Support for a non-interactive network graph for static reporting

[mattwarkentin]

Hi @wlandau,

Would you consider supporting a function like tar_visnetwork() that produces a non-interactive graph (ggraph??) that can be easily included in DOCX and PDF reports? Often I want to include the network in reports to walk clients through an analysis, but sometimes/usually the report has to be non-HTML.

I know that the network data itself can be obtained with tar_network() so the user has the option to create their own, but I thought it would be worthwhile to have an internal option to create a non-interactive graph that looks aesthetically similar to the one seen with tar_visnetwork() for consistency. What do you think?

[ginolhac]

Hello,

What about tar_mermaid() ?
Works great in Quarto docs.

[mattwarkentin]

It was my understanding that tar_mermaid() relies on a JavaScript library that wouldn't be supported in non-HTML documents. Is this not the case?

[ginolhac]

True but it can then rendered as you like it best.
Otherwise there is webshot to convert visnetwork to a png.

[wlandau]

tar_mermaid() itself does not rely on JavaScript because it only outputs the text required to produce a mermaid.js graph. As @ginolhac said, Quarto can render that text, possibly in output formats like pdf and docx.

To render the tar_mermaid() text into a Quarto document, you can programmatically write a {mermaid} code chunk like this:

```{r, results = "asis", echo = FALSE}
cat(c("```{mermaid}", tar_mermaid(), "```"), sep = "\n")
```

Other alternatives like DiagrammeR may have other components like JavaScript, c.f. rich-iannone/DiagrammeR#457 and rich-iannone/DiagrammeR#475.