The htmlwidgets package provides a framework for easily creating R bindings to JavaScript libraries. Widgets created using the framework can be:

• Used at the R console for data analysis just like conventional R plots (via RStudio Viewer).
• Seamlessly embedded within R Markdown documents and Shiny web applications.
• Saved as standalone web pages for ad-hoc sharing via email, Dropbox, etc.

There are already several R packages based on htmlwidgets, including:

• leaflet – Interactive maps with OpenStreetMap
• dygraphs — Interactive time series visualization
• networkD3 — Network visualization with D3
• sparkline — Small inline charts
• DT — Tabular data via DataTables
• rthreejs – Interactive 3D graphics

The package was created in collaboration by Ramnath Vaidyanathan, Joe Cheng, JJ Allaire, Yihui Xie, and Kenton Russell. We’ve all spent countless hours building bindings between R and the web, and were motivated to create a framework that made this as easy as possible for all R developers.