Can I return ui and server together as one function?

[shahronak47]

This might sound weird question but hear me out.

Let's take a simple shiny app -

library(shiny)

ui <- fluidPage(
  textOutput("text1"), 
  plotOutput('plot1')
)

server <- function(input, output, session) {
  output$text1 <- renderText("This is text input")
  output$plot1 <- renderPlot(plot(rnorm(10), rnorm(10)))
}

shinyApp(ui, server)

So in this app, we have 1:1 mapping of input and output UI elements. textOutput with renderText and plotOutput with renderPlot.

Now, what I am trying to do is combine the ui and server part of each element in one function.

text_element <- function(input, output, server) {
  textOutput("text1")
  output$text1 <- renderText("This is text input")
}

plot_element <- function(input, output, server) {
  plotOutput('plot1')
  output$plot1 <- renderPlot(plot(rnorm(10), rnorm(10)))
}

I know this doesn't make sense but this is just to give an idea.

My questions are -

1. Is this possible? Are there any examples/packages that does this?
2. If 1) is possible, how do I use it in shinyapp to make it work like the original app?
3. Are there any downsides of this approach?

Thank you for your time and valuable input.

[nirgrahamuk]

It doesnt make sense to me I'm afraid; But my experience when people start to ask sort of odd questions of this form.., they are often searching for shiny modules.

[zivan]

ui is just HTML, and can't contain R code. You can't mix the two.

ui
#>  <div class="container-fluid">
#>    <div id="text1" class="shiny-text-output"></div>
#>    <div id="plot1" class="shiny-plot-output" style="width:100%;height:400px;"></div>
#>  </div>