Branding, Theme Application and Navigation Utilities for bs4Dash Dashboards • bs4Dashkit

Structured theming and navigation utilities for bs4Dash applications.

bs4Dashkit provides:

Unified brand and sidebar configuration
Configurable collapsed / expanded sidebar modes
Hover-expand sidebar behavior
Subtle CSS-variable theming
Standardized navigation components (refresh, help, user menu)
Lightweight dependency model compatible with native bs4Dash layouts

Installation

# Development version
remotes::install_github("PrigasG/bs4Dashkit")

Quick Start

library(shiny)
library(bs4Dash)
library(bs4Dashkit)

ttl <- dash_titles(
  brand_text = "OLTCR Dashboards",
  icon = icon("cloud"),
  collapsed = "icon-only",
  expanded = "icon-text"
)

ui <- bs4DashPage(
  title = ttl$app_name,
  header = bs4DashNavbar(title = ttl$brand),
  sidebar = bs4DashSidebar(
    bs4SidebarMenu(
      bs4SidebarMenuItem("Dashboard", tabName = "dash")
    )
  ),
  body = bs4DashBody(
    use_bs4Dashkit_core(ttl),
    bs4TabItems(
      bs4TabItem(
        tabName = "dash",
        h2("Hello Dashboard")
      )
    )
  )
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {}
shinyApp(ui, server)

Key Features

"icon-only"
"icon-text"
"text-only"

Fully configurable for collapsed and expanded states.

brand_text is the primary label. It is used in the navbar and, by default, as the expanded sidebar label. The sidebar brand mirrors the navbar title you pass to bs4DashNavbar(title = ttl$brand). Use collapsed_text only when you want a very short label in the narrow collapsed sidebar. In practice, about 3 characters works best.

Theme System

CSS variable-driven theming:

use_dash_theme(accent = "#2f6f8f")

New Ergonomics

Recent additions make the package easier to wire up in real apps:

ttl <- dash_titles(
  brand_text = "OLTCR Dashboards",
  icon = icon("cloud"),
  collapsed_text = "OLT",
  expanded_text = "OLTCR Dashboards", # optional; brand_text is the default
  collapsed_text_size = "10px",
  expanded_text_size = "15px",
  collapsed_text_weight = 700,
  expanded_text_weight = 800
)

bs4dashkit_theme_presets()
bs4dashkit_example_app()
bs4dashkit_demo_app()

For a textless icon brand in both sidebar states:

ttl <- dash_titles(
  brand_text = NULL,
  app_name = "Icon Lab",
  icon = icon("cloud"),
  collapsed = "icon-only",
  expanded = "icon-only"
)

Prebuilt components:

Available presets:

bs4dashkit_theme_presets()

Server-side wiring example:

observeEvent(input$refresh, session$reload())

Documentation

Full documentation and examples are available at:

https://prigasg.github.io/bs4Dashkit/

For a fuller interactive demo, run:

bs4dashkit_demo_app()

or open the packaged example app file:

shiny::runApp(system.file("examples", "real-shiny-app", package = "bs4Dashkit"))

For a heavier stress-test example that exercises the shipped features together:

shiny::runApp(system.file("examples", "test-all", package = "bs4Dashkit"))

That packaged example is now a standalone full app source file, not just a wrapper around bs4dashkit_demo_app().

License

MIT

Full Example App

A complete working example (brand, sidebar modes, hover expand, theme preset, navbar tools, footer) is included in the documentation site:

Articles -> Complete Example App

bs4Dashkit