Building DataTables

DataTables is essentially one large Javascript file, but its source is split into manageable individual files that are combined to create the main library file. This is DataTables build process and if you'd like to modify DataTables from source you'll need to go through this process.

Environment and software

The DataTables build process is supported on Mac, Linux and Windows (WSL). The following software is required to be able to build DataTables:

Bash
Node.js
PHP 7+

Obtaining the source

The DataTables source is available on GitHub which means obtaining the code is as simple as:

git clone https://github.com/DataTables/DataTablesSrc.git

You'll then need to install the build dependencies:

cd DataTablesSrc
npm install

Building

To build the code run:

npm run build

The debug part is optional (which is why it is shown in square brackets). When debug is enabled the minification process using Closure compiler is skipped resulting in faster build times, but no minified file is produced, meaning it is only useful for debugging.

The build process output will look something like:

  DataTables build (2.1.4) - branch: master 

  Deploying to build repo 
  JS js 
      Minification - js 
        File size: 93174 
  JS mjs 
      Minification - mjs 
        File size: 104504 
  Styling frameworks JS 
    JS processing dataTables.bootstrap5 
      Creating ES module 
      Minification - mjs 
        File size: 1102 
      Creating UMD 
      Minification - js 
        File size: 1470 
      Linting UMD 
  ...
  Types 
  Examples 
  Lint 
    Pass 
    Updating package descriptors 

  Done

Output

The output files (Javascript, CSS, images and examples) are placed into the built/DataTables directory. To load them in a browser run:

npm run serve

Extensions

DataTables extensions also go through the same build process using this script, although in this case:

./make.sh extension {name} [debug]

where, again debug is optional and in this case {name} is the name of the extension. The script will automatically clone the extension from the DataTables repositories and then built it and its examples.

Output

The built extensions are placed into built/DataTables/extensions where the examples can immediately be run from a localhost.