Answers

• allan Posts: 63,281Questions: 1Answers: 10,425 Site admin

  October 2023

  Hi,

  DataTable.ext.errMode = 'none';
  

  will disable all the errors and warnings DataTables gives: https://live.datatables.net/jijefola/3/edit . However, since the error is ignored the Javascript then goes on to throw an error (which you can see on the console).

  The error message is there for a reason! I'd very strongly encourage you to use only correct HTML.

  it seems the issue is occurring when the table has no rows.

  The thing is that it does have a row - at least in the HTML. What you should do is just have an empty tbody or none, and let DataTables show the "no records" message (actually looking at your HTML in the example it doesn't have an explicit tbody, which DataTables expects.

  If your tables are generated through a central function, just drop that invalid "empty" (not empty) row.

  Allan
• Jiminy Posts: 13Questions: 4Answers: 0

  October 2023 edited October 2023

  Thanks as always, Allan. The problem is that we're not using a central function here, these particular tables predate that. We really do not want to have to touch the code that generates those tables. And there are a lot of them.

  Of course I realise that our HTML is incorrect, but as I said in my post, the way you were doing it in 1.10.25 worked perfectly for us, so we regret this change. You could even argue this was a breaking change on your part, although of course I see it from your point of view.

  I'll try the suggested DataTable.ext.errMode = 'none'; I agree it's quite drastic though, it would be preferable to log a warning on the console

  I appreciate your time and response.
• allan Posts: 63,281Questions: 1Answers: 10,425 Site admin

  October 2023

  I thought there was a console option for the errMode, but apparently not - I need to look into that. However, there is a way to get it to log to console - with a custom function:

  DataTable.ext.errMode = function (s, tn, msg) {
   console.log(msg, tn);
  };
  

  https://live.datatables.net/jijefola/5/edit

  It still goes on to give a JS error at that point. Which was the case before with 1.10.25 anyway, which I'd expected - the error message basically gave a friendly way for devs to see the error and understand what it meant.

  I'd actually argue that this was a bug fix to let people know that their HTML is invalid. We used to get a lot of questions which boiled down to missing a th or td in the header or body. It didn't worked in 1.10.x either, since it is invalid HTML and DataTables has always required valid HTML (here be dragons ). It just didn't show the "helpful" message saying what to fix

  Allan
• Jiminy Posts: 13Questions: 4Answers: 0

  October 2023

  Yeah, that's a useful workaround. Actually, if I use DataTable.ext.errMode = 'throw'; it makes the least amount of console noise, so I might just go with that.

  I fully get your argument on whether it was a bug fix or a breaking change. Unfortunately those of us with ancient sprawling applications are really squeezed - on on hand we have pointy haired bosses demanding we keep up with security updates on 3rd party libraries like Datatables. And on the other hand, we have code that we really don't want to touch as there is zero benefit. The longer I can kick to touch having to go near that code, the easier my life is. If you can help me with that, I'd be very grateful, but of course I know it's not the "right way" that things should be done. Economic realities etc etc

  Have a good weekend and thanks for the solution.
• kthorngren Posts: 21,205Questions: 26Answers: 4,927

  October 2023 edited October 2023

  If you are going to add DataTable.ext.errMode to your pages maybe it would be just as easy to write a reusable function that can be called to clear the tbody before you init Datatables.

  Kevin
• allan Posts: 63,281Questions: 1Answers: 10,425 Site admin

  October 2023

  That's an excellent idea Kevin! Count the header columns and the first row's columns. If no match then remove the body row and side step the error (and remove the JS error that you had in 1.10).

  Allan
• Jiminy Posts: 13Questions: 4Answers: 0

  October 2023

  Thanks Kevin and Allan. I am reluctant to alter the contents of tbody as there may be information there important to the user. Again the goal here is to just make the alert go away, without having to touch crufty old pages. I'm going to use the 'throw'.

  Thanks again.