DataCraftR is an R package that provides a set of interactive tools for data generation through visualization.
Each tool is implemented as a Shiny addin integrating D3.js for real-time, graphical data creation.

Developed with: Human Coding Inspried on: drawdata.xyz Powered by: Shiny and D3

Overview

DataCraftR allows users to draw or manipulate visual representations of data (boxplots, histograms, scatterplots) and automatically generate the corresponding datasets in R.

This package is ideal for teaching, demonstrations, or prototyping datasets based on distributional intuition.

Features

• Interactive Boxplot: drag quantiles to define distributions.
• Interactive Histogram: draw bar heights to define data frequency.
• Interactive **Scatter **: paint clusters or point groups directly.
• One-click export of generated data to RDS temporal file.
• Designed as RStudio Addins for quick access.
• Built with Shiny and D3.js for modern, responsive UI.

Installation

# From GitHub
# (requires the 'remotes' package)
install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("CarlosRivera1212/DataCraftR")

Usage

Each visualization tool can be launched directly from R or from the RStudio Addins menu.

# Boxplot generator
DataCraftR::boxplot_dcr()
# Histogram generator
DataCraftR::histogram_dcr()
# Scatter plot generator
DataCraftR::scatter_dcr()

Each tool opens a Shiny gadget with an interactive D3.js visualization.
The generated data can be exported to temporal RDS file by clicking “Save Data”.

Technical Notes

• The package integrates Shiny, bslib, shinyWidgets, and D3.js.
• Custom JavaScript files are located in inst/assets/js/ and are loaded dynamically by each addin.
• All visualizations communicate with R using Shiny’s sendCustomMessage and input bindings.

Example Screenshots

Screenshot of Scatterplot example

Screenshot of Boxplot example

Screenshot of Histogram example

Author

Carlos Rivera

License

This package is licensed under the GPL-3.0 License. See the LICENSE file for more details.

Citation

If you use this package in academic work, please cite it as:

Rivera, C. (2025). DataCraftR: Interactive Data Generation Tools with Shiny and D3.js. GitHub repository: https://github.com/CarlosRivera1212/DataCraftR

Future Directions

• [c] count
• [d] Extend interactivity to line-based density multicategory data.
• [t] tail
• [f] density 2D
• [p] Extend interactivity to proportion bars multicategory data.
• [t] Extend interactivity to tabular proportions data.
• [l] Extend interactivity to line-based temporal data.
• [r] radial
• Integrate export options to CSV or RDS directly from the UI.