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.

      Other examples