Experimenting with Chat GPT-Powered Helpers for Building DataTables Configs

charlesrhoward

Hi again everyone,

After my earlier post where I shared some thoughts on using Chat GPT to help build DataTables configs, I wanted to follow up with something I’ve been working on recently.

As a kind of side project, I’ve started putting together a small tool (right now it’s just internal) that uses the Chat GPT API to generate or tweak DataTables configurations based on plain-language prompts. It’s not meant to replace proper understanding or documentation, but rather to help scaffold or validate more complex setups — like combining rowGroup, buttons, ajax, and responsive options.

The tool basically:
- Takes a natural language description (like “Group by category and add export buttons”)
- Sends it to Chat GPT with some context about how DataTables works
- Returns a config object or snippet you can plug into your code

Of course, it’s far from perfect. Like Allan pointed out, you still need to review the output — sometimes it’s just wrong, or it uses outdated methods. But in practice, it has helped me explore different combinations and options faster than starting from scratch each time.

I’m curious:
- Would something like this be useful for others here?
- What would you want such a helper to be able to do (or not do)?
- And from a more practical point of view — are there edge cases you think it would struggle with?

Still very early days, but happy to share more if anyone’s interested.

Cheers!