Plug-in Example

This example shows how to use a plugin for a custom column type. The DataTable.ext.searchBuilder.conditions object allows for custom conditions to be added to SearchBuilder. Details on the structure of the conditions to be added can be found at searchBuilder.conditions.

Here the office column has been given a custom column type of office using columns.type. We are also adding some conditions for this office type to SearchBuilder which use select2. To use the custom filter from the plugin select Office > Equals and any office, you will see that the last select element is a select2 element.

For more information on creating your own plug-ins take a look at this document

Name	Position	Office	Age	Start Date	Salary
Tiger Nixon	System Architect	Edinburgh	61	2011-04-25	$320,800
Garrett Winters	Accountant	Tokyo	63	2011-07-25	$170,750
Ashton Cox	Junior Technical Author	San Francisco	66	2009-01-12	$86,000
Cedric Kelly	Senior Javascript Developer	Edinburgh	22	2012-03-29	$433,060
Airi Satou	Accountant	Tokyo	33	2008-11-28	$162,700
Brielle Williamson	Integration Specialist	New York	61	2012-12-02	$372,000
Herrod Chandler	Sales Assistant	San Francisco	59	2012-08-06	$137,500
Rhona Davidson	Integration Specialist	Tokyo	55	2010-10-14	$327,900
Colleen Hurst	Javascript Developer	San Francisco	39	2009-09-15	$205,500
Sonya Frost	Software Engineer	Edinburgh	23	2008-12-13	$103,600
Jena Gaines	Office Manager	London	30	2008-12-19	$90,560
Quinn Flynn	Support Lead	Edinburgh	22	2013-03-03	$342,000
Charde Marshall	Regional Director	San Francisco	36	2008-10-16	$470,600
Haley Kennedy	Senior Marketing Designer	London	43	2012-12-18	$313,500
Tatyana Fitzpatrick	Regional Director	London	19	2010-03-17	$385,750
Michael Silva	Marketing Designer	London	66	2012-11-27	$198,500
Paul Byrd	Chief Financial Officer (CFO)	New York	64	2010-06-09	$725,000
Gloria Little	Systems Administrator	New York	59	2009-04-10	$237,500
Bradley Greer	Software Engineer	London	41	2012-10-13	$132,000
Dai Rios	Personnel Lead	Edinburgh	35	2012-09-26	$217,500
Jenette Caldwell	Development Lead	New York	30	2011-09-03	$345,000
Yuri Berry	Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)	New York	40	2009-06-25	$675,000
Caesar Vance	Pre-Sales Support	New York	21	2011-12-12	$106,450
Doris Wilder	Sales Assistant	Sydney	23	2010-09-20	$85,600
Angelica Ramos	Chief Executive Officer (CEO)	London	47	2009-10-09	$1,200,000
Gavin Joyce	Developer	Edinburgh	42	2010-12-22	$92,575
Jennifer Chang	Regional Director	Singapore	28	2010-11-14	$357,650
Brenden Wagner	Software Engineer	San Francisco	28	2011-06-07	$206,850
Fiona Green	Chief Operating Officer (COO)	San Francisco	48	2010-03-11	$850,000
Shou Itou	Regional Marketing	Tokyo	20	2011-08-14	$163,000
Michelle House	Integration Specialist	Sydney	37	2011-06-02	$95,400
Suki Burks	Developer	London	53	2009-10-22	$114,500
Prescott Bartlett	Technical Author	London	27	2011-05-07	$145,000
Gavin Cortez	Team Leader	San Francisco	22	2008-10-26	$235,500
Martena Mccray	Post-Sales support	Edinburgh	46	2011-03-09	$324,050
Unity Butler	Marketing Designer	San Francisco	47	2009-12-09	$85,675
Howard Hatfield	Office Manager	San Francisco	51	2008-12-16	$164,500
Hope Fuentes	Secretary	San Francisco	41	2010-02-12	$109,850
Vivian Harrell	Financial Controller	San Francisco	62	2009-02-14	$452,500
Timothy Mooney	Office Manager	London	37	2008-12-11	$136,200
Jackson Bradshaw	Director	New York	65	2008-09-26	$645,750
Olivia Liang	Support Engineer	Singapore	64	2011-02-03	$234,500
Bruno Nash	Software Engineer	London	38	2011-05-03	$163,500
Sakura Yamamoto	Support Engineer	Tokyo	37	2009-08-19	$139,575
Thor Walton	Developer	New York	61	2013-08-11	$98,540
Finn Camacho	Support Engineer	San Francisco	47	2009-07-07	$87,500
Serge Baldwin	Data Coordinator	Singapore	64	2012-04-09	$138,575
Zenaida Frank	Software Engineer	New York	63	2010-01-04	$125,250
Zorita Serrano	Software Engineer	San Francisco	56	2012-06-01	$115,000
Jennifer Acosta	Junior Javascript Developer	Edinburgh	43	2013-02-01	$75,650
Cara Stevens	Sales Assistant	New York	46	2011-12-06	$145,600
Hermione Butler	Regional Director	London	47	2011-03-21	$356,250
Lael Greer	Systems Administrator	London	21	2009-02-27	$103,500
Jonas Alexander	Developer	San Francisco	30	2010-07-14	$86,500
Shad Decker	Regional Director	Edinburgh	51	2008-11-13	$183,000
Michael Bruce	Javascript Developer	Singapore	29	2011-06-27	$183,000
Donna Snider	Customer Support	New York	27	2011-01-25	$112,000
Name	Position	Office	Age	Start Date	Salary

