Basic initialisation

• Zero configuration
• Feature enablement
• Sorting data
• Multi-column sorting
• Multiple tables
• Hidden columns
• Complex headers - grouping with colspan
• DOM positioning
• State saving
• Alternative pagination styles
• Scrolling:
  Horizontal / Vertical / Both / Themed / Infinite
• Change language information (internationalisation)
• ThemeRoller themes (Smoothness)

Advanced initialisation

• Events:
  Live events / Pre-init / Post-init with fnGetNodes
• Column rendering
• Sorting without HTML tags
• Multiple table controls (sDom)
• Defining length menu options
• Complex headers and hidden columns
• Custom toolbar (element) around table
• Row highlighting with CSS
• Row grouping
• Row callback
• Footer callback
• Control sorting direction of columns
• Change language information from a file (internationalisation)

API

• Dynamically add a new row
• Individual column filtering (using "input" elements)
• Individual column filtering (using "select" elements)
• Highlight rows and columns
• Show and hide details about a particular record
• User selectable rows (multiple rows)
• User selectable rows (single row) and delete rows
• Editable rows (with jEditable)
• Submit form with elements in table
• Index column (static number column)
• Show and hide columns dynamically
• API function use in initialisation object (callback)
• DataTables scrolling and tabs
• Regular expression filtering

Data sources

• DOM
• Javascript array
• Ajax source
• Server side processing

Server-side processing

• Obtain server-side data
• Add extra HTTP variables
• Use HTTP POST
• Automatic addition of IDs and classes to rows
• Reading table data from objects
• Show and hide details about a particular record
• User selectable rows (multiple rows)
• JSONP for a cross domain data source
• jEditable integration with DataTables
• Deferred loading of Ajax data
• Custom column ordering (in callback data)
• Pipelining data (reduce Ajax calls for paging)

Ajax data source

• Ajax sourced data (array of arrays)
• Ajax sourced data (array of objects)
• Deferred DOM creation for extra speed
• Empty data source columns
• Use a data source other than aaData (the default)
• Read column data from sub-arrays
• Read column data from deeply nested properties

Plug-ins

• Add custom API functions
• Sorting and automatic type detection
• Sorting without automatic type detection
• Custom pagination controls
• Range filtering / custom filtering
• Live DOM sorting
• Automatic HTML type detection