugin.biclustGUI (Pramana, 2011)

R GUI Tcl/Tk

13
R GUI

R GUIs developed by using tcl/tk or RGtk:

LimmaGUI (Wettenhall and Smyth, 2004),

LMMNorm (Haldermans, 2010),

IsoGeneGUI (Pramana et al. , 2010,

2012)

NeaGUI (Pramana et.al, 2013)

Rcommander (Fox, 2005)

RcmdrPlugin.biclustGUI (Pramana, 2011)

Independent
GUI

R GUI Tcl/Tk

14
R GUI

R GUIs developed by using tcl/tk or RGtk:

LimmaGUI (Wettenhall and Smyth, 2004),

LMMNorm (Haldermans, 2010),

IsoGeneGUI (Pramana et al. , 2010,

2011)

NeaGUI (Pramana et.al, 2013)

Rcommander (Fox, 2005)

RcmdrPlugin.biclustGUI (Pramana, 2011)

Embeded
GUI

neaGUI

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R GUI

To help interpretation of
differentially expressed (DE)
genes in context of biological
processes, pathways and
networks.
Perform network enrichment
analysis.
Input: DE genes
Output: enriched pathways
statistics based on gene
interaction networks.

neaGUI Output

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R GUI

neaGUI Output

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R GUI

RGUI: RCommander

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R GUI

Rcommander.com

Helpful for R
beginner

Install inside R

RGUI using C#: Wires

Developed by STIS
students

For Spatial Data

Analysis

Still developing

R GUI

19

RGUI using C#: Wires

20

R GUI

21

R GUI

RGUI: Web Based App

WebBUGS
Conducting
Bayesian Statistical
Analysis Online

Combines
OpenBUGS and R

www.webbugs.psychstat.org

R GUI

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RGUI: Shiny

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R GUI

A new package from Rstudio to build

interactive web applications with R.

Really Easy!

Build useful web applications with only a

few lines of codeno JavaScript required.

Self learning: http://shiny.rstudio.com/

http://www.showmeshiny.com/

RGUI using Shiny: FAST

Figure 5. FAST main page

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RGUI, How to Build One?

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R GUI

Choose one of RGUI categories, and tools to be used

(tcltk, java, etc.) which suit with the package purpose.

Make sketches of the window box and consider:

Input

Options

Output

Can all functions be run in a single window (e.g.

neaGUI)? Or a main window with menu
(IsoGeneGUI) and separate dialog boxes are needed?

Create Main Window

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R GUI

tt <- tktoplevel()
tkwm.title(tt,"My New GUI")

topMenu <- tkmenu(tt)

tkconfigure (tt,menu=topMenu)

fileMenu <- tkmenu(topMenu,tearoff=FALSE)

openMenu <- tkmenu(topMenu,tearoff=FALSE)

tkadd(openMenu,"command",label="xls file",
command= getXls)
tkadd(openMenu,"command",label="text file)

Create Main Window

27
R GUI

tt <- tktoplevel()
tkwm.title(tt,"My New GUI")

topMenu <- tkmenu(tt)

tkconfigure (tt,menu=topMenu)

fileMenu <- tkmenu(topMenu,tearoff=FALSE)

openMenu <- tkmenu(topMenu,tearoff=FALSE)
getXls <- function
tkadd(openMenu,"command",label="xls
file", () {
fileName <- tclvalue(tkgetOpenFile(filetypes=
command= getXls)
gettext(' {"Excel Files" {".xls"}} {"All Files"
{"*"}}')))
tkadd(openMenu,"command",label="text
file)
data <- get( fileName) }

Create Main Window

28
R GUI

tt <- tktoplevel()
tkwm.title(tt,"My New GUI")
topMenu <- tkmenu(tt)
tkconfigure (tt,menu=topMenu)
fileMenu <- tkmenu(topMenu,tearoff=FALSE)
openMenu <- tkmenu(topMenu,tearoff=FALSE)

tkadd(openMenu,"command",label="xls file",
command= getXls)
tkadd(openMenu,"command",label="text file")

tkadd(fileMenu,"cascade",label="Open data",
menu=openMenu)
tkadd(fileMenu,"cascade",label="Edit data")

tkadd(fileMenu,"command",label="Quit",command=function() tkdestroy(tt))
tkadd(topMenu,"cascade",label="File",menu=fileMenu)
tkadd(topMenu,"cascade",label="Help")
tkfocus(tt)

Create a Dialog Box

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R GUI

Create the window

require(tcltk)
tt<-tktoplevel()

tkwm.title(tt,"Input Window")

Edit Box

Name <- tclVar("")

entry.Name <-tkentry(tt,width="20",

textvariable=Name)
tkgrid(tklabel(tt,text="Name:"), entry.Name)

Create a Dialog Box

30
R GUI

Radio button

rb1 <- tkradiobutton(tt)

rb2 <- tkradiobutton(tt)

rbValue <- tclVar("Male")

tkconfigure(rb1,variable=rbValue,

value="Male")
tkconfigure(rb2,variable=rbValue,

value="Female")
tkgrid(tklabel(tt,text="Sex:"))

tkgrid(tklabel(tt,text="Male"),rb1)
tkgrid(tklabel(tt,text="Female"),rb2)

Create a Dialog Box

31
R GUI

List box with scroll bar

scr <- tkscrollbar(tt, repeatinterval=5,

command=function(...) tkyview(tl,...))

tl<-tklistbox(tt,height=4,selectmode="single",
background="white")

tkgrid(tklabel(tt,text="City:"), tl, scr)

city <- c("Brussels","Jakarta", "London",

"Stockholm")
for (i in (1:4)) tkinsert(tl,"end",city [i])

tkselection.set(tl,1)
tkgrid.configure(scr,rowspan=4,sticky="nsw")

Create a Dialog Box

32
R GUI

OK button

OK.but <-tkbutton(tt,text="
command=OnOK)

tkgrid(OK.but)
tkgrid.configure(OK.but)
tkfocus(tt)

OK

",

33
R GUI

Run the function (OK

button)

34
R GUI

Run the function (OK

button)
OnOK <- function() {
NameVal <- tclvalue(Name)
rbVal <- as.character(tclvalue
(rbValue))
if (rbVal=="Male") pref = "Mr."
if (rbVal=="Female") pref = "Mrs.
cityChoice <- city [as.numeric(tkcurselection(tl))+1]

tkdestroy(tt)
msg <- paste("Good morning ",pref , NameVal , "from", cityChoice,

tkmessageBox(message=msg)
}

sep=" ")

Summary

35
R GUI

A GUI could help novice R users for utilizing all the power of R.

Increase the use of our package/methods especially by scientists

with no/less knowledge of R.

Summary

36
R GUI

A GUI could help novice R users for utilizing all the power of R.

Increase the use of our package/methods especially by scientists

with no/less knowledge of R.

Things to consider in developing a GUI:

Type of GUI (spreadsheets, menu/dialog boxes),

Tool to develop (tcltk, java)

Embedded/Independent.

Single/Multi dialog boxes

Summary

37
R GUI

Make sure GUI is simple and user friendly.

Design Development Trial Packaging and Storing