How to change the background color of the Shiny Dashboard Body

Question

I cannot get the scope to change the background color of the shiny dashboard's body. I do not want to use outside CSS because it is not supported in the Shiny server which I'm hosting. Whatever I do I'm unable to find the HTML tag for the dashboard's background so I could change it. The background color is always #ECF0F5 whatever I do. Here is a reproducible application.

library(shinydashboard)
library(shiny)
library(DT)
library(shinyWidgets)
library(dplyr)
ui=shinyUI(
  dashboardPage(
    dashboardHeader(
      title = "Example of a long title that needs more space",
      titleWidth = 450
    ),
    dashboardSidebar( sidebarMenu(
      menuItem("Dashboard", tabName = "dashboard", icon = icon("dashboard")),
      menuItem("Widgets", icon = icon("th"), tabName = "widgets",
               badgeLabel = "new", badgeColor = "green")
    )),
    dashboardBody(
      # Also add some custom CSS to make the title background area the same
      # color as the rest of the header.
      tags$head(tags$style(HTML('
                                /* logo */
                                .skin-blue .main-header .logo {
                                background-color: #f4b943;
                                }

                                /* logo when hovered */
                                .skin-blue .main-header .logo:hover {
                                background-color: #f4b943;
                                }

                                /* navbar (rest of the header) */
                                .skin-blue .main-header .navbar {
                                background-color: #f4b943;
                                }        

                                /* main sidebar */
                                .skin-blue .main-sidebar {
                                background-color: #f4b943;
                                }

                                /* active selected tab in the sidebarmenu */
                                .skin-blue .main-sidebar .sidebar .sidebar-menu .active a{
                                background-color: #ff0000;
                                }

                                /* other links in the sidebarmenu */
                                .skin-blue .main-sidebar .sidebar .sidebar-menu a{
                                background-color: #00ff00;
                                color: #000000;
                                }

                                /* other links in the sidebarmenu when hovered */
                                .skin-blue .main-sidebar .sidebar .sidebar-menu a:hover{
                                background-color: #ff69b4;
                                }
                                /* toggle button when hovered  */                    
                                .skin-blue .main-header .navbar .sidebar-toggle:hover{
                                background-color: #ff69b4;
                                }
                                ')))
      )


      )
)
server=shinyServer(function(input,output,session){})
shinyApp(ui,server)

Answer 1

Ok, ideally I would like you to use dashboardthemes package https://github.com/nik01010/dashboardthemes, where you can create your own themes with ease, however you can css the .content-wrapper like so:

rm(list = ls())
library(shinydashboard)
library(shiny)
library(DT)
library(shinyWidgets)
library(dplyr)
ui=shinyUI(
  dashboardPage(
    dashboardHeader(
      title = "Example of a long title that needs more space",
      titleWidth = 450
    ),
    dashboardSidebar( sidebarMenu(
      menuItem("Dashboard", tabName = "dashboard", icon = icon("dashboard")),
      menuItem("Widgets", icon = icon("th"), tabName = "widgets",
               badgeLabel = "new", badgeColor = "green")
    )),
    dashboardBody(

      tags$head(tags$style(HTML('
                                /* logo */
                                .skin-blue .main-header .logo {
                                background-color: #f4b943;
                                }

                                /* logo when hovered */
                                .skin-blue .main-header .logo:hover {
                                background-color: #f4b943;
                                }

                                /* navbar (rest of the header) */
                                .skin-blue .main-header .navbar {
                                background-color: #f4b943;
                                }

                                /* main sidebar */
                                .skin-blue .main-sidebar {
                                background-color: #f4b943;
                                }

                                /* active selected tab in the sidebarmenu */
                                .skin-blue .main-sidebar .sidebar .sidebar-menu .active a{
                                background-color: #ff0000;
                                }

                                /* other links in the sidebarmenu */
                                .skin-blue .main-sidebar .sidebar .sidebar-menu a{
                                background-color: #00ff00;
                                color: #000000;
                                }

                                /* other links in the sidebarmenu when hovered */
                                .skin-blue .main-sidebar .sidebar .sidebar-menu a:hover{
                                background-color: #ff69b4;
                                }
                                /* toggle button when hovered  */
                                .skin-blue .main-header .navbar .sidebar-toggle:hover{
                                background-color: #ff69b4;
                                }

                                /* body */
                                .content-wrapper, .right-side {
                                background-color: #7da2d1;
                                }

                                ')))
      )


      )
      )
server=shinyServer(function(input,output,session){})
shinyApp(ui,server)