RCharts

Rcharts, commonly written as rCharts, is an R package that provides an interface to several JavaScript-based charting libraries, enabling the creation of interactive visualizations directly from R. It aims to simplify the process of producing web-friendly charts without switching between R and JavaScript.

The package exposes a chart object paradigm and adapters for multiple rendering engines, including Highcharts, NVD3 (a D3-based library), Morris.js, and others. Users supply data frames or lists, specify mappings and options in a consistent R-style syntax, and render the chart as HTML and JavaScript. The resulting output can be embedded in an HTML document, a Shiny application, or an R Markdown report.

Key features include support for interactivity such as tooltips, zooming, and animated transitions, as well as the ability to customize axes, legends, colors, and themes via library-specific options. The approach allows leveraging mature JavaScript libraries while staying within the R workflow.

Development and status: Rcharts emerged in the early 2010s to bridge R with JavaScript visualization libraries. Over time, activity has waned and newer R visualization ecosystems, including htmlwidgets-based tools and Plotly for R, have become more popular. Nevertheless, rCharts remains a reference example of cross-language charting in R and is still encountered in legacy workflows.