Javascript
HTML
CSS
Ajax
Server-side script
Comments

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

// Add custom conditions to the office column type
DataTable.ext.searchBuilder.conditions.office = {
	'=': {
		// This function decides whether to include the criteria in the search
		isInputValid: function (el, that) {
			// If no options have been selected, or one has but it has no value then do not include the criteria
			if (
				$(el[0]).has('option:selected').length < 1 ||
				($(el[0]).has('option:selected').length === 1 &&
					$($(el[0]).children('option:selected')[0]).text().length === 0)
			) {
				return false;
			}

			return true;
		},
		// This is the string displayed in the condition select
		conditionName: 'Equals',
		// This function gathers/sets the values from the dom elements created in the init function that are to be used for searching
		inputValue: function (el) {
			let values = [];

			for (let element of el) {
				if ($(element).is('select')) {
					values.push(
						$(element)
							.children('option:selected')
							.val()
					);
				}
			}

			// return the selected values
			return values;
		},
		// This function initialises the criteria, specifically any dom elements that are required for its use
		init: function (that, fn, preDefined = null) {
			// As the select2 element is going to be populated with the values from the table,
			// we need the row indexes and the column index.
			let column = $(that.dom.data)
				.children('option:selected')
				.val();
			let indexArray = that.s.dt
				.rows()
				.indexes()
				.toArray();
			let added = [];

			// Declare select2 element
			let el = $(
				'<select class="js-example-placeholder-single js-states form-control" style="width: 300px"/>'
			);
			$(el).prepend('<option></option>');

			// Set necessary listener to trigger search
			el.on('select2:select', function () {
				fn(that, el);
			});

			// for each row
			for (let index of indexArray) {
				// Extract the relevant data
				let cell = that.s.dt.cell(index, column);
				let value = {
					filter: cell.render(
						that.c.orthogonal.search
					),
					index,
					text: cell.render('display')
				};

				// If we have not already added this value
				if (added.indexOf(value.filter) === -1) {
					// Create the option to add to the select 2 element
					let opt = $('<option>', {
						text: value.text,
						value: value.filter
					})
						.addClass(that.classes.option)
						.addClass(that.classes.notItalic);

					$(el).append(opt);

					// Take note of the filter value so we do not add it again
					added.push(value.filter);

					// Check if it is preDefined and if so select it
					if (preDefined !== null && opt.val() === preDefined[0]) {
						opt.attr('selected', true);
					}
				}
			}

			// Trigger select2 on the select element when it is inserted into the dom
			$(el).on('dtsb-inserted', function () {
				if ($(el).hasClass('select2-hidden-accessible')) {
					$(el).select2('destroy');
				}

				$(el).select2({ placeholder: 'Value' });

				if (preDefined !== null) {
					$(el).val(preDefined[0]);
					$(el).trigger('input');
				}
			});

			return el;
		},
		// Straightforward search function comparing value from table and comparison from the select2 element
		// These values are retrieved in `inputValue`
		search: function (value, comparison) {
			return value === comparison[0];
		}
	}
};

$('#example').DataTable({
	columnDefs: [{ type: 'office', targets: 2 }],
	layout: {
		top1: 'searchBuilder'
	}
});

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.

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