SearchPanes Release
Allan previously introduced SearchPanes as an experiment on a blog post asking for feedback. The feedback was good with many taking an interest in improving DataTables searching functionality and I am pleased to announce that since August I have been working on SearchPanes and it is now a first class, fully supported, extension for DataTables.
The basic idea behind SearchPanes has not changed since the original blog post, although it does now have a full set of options to allow for customisation, is fully documented and the styling has also been improved.
You can see an example below:
| 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 |
Download
The SearchPanes extension is available on the DataTables CDN and in the download builder. You can also install it from NPM.
Features
SearchPanes greatly improves DataTables searching functionality. In its most basic form, SearchPanes will analyse the data in the DataTable and for each column decide whether a SearchPane is worth displaying according to a uniqueness threshold. This value is a ratio of the number of unique values in the column to the total number of rows. If this value falls under a threshold (default value of 0.6) then the pane will be displayed. This value is of course configurable to your own liking using the searchPanes.threshold option. You can also side step this and force Panes to be displayed for specified columns by using the columns.searchPanes.show option.
Changes since the prototype
We received a lot of great feedback from the original prototype and have made a number of changes including:
- The list of options now uses a DataTable, allowing us to take advantage of the sorting and filtering abilities of DataTables. Thus the list of options will sort the same as the source table, even for complex data types and the end user can filter through the list of options.
- Layout make use of flexbox. See below for layout options.
- This is the first DataTables extension to be written completely in TypeScript.
- There is a cascade option (
searchPanes.cascadePanes) which was one of the most commonly requested features, filtering the options in the panes as selections are made. - Selection of options is now done using the Select extension, so you can shift and crtl/cmd click for multiple selection options.
- We've spent a lot of time working on performance!
Usage
Beyond the core set of features, there are many configuration options for SearchPanes. As noted above, each Pane implements a DataTable to display the search options, because of this it is possible to make use of all of the DataTables config options by making use of the searchPanes.dtOpts option. See the options reference for a full list of options available.
Layout
SearchPanes is inserted into the page using the searchPanes feature with the layout option as shown below:
$('#myTable').DataTable({
layout: {
top1: 'searchPanes'
}
dom: 'Qlfrtip'
});
If you are using a legacy version of DataTables 1.x, the insert point is done with the dom option of DataTables. The P option tells DataTables where to show SearchPanes - e.g.:
$('#myTable').DataTable({
dom: 'Plfrtip'
});
For more complex dom layouts with DataTables 1.x such as with Bootstrap, you can use the searchPanes.container() method to insert the panes directly into the document where you want. The Bootstrap 4 example makes use of this method.
SearchPanes also has its own layout configuration options. The layout of the Panes can be altered to allow the panes to display at the side of a table vertically by using the following config with the built in dtsp-verticalContainer, dtsp-verticalPanes and dtsp-dataTable classes:
$('#myTable').DataTable({
dom: '<"dtsp-verticalContainer"<"dtsp-verticalPanes"P><"dtsp-dataTable"frtip>>',
searchPanes:{
layout: 'columns-1'
}
});
An example of this can be found at the link provided.
The Panes as default are displayed 3 wide above the DataTable. It is possible to display them from 1 to 6 wide above the table by making use of the searchPanes.layout option.
Custom Search Options
SearchPanes also allows for custom search options to be set rather than automatically deriving values from the host DataTable. This is done by defining options within the columns.searchPanes.options array. When defining a custom searching function there are two properties which need to be defined:
label- the text that is shown to the end user for this option in the panevalue- your custom function.
This allows for custom options that can be as complex as desired. Below is an example of custom options, including a range filter:
| 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 |
More details on how to create these can be found in the documentation pages on custom search options.
Custom SearchPanes
When creating custom options it is possible to access data from across all of the DataTables columns. So, if you want to create custom options that do not fit to one column then it is possible to create extra panes (i.e. not tied to a specific column) entirely by making use of the searchPanes.panes array. This array holds an object for each pane to be created. For each of these objects there is a header property which holds the string which is to be set as the title of the pane (normally automatically derived from the column header). There is also a searchPanes property which in turn has an options property which holds custom searching functions as before.
The following example shows SearchPanes with a custom pane that will search for "Accountants in Tokyo" across multiple columns (other options could readily be added):
| 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 |
Further examples and configuration options can be found in the SearchPanes documentation and programming reference.
Known Limitations
It is worth noting that SearchPanes can be very process heavy when using large amounts of rows. Sometimes this will cause delays when searching the table, as well as loading the panes. This can however be combatted using multiple techniques as detailed in the performance examples, including enabling deferRender and making use of Scroller.
SearchPanes currently also does not support server-side processing although even as this release goes out, that is under active development!
Future Work
While this is only a 1.0.0 release, there has been a large amount of work and testing over the last few months to ensure that SearchPanes is a strong extension which is ready for use in production environments.
I hope that SearchPanes can bring some improvement to your projects and as always we would encourage you to provide any feedback that you may have on this initial release of SearchPanes in the forums, as well as any other features that you think would benefit the extension in the future!