letitshine 1.1.2

Let It Shine! Creating Shiny Dashboards from simple Python functions

Let It Shine!

Shiny Dashboards from Simple Python Mathematical Functions

letitshine is a Python Module and command line utility that creates an interactive Shiny from a function in a Python module. It tries to use sensible outputs based on the function definition and to be minimal so that the produced Python code can be used as a boilerplate. With the use of Shinilive for Python it can be further deployed to an interactive static app which is run entirely on the client (no server configuration necessary). It is aimed at users with a basic knowledge of Python but who are users of mathematical and computing libraries in Python and want to share their applications in teaching and research. It does not aim to replace Shiny but to encourage its use lowering the entry barrier.

There are many different possible outputs and inputs a Python can take. In letitshinewe focus on data types which are common in mathematical and data analysis functions. Presently letitshinesupports an arbitrary number of input arguments of the following types

Input types

• Boolean: produces a switch.
• Numeric (int, float): generates input prompts or sliders.
• Strings: generates input boxes and text areas.

and supports any of the following outputs

• String or Numerical output
• Strings with TeX support using KaTex.
• Pyplot plot
• Pandas Dataframes

The dependencies of the pure Python packageletitshine are minimal. It can be installed as a Pypi package

pip install letitshine

prefereably using a Python virtual environment. I you are only interested in the use of letitshine as a standalone app, consider

pipx install letitshine

To check the usage of letitshine take a simple hello world! example written in the the file text_output.py

def hello_world(your_name):
    return f'Hello {your_name}, how are you?\n'

To create your Shiny app call

letitshine  -type text  -i  text_output.hello_world  --create_app

and this will create an app_hello_world.py file which can be rendered with Shiny (assuming Shiny is installed):

shiny run app_hello_world.py

and gives a simple Shiny interactive app

This file can be further custimized according to your needs and knowledge of Shiny. The idea of letitshineis to use sensible (opinonated) choices on outputs and inputs which are common in simple mathematical, computing and data apps and which can help beginners share and showcase their computations.

For instance, if we improve the previous simple function with types and docs, such as the say_hello function found in the examples:

def say_hello(your_name:str='Agnesi', say_today:bool=True):
    r"""
    What is your name?
    
    In this simple app We simply print your name.

    :param your_name: Name to be printed
    :type your_name: str

    :param say_today: Say today in the sentence?
    :type say_today: bool 
    
    :return: Printed message
    :rtype: str

    Examples
    ===========
    >>> say_hello('Descartes')
    'Hello Descartes, how are you today?\n'
    """
    message= f'Hello {your_name}, how are you today?\n' if say_today else f'Hello {your_name}, how are you?\n'
    return message

and running the

letitshine -type txt,doc  -i  text_output.say_hello  --create_app 

we obtain,app_say_hello.py an interactive function for Shiny whose inputs are better suited

Authors

Joaquim Puig