Auto-complete - client-side custom labels

The two previous examples for autocomplete simply display the label that is given by the server, however, it is also possible to provide your own custom display function to show additional information in the autocomplete options list.

This example is largely the same as the autocomplete Ajax example, but with the addition of a display property for the field which defines a function that is called for each option in the list. We also use the escapeLabelHtml option to disable the automatic XSS protection of autocomplete, and instead use DataTable.util.escapeHtml() on the user input data in the display function.

Name	Country

Javascript
HTML
CSS
Ajax
Server-side script
Comments

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

var editor = new DataTable.Editor({
	fields: [
		{
			label: 'Name:',
			name: 'team.name'
		},
		{
			label: 'Country:',
			name: 'country.name',
			type: 'autocomplete',
			ajax: '../php/autoCompleteRender.php',
			escapeLabelHtml: false,
			display: function (data, val) {
				return DataTable.util.escapeHtml(data.name) + '<span class="pull-right">' + data.flag + '</span>';
			}
		}
	],
	table: '#example'
});

$('#example').DataTable({
	ajax: '../php/autoCompleteRender.php',
	columns: [
		{ data: 'team.name' },
		{ data: 'country.name' }
	],
	layout: {
		topStart: {
			buttons: [
				{ extend: 'create', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'edit', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'remove', editor: editor }
			]
		}
	},
	select: true
});

const editor = new DataTable.Editor({
	fields: [
		{
			label: 'Name:',
			name: 'team.name'
		},
		{
			label: 'Country:',
			name: 'country.name',
			type: 'autocomplete',
			ajax: '../php/autoCompleteRender.php',
			escapeLabelHtml: false,
			display: function (data, val) {
				return DataTable.util.escapeHtml(data.name) + '<span class="pull-right">' + data.flag + '</span>';
			}
		}
	],
	table: '#example'
});

new DataTable('#example', {
	ajax: '../php/autoCompleteRender.php',
	columns: [
		{ data: 'team.name' },
		{ data: 'country.name' }
	],
	layout: {
		topStart: {
			buttons: [
				{ extend: 'create', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'edit', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'remove', editor: editor }
			]
		}
	},
	select: true
});

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:

span.pull-right {
	float: right;
}

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 interaction for this demo is shown below. This server uses PHP, so the PHP script is shown, however our download packages include the equivalent script for other platforms, including .NET and Node.js. Server-side scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the Editor documentation.

Auto-complete - client-side custom labels

Other examples

Simple initialisation

Advanced initialisation

Triggering editing

DataTables as an input

Dates and time

Dropdown input types

DataTables extensions

Inline editing

Bubble editing

API

Standalone

Styling

Plug-ins

DataTables