Handling empty objects in cell data

deepakalur

I am using a webservice that returns JSON data, so I have no control over how it returns this data. However, in some cases, the cells returned contain empty objects (i.e. { } ) instead "null". In this case, DataTables displays "[object Object]" in the cell which is unsightly and misleading to the end users.
I am wondering if there is a fix for this already. If not, I found a way to fix it by adding these lines to the function_fnGetCellData() as follows:

[code]
if ((sData != null) && (typeof sData === 'object')) {
if (jQuery.isEmptyObject(sData)) {
return ((oCol.sDefaultContent)?oCol.sDefaultContent:'');
}
}[/code]

thoughts?

allan

So the whole row object is empty? Please link to a test case so I can fully understand the problem.

I'd suggest using mRender for this:

[code]
mData: "myDataProp",
mRender: function ( data, type, row ) {
return $.isEmptyObject( row ) ?
'' :
data;
}
[/code]

$.isEmptyObject is slow, so I'm very reluctant to include that in DataTables core.

Allan

deepakalur

Thanks for the tip on using myDataProp. I will use that approach for my fix instead. I understand the reluctance of using isEmptyObject.

Here is the test case (Please see the sample JSON data here: https://gist.github.com/deepakalur/5264459).

If you notice the first record in the array, i.e. records.record[0] you will see certain elements coming back as empty {}. E.g. the senate_class, eventful_id, nickname, and so on.

[code]
...
"chamber": "house",
"senate_class": {
},
"middlename": "L.",
"fax": "202-225-1589",
"eventful_id": {
},
"website": "http:\/\/ackerman.house.gov\/",
"nickname": {
},
"votesmart_id": "26970",
...
[/code]

I hope this helps.

allan

I see - if they were to have sub-properties, then you'd be able to use sDefaultContent , but here you probably do need a check for an empty object. Bit unusual to have the lack of data represented by an empty object rather than null or undefined, when the value would be a string, but it is possible to support it :-)

Allan