plotly_r has deprecated `orca` and now uses `kaleido`

[cysouw]

I was just experimenting for the first time with this phenomenal filter and noted the following problems:

• the plotly library in R has deprecated the orca function for static image export and replaced it with kaleido.
• when using format=HTML the htmlwidget is taking over the whole page, not showing any of the remaining markdown document.

Just for reference: this is the markdown I was experimenting with (macOS 14.5, R 4.4.0):

# Test

This is a test

    ```{.ggplot2 format=SVG}
ggplotify::as.ggplot(~
  plot(1:10,10:1)
)
    ```

More text

    ```{.plotly_r format=HTML caption="plotly widget"}
library(plotly)
plot_ly(economics, x = ~pop)
    ```

blablabla

[LaurentRDC]

Let me tackle the first point, orca deprecation.

Under the hood, pandoc-plot extends your script until it looks like this:

pdf(NULL) # prevent the creation of an empty pdf

# Start of the user plot
library(plotly)
plot_ly(economics, x = ~pop)

# Capture the plot
library(plotly) # just in case
if (!require("processx")) install.packages("processx")
orca(last_plot(), file = "<filename>")

I'm not familiar with the R programming language and the plotly library; how should the script above be modified?

---

Regarding your second point, exporting to HTML. The script will be extended slightly differently, to this:

# Start of the user plot
library(plotly)
plot_ly(economics, x = ~pop)

# Capture the plot
library(plotly) # just in case
library(htmlwidgets)
p <- last_plot()
htmlwidgets::saveWidget(as_widget(p), "<filename.html>")

How should this script be modified so that the widget is not taking over the whole page?

[LaurentRDC]

Plotly's documentation still refers to orca; where can I see this deprecation notice?

[cysouw]

Indeed, sorry. In the R-help it says "superseded by kaleido", but orca should still work. I'll try to get it running on my side, sorry.

https://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/plotly/versions/4.10.4/topics/orca

[cysouw]

As for the Plotly-html output: what you are currently doing will produce a standalone HTML page. I have not been able to find what the Rmarkdown people are doing to include them into the markdown. I will research further, but I'm also not a specialist in such problem :-(

all the best with this project! I really like this approach.

[cysouw]

A possible solution is to embed the resulting html-file into an iframe. Pandoc should be able to just include such a html-tag:

<iframe src = ""></iframe>

[cysouw]

some more research turned up this suggestion: htmltools::tags$iframe(src = "filename")

https://plotly-r.com/saving

[LaurentRDC]

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to do the research.

I don't have the time to work on this these days, but I am happy to review pull requests