Handling events

Controlling reactivity with `isolate()` and `@reactive.event()`

Normally, a reactive function will be invalidated (and re-execute) when any of its reactive inputs change. When we talk about reactive inputs we’re referring not just to inputs from the user, as in input.x(), but also values from reactive.Calc objects.

Sometimes these dependencies cause a function to be re-executed too often. For example, suppose we have an output that depends on the value of a slider, but is computationally expensive. We might want it to re-execute it only when the user presses a button.

There are two ways of doing this: one is with isolate(), and the other is @reactive.event().

Using with isolate(), a block of code is run inside a reactive function, but without taking a reactive dependency on the code inside the block. This means that any reactive inputs in that block will not cause the function to re-execute. In the example below, the output takes a dependency on input.button(), but not input.x():

#| standalone: true
#| components: [editor, viewer]
#| layout: vertical

from shiny import App, reactive, render, ui
import asyncio

app_ui = ui.page_fluid(
    ui.input_slider("n", "N", min=1, max=100, value=1),
    ui.input_action_button("compute", "Compute!"),
    ui.output_text_verbatim("result", placeholder=True),
)

def server(input, output, session):

    @output
    @render.text
    async def result():
        input.compute()        # Take a dependency on the button
        await asyncio.sleep(2) # Wait 2 seconds (to simulate a long computation)

        with reactive.isolate():
            # Inside this block, we can use input.n() without taking a
            # dependency on it.
            return f"Result: {input.n()}"

app = App(app_ui, server)

The other way is to use @reactive.event(). This decorator takes one or more reactive functions that cause the decorated function to re-execute. Everything in the decorated function is ignored for the sake of reactive dependencies; this is equivalent to the entire function body being in with isolate().

#| standalone: true
#| components: [editor, viewer]
#| layout: vertical

from shiny import App, reactive, render, ui
import asyncio

app_ui = ui.page_fluid(
    ui.input_slider("n", "N", min=1, max=100, value=1),
    ui.input_action_button("compute", "Compute!"),
    ui.output_text_verbatim("result", placeholder=True),
)

def server(input, output, session):

    @output
    @render.text
    @reactive.event(input.compute) # Take a dependency on the button
    async def result():
        # Because of the @reactive.event(), everything in this function is
        # ignored for reactive dependencies.
        await asyncio.sleep(2) # Wait 2 seconds (to simulate a long computation)
        return f"Result: {input.n()}"

app = App(app_ui, server)

Note

In the @reactive.event() example above, the function does not execute the first time when the session starts; it will wait until the user presses the button. If you want it to execute once when the session starts, you can use @reactive.event(input.compute, ignore_none=False).

Note that in the future, we may change the way this works.

Controlling reactivity with isolate() and @reactive.event()

Controlling reactivity with `isolate()` and `@reactive.event()`