Generally when using a datatable input you
will just have an array of label/value objects which will automatically be shown with just the label for the end user.
However, that will not always be the case - you might have objects with different properties you wish to display. In this example we use the following object
structure for the options:
{
id: 1,
name: 'Edinburgh',
continent: 'Europe'
}
When configuring the DataTable we use the config.columns option to control the fact that we wish to show both the site
name and continent columns. We also use the optionsPair object to tell the field to use the value from the id property as the value for
the field.
This method allows complex tables to be shown to your end user, should there be a lot of information they need to select from.
| First name | Last name | Phone # | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| First name | Last name | Phone # | Location |
The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:
var editor = new DataTable.Editor({
ajax: '../../controllers/joinOptionsTable.php',
fields: [
{
label: 'First name:',
name: 'users.first_name'
},
{
label: 'Last name:',
name: 'users.last_name'
},
{
label: 'Phone #:',
name: 'users.phone'
},
{
label: 'Site:',
name: 'users.site',
type: 'datatable',
optionsPair: {
value: 'id'
},
config: {
columns: [
{
title: 'Name',
data: 'name'
},
{
title: 'Continent',
data: 'continent'
}
]
}
}
],
table: '#example'
});
$('#example').DataTable({
ajax: {
url: '../../controllers/joinOptionsTable.php',
type: 'POST'
},
buttons: [
{ extend: 'create', editor: editor },
{ extend: 'edit', editor: editor },
{ extend: 'remove', editor: editor }
],
columns: [
{ data: 'users.first_name' },
{ data: 'users.last_name' },
{ data: 'users.phone' },
{ data: 'sites.name' }
],
dom: 'Bfrtip',
select: true
});
const editor = new DataTable.Editor({
ajax: '../../controllers/joinOptionsTable.php',
fields: [
{
label: 'First name:',
name: 'users.first_name'
},
{
label: 'Last name:',
name: 'users.last_name'
},
{
label: 'Phone #:',
name: 'users.phone'
},
{
label: 'Site:',
name: 'users.site',
type: 'datatable',
optionsPair: {
value: 'id'
},
config: {
columns: [
{
title: 'Name',
data: 'name'
},
{
title: 'Continent',
data: 'continent'
}
]
}
}
],
table: '#example'
});
new DataTable('#example', {
ajax: {
url: '../../controllers/joinOptionsTable.php',
type: 'POST'
},
buttons: [
{ extend: 'create', editor },
{ extend: 'edit', editor },
{ extend: 'remove', editor }
],
columns: [
{ data: 'users.first_name' },
{ data: 'users.last_name' },
{ data: 'users.phone' },
{ data: 'sites.name' }
],
dom: 'Bfrtip',
select: true
});
In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:
The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:
This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:
The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:
This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.
The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.