DataTables

General support

Q. I have a question - how can I get help?
A. The best place to get help for DataTables is on this site. There is extensive documentation, examples, these FAQs and the forum for help. If you can't find the answer to your question on the site already, please post it in the forum.

Q. How quickly can I expect a reply to my forum post?
A. The best way to ensure that you get a reply to your question is to make a donation. This is no fixed donation amount - please donate what the answer to your question is worth to you. Response times will of course vary, but one will come normally within a day or two, but it can sometimes take longer (for example if people are away on holiday or have other commitments etc). If this is the case please don't be offended.

Q. I need to get an answer to this question super quick!
A. Please just follow the normal procedure and post in the forum. Don't use lots of exclamation marks etc, this won't help get a faster answer. There is a lot of information available on this site, and many questions have already been answered. DataTables is not a commercial product, so please don't expect commercial support. If you would like to encourage a quick reply, please make a donation.

Q. This is amazing software - how can contribute?

• Write about DataTables on your blog and spread the word!
• Create plug-ins for DataTables which can be show-cased on this site.
• Answer support questions in the forums.
• Contribute patches to any bugs you find - test for bugs.
• Make a donation!

Q. Can I pay for integration support?
A. Yes this is possible. The best way is to get in touch and we can discuss what is required and professional rates.

Q. I have created a plug-in - how can I share it with everyone else?
A. Please send it to me direct, or post it in the forum.

Q. I think I have found a bug - how do I report it?
A. Please post your bug, along with as much information as possible for how to recreate it, in the forum.

General initialisation

Q. My events don't work on the second page
A. When attaching events to cells in a table controlled by DataTables, you need to be careful how it is done. Because DataTables removes nodes from the DOM, event's might not be applied. To over come this, is quite simple, as shown in these examples: pre-initialisation, post-initialisation. $().live() events can also help. Finally you use my Visual Event bookmarklet to help debug event issues.

Q. DataTables is running slow. How can I speed it up?
A. There are several ways in which you can speed up DataTables. If you are using DOM data, then you can disable the sorting classes (the highlighting column) using bSortClasses. If this isn't enough, then you can use server-side processing, which will work for millions of rows.

Q. My table isn't working!?
A. Have you got a <thead> and <tbody> defined as DataTables requires (basic usage)? Is your HTML valid (W3C validator)? Are you seeing any Javascript errors?

Q. My styles aren't showing up / my table isn't styled.
A. Have you included the demo CSS for DataTables on your page (and got the paths correct!)? As a side-note I would strongly encourage customisation of the DataTables demo CSS.

Q. How can I move the table controls?
A. You can move the elements that DataTables puts around the table by using the sDom initialisation parameter.

Server-side processing

Q. Its not working... (stuck on processing)
A. This is usually down to incorrect JSON data being passed back from the server. Please test your JSON return with JSON Lint before posting in the forum.

Q. Its still not working...
A. The next most common reason for server-side processing not working is the sEcho variable not being returned as it was set in the request. DataTables uses sEcho to keep a draw count, so this is an important parameter. See server-side usage.

Q. Pagination is not enabled, or the information text shows the wrong data set count
A. This is likely to be caused by the incorrect use of iTotalDisplayRecords. iTotalDisplayRecords is the total number of records in the data set after filtering - not just the data array length (which DataTables can do itself!). So if you have no filtering iTotalDisplayRecords should be exactly the same as iTotalRecords.

Q. My events aren't being applied
A. What happens is that for each draw, DataTables will create the required display nodes (TR, TD etc), so old events are lost. You can either use $.live, or fnDrawCallback to re-add the events. You can also use my Visual Event bookmarklet to help debug event issues.