Add text / annotation to tar_visnetwork()

[mbrousil]

I'd like to add a timestamp to the output from my tar_visnetwork() call. Is there a way to do this? I had in mind something that performs like ggtitle() or ggplot2::annotate().

Thanks!

[wlandau]

tar_visnetwork() returns a visNewtork object, and you are free to modify it. (See the reprex below.) It is also straightforward (and fun) to create your own visNetwork graph using the nodes and edges generated by tar_network(). I hesitate to add native flexibility to targets because it adds a maintenance cost for something that is not a common use case.

library(targets)
tar_script()
graph <- tar_visnetwork()
graph$x$nodes$label <- paste(graph$x$nodes$label, "\ncustom")
graph

^{Created on 2021-08-12 by the reprex package (v2.0.0)}

[wlandau]

For completeness: tar_meta()$time gives you timestamps, and you can dplyr::left_join() those to the nodes data frame.

[mbrousil]

Ah, thank you! I wasn't familiar with visNetwork so I will work with that. Totally understand the need to avoid additional maintenance cost.

What I had in mind was adding a single label or title to the top of the plot as opposed to labels for each node. However, the node-by-node approach could work as well. Looking at the structure of visNetwork objects, I can get what I want like this:

library(targets)

targets::tar_script(ask = FALSE)

graph <- tar_visnetwork()

graph$x$main$text <- paste0("Last built: ", Sys.time())

graph

^{Created on 2021-08-16 by the reprex package (v2.0.0)}

Not sure if this is the cleanest way to go about it, though.

[wlandau]

Seems fine if you are just making these graphs for yourself (as opposed to a reusable package you will publish on CRAN). I did not see a function in visNetwork that would allow you to add a title to an already constructed graph object. visNetwork::visSetTitle() seems to only work for their built-in Shiny app.

[mbrousil]

Yep, I had held out hope for that function as well. Thanks for your help!

[mbrousil]

Issue solved with graph$x$main$text <- paste0("Last built: ", Sys.time())