bslibdash

bslibdash is a toolkit for building modern dashboards in shiny. It sits on top of bslib and Bootstrap 5, and packages the building blocks of a typical dashboard — page shells, sidebars, cards, KPI tiles, header widgets and feedback components — behind a small, consistent API.

Because most of the components are a thin layer over bslib, dashboards built with bslibdash share theming, dark mode and the wider Bootstrap 5 ecosystem (including teal and other modern bslib-based Shiny modules) out of the box. The API also mirrors shinydashboard wherever the underlying concept is the same, so porting an existing app is mostly search-and-replace — see vignette("getting-started") for the full migration story.

Usage

library(shiny)
library(bslibdash)

ui <- dashboardPage(
  header = dashboardHeader(title = "bslibdash demo"),
  sidebar = dashboardSidebar(
    sidebarUserPanel("Jane Doe", subtitle = "Administrator"),
    sidebarMenu(
      id = "sidebarMenu",
      menuItem("Overview", tabName = "overview", icon = icon("house")),
      menuItem("Reports",  tabName = "reports",  icon = icon("bar-chart"))
    )
  ),
  body = dashboardBody(
    tabItems(
      tabItem(
        "overview",
        boxLayout(
          valueBox("128", "Open tickets", icon = icon("inbox"),
                   color = "primary"),
          valueBox("42%", "CPU load",     icon = icon("cpu"),
                   color = "warning"),
          infoBox("Status", "Healthy",    icon = icon("heart-pulse"),
                  color = "success")
        ),
        box("Hello, world!", title = "Welcome",
            status = "primary", collapsible = TRUE)
      ),
      tabItem("reports", box("Report body", title = "Quarterly"))
    )
  )
)

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

For a full walk-through of every component, run the kitchen-sink demo:

shiny::runApp(
  system.file("shiny/examples/14_kitchen_sink", package = "bslibdash")
)

Why bslibdash?

• vs raw bslib — bslib gives you the building blocks (themes, cards, sidebars). bslibdash gives you the dashboard vocabulary on top: a page shell, a sidebar menu with sub-items and badges, header dropdowns, info/value tiles — so you don't write them in every app.
• vs shinydashboard — same names, same mental model, but rendered with Bootstrap 5 and themed through bslib. Dynamic theming, dark mode and bs_themer() work out of the box.
• vs bs4Dash — bslibdash stays close to vanilla bslib, so dashboards inherit your bslib theme rather than carrying a bespoke AdminLTE one.
• Fits the modern Shiny ecosystem. Because bslibdash is a thin bslib layer, it slots into apps built with teal, raw bslib::page_* layouts, shinyuieditor, bsicons and any other Bootstrap 5 / bslib component — all sharing the same theme, dark mode and bs_themer() machinery as your dashboard shell.

What's in the box

At a glance, bslibdash covers the pieces a typical KPI dashboard needs:

• a responsive page shell (header, collapsible/overlay sidebar, body, footer),
• sidebar navigation with menus, sub-items, badges and a user panel,
• cards and tab-cards that can collapse, close and go full-screen,
• KPI tiles (value boxes, info boxes) on the Bootstrap status palette,
• header widgets for messages, notifications and tasks,
• feedback bits — accordions, badges, buttons, icons and toasts, and
• theming through any bslib::bs_theme(), with components recompiling their CSS via bslib::bs_dependency_defer() so custom themes never drop bslibdash styles.

See vignette("components") or the package reference (?bslibdash) for the live list of functions.

Learn more

• vignette("getting-started", package = "bslibdash") — minimal skeleton and the migration guide from shinydashboard.
• vignette("components", package = "bslibdash") — copy-pasteable tour of every component.
• vignette("theming", package = "bslibdash") — customise brand_bs_theme(), swap Bootswatch presets, add bespoke SCSS, and use bslib::bs_themer().
• Example apps live in inst/shiny/examples/.

Code of Conduct

Please note that this project is released with a Contributor Code of Conduct. By contributing to this project, you agree to abide by its terms.