[Feature Request]: add option to assign labels/titles of each filter

[sarabodach]

Feature description

I had asked @donyunardi about how to control the label that appears with filter variables in an app. He explained that the label comes from the attribute of label for the specific column attr(data[[x]], "label") and no descriptive is shown when label is null.

Could the title input parameter of teal_slice be used to control the descriptive information for filter variables? This would be a straightforward way to implement more customized filters with clear meanings for end-users of the deployed app.

Thank you for considering this!

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[donyunardi]

Thanks @sarabodach

This is the part that we're interested in:

teal.slice/R/FilterStates-utils.R

Line 224 in 56f30ba

label <- attr(data[[x]], "label")

As data gets preprocessed, the label attribute can easily be dropped.
The request is to add the flexibility to set the filter label for a variable when preparing teal_slice().

Another option would be to ensure that the column's label attribute is present in the data.

@sarabodach
Quick question: if a teal user sets or replaces the label during teal_slice(), that label will only appear in the teal app.
If the user explores the data, they won’t see that label.
Do you think this might cause confusion?

Tagging @kumamiao for this feature request.

[sarabodach]

Hi @donyunardi - thanks for going over this!

I think it's OK if the user reassigns the label attribute of the filter only. I am not sure what is feasible, but my preference would be: (1) teal_slice displays whatever is the current label; (2) teal_slice can be over-ridden via the user's specification of title().

Right now, we have instances in which the encodings panel shows a label that may not appear with the filter panel:

The original label refers to the standards-based name. For the purpose of filters, I might opt to use text such as "Arm (Randomized)" as the label: