How to PDF render Quarto books with dynamic content?

Question

I am writing my thesis using a Quarto book in HTML, which has some dynamic content (leaflet maps, plotly dynamic graphs). However, eventually, I will need to export the book in PDF/LaTeX, or at least Word (and then I can copy and paste into LaTeX).

When I try to export to PDF I of course run into this error:

Functions that produce HTML output found in document targeting pdf output. Please change the output type of this document to HTML. Alternatively, you can allow HTML output in non-HTML formats by adding this option to the YAML front-matter of your rmarkdown file:

always_allow_html: true

Note however that the HTML output will not be visible in non-HTML formats.

I did try to add the always_allow_html: true in my YAML file, but I get the same exact error. I also tried the conditional rendering with {.content-hidden unless-format="pdf"}, but I can't seem to get it working.

Has anyone experienced the same issue?

Answer 1

Stumbled across this one too. I'm currently checking the output format of pandoc globally

```{r, echo = F}
output <- knitr::opts_knit$get("rmarkdown.pandoc.to")
```

and then evaluate chunks conditionally:

(leaflet example from here.)

```{r, echo = F, eval = output != "latex"}
library(leaflet)
leaflet() %>%
  addTiles() %>%  # Add default OpenStreetMap map tiles
  addMarkers(lng=174.768, lat=-36.852, popup="The birthplace of R")  
```

This is optional if you want a note on a missing component in the PDF version:

```{r, echo = F, eval = output == "latex", results = "asis"}
cat("\\textit{Please see the HTML version for interactive content.}")
```

Edit

I just checked, this also works with Quarto documents for me using the below YAML header.

---
title: "Untitled"
format:
  html:
    theme: cosmo
  pdf:
    documentclass: scrreprt
---

Answer 2

I use constructs like below

p <- ggplot()
if (interactive() || opts_knit$get("rmarkdown.pandoc.to") == "html") {
  ggplotly(p)
} else {
  p
}

Answer 3

Using .content-visible when-format="html" and .content-visible when-format="pdf" works very smoothly.

---

---
title: "Conditional Rendering"
format: 
  html: default
  pdf: default
---

## Conditional Content in Quarto

::: {.content-visible when-format="html"}

```{r}
#| message: false

library(plotly)
library(ggplot2)

p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg))
p <-  p + geom_point(aes(colour = factor(cyl)))

ggplotly(p)
```


```{r}
#| message: false
#| fig-pos: "H"
#| fig-width: 4
#| fig-height: 3

library(leaflet)

# took this example from leaflet docs
m <- leaflet() %>%
  addTiles() %>%  # Add default OpenStreetMap map tiles
  addMarkers(lng=174.768, lat=-36.852, popup="The birthplace of R")
m  # Print the map

```

:::


::: {.content-visible when-format="pdf"}

```{r}

library(plotly)
library(ggplot2)

p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(wt, mpg))
p <-  p + geom_point(aes(colour = factor(cyl)))

p
```

:::