Leaflet R Package - An introduction

Developed by Vladimir Agafonkin, "Leaflet" is a Javascript library for interactive maps.

The leaflet package in R is developed by RStudio team and is a wrapper for Javascript library Leaflet. It allows to make interactive web maps right from the R console. It integrates easily with R Markdown, R Shiny apps.

We start with creating a map widget using the leaflet() function, supply the data of interest, add methods or layers (features) on map widget and done!!!

• Data types supported :
  • Dataframe or matrix containing latitude & longitude variables
  • Data from the sp package: any of the spatial classes provided by sp
  • Data from maps package: any of the maps from the map database
  • JSON format: add your data in GeoJSON or TopoJSON format via jsonlite

• Features or layers that could be added :
  • Panning and Zooming (comes default with leaflet() but levels could be adjusted)
  • Map tiles (Default is OSM but other 3rd party base map available)
  • Markers (Map markers, circle markers, or customized markers)
  • Popups/labels/Images (onclick popus, or mouse over labels)
  • Polygons / Rectangles / Lines
  • GeoJSON / TopoJSON
  • Raster Images
  • Legends
  • Layer Groups and Layer Control