Will bs4Dash going to support bootstrap 5?

[agenius-mohammed-ali]

Hi, Thank you for this great package. Only I wonder if there are plans to upgrade or create a version that supports bootstrap 5 and next versions of bootstraps? Thank you

[DivadNojnarg]

Hi @agenius-mohammed-ali ,

Thanks for your question! At the moment, here are my thoughts:

• Going to Bootstrap 5 -> This is what was supposed to happen earlier this year. However, the underlying template AdminLTE 4 is not yet officially released with Bootstrap 5 so I can't start before it is stable. Besides, in addition to bring nothing really outstanding (appart from few color updates 😞) it breaks many existing features like the right sidebar, which would require time to be re-included.

• Currently, I think you can pretty much achieve the same result with {bslib}. I also believe, the sidebar navigation will be included soon (poke @cpsievert).

[agenius-mohammed-ali]

Thanks a lot @DivadNojnarg for your answer. I saw, and use, fresh package with bs4Dash are there any tutorial that we can refer to with bslib, though I still prefer working with fresh package. Thank you

[cpsievert]

@agenius-mohammed-ali this, currently, is the best "getting started with {bslib} dashboards" article https://rstudio.github.io/bslib/articles/dashboards/index.html

[agenius-mohammed-ali]

Thanks @cpsievert so much for sharing the article. I am impressed with how far bslib package achieved recently. Only I have the following questions:

• The package lifecycle is still "experimental", will it be stable anytime soon?
• The package creates dashboards from scratch, or in other words, it is a replacement for bs4Dash and shiny dashboard, is that right? (cc. @DivadNojnarg ) Thank you

[cpsievert]

will it be stable anytime soon?

I'm hoping we'll reach that point in the next 6-12 months, but also note that the Shiny team has a very high bar for calling something stable.

it is a replacement for bs4Dash and shiny dashboard, is that right?

You could view it that way, but also keep in mind that bslib's only dependency is Bootstrap (i.e., no AdminLTE) which means it should be a lot more compatible with / portable to other Bootstrap-compatible projects, but you might find certain features a bit lacking at this point (if you think of critical things that are missing, please let us know!)

[agenius-mohammed-ali]

Thanks a lot @cpsievert @cb4ds

[AshesITR]

According to AdminLTEs GitHub Version 3.2.0 should support bootstrap 5. Is that release sufficiently stable?

[DivadNojnarg]

See above

Going to Bootstrap 5 -> This is what was supposed to happen earlier this year. However, the underlying template AdminLTE 4 is not yet officially released with Bootstrap 5 so I can't start before it is stable. Besides, in addition to bring nothing really outstanding (appart from few color updates 😞) it breaks many existing features like the right sidebar, which would require time to be re-included.

[AshesITR]

So you're waiting for AdminLTE 4.0? Please let me know when you start development on bs5 support, I'm willing to help.

[jimbrig]

@DivadNojnarg @AshesITR @cpsievert etc., the latest AdminLTE Beta Release: v4.0.0-beta1 supports bootstrap 5 just FYI. Seems like the release is pretty stable but there is still WIP mostly related to docs, examples, etc. The GitHub Project Board is here: https://github.com/orgs/ColorlibHQ/projects/1

[DivadNojnarg]

@jimbrig

The beta version does not seem super polished:

• My main concern: there is no documentation about the new JS API. I don't know how much re-work and compatibility is has with the old API. The old doc was more comprehensive: https://adminlte.io/docs/3.1/. Looking at the new code this does not seem much different: https://github.com/ColorlibHQ/AdminLTE/blob/master/src/ts/card-widget.ts but maybe there are edge cases.
• The right sidebar is still missing. This could be done with an offCanvas but that's more work.
• I see some glitches (see video): shaking element.
• Probably other hidden things.

I can have a naive look within bs4Dash and see if there are other outstanding issues.

https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/a4a92383-4d51-4078-91f2-5656bbe006ea

[DivadNojnarg]

AdminLTE Beta 2 released: https://github.com/ColorlibHQ/AdminLTE/releases/tag/v4.0.0-beta2. The blinking seems to be fixed.

[DivadNojnarg]

@jimbrig I started to look at it closely: https://github.com/RinteRface/bs4Dash/commit/94626c6e09d0d8af02a3a9670b07b79a4b554457. However, it's much worse than I thought. There are so many missing pieces: socialBox, userBox, boxProfile, ... are just gone. I have no control over if this will be re-included at a later point and when. My suggestion would be a bs5Dash. I see no viable alternative to this, as it would be extremely frustrating for users to migrate and have so many breaking changes.

[jimbrig]

@jimbrig I started to look at it closely: https://github.com/RinteRface/bs4Dash/commit/94626c6e09d0d8af02a3a9670b07b79a4b554457. However, it's much worse than I thought. There are so many missing pieces: socialBox, userBox, boxProfile, ... are just gone. I have no control over if this will be re-included at a later point and when. My suggestion would be a bs5Dash. I see no viable alternative to this, as it would be extremely frustrating for users to migrate and have so many breaking changes.

I agree with this all together and think that there are other benefits to this approach also. Always nice to start with a fresh package!

If you guys do end up going this route I'd think of it as bslib's shinydashboard (akin to how shinydashboard implemented AdminLTE framework against shiny's original bootstrap 3).