AutoFill and KeyTable together

To emulate the Excel interface as closely as possible, KeyTable and AutoFill can both be used on the same table, as in this example. This can be particularly beneficial for cases were you are transitioning staff from Excel spreadsheets to your own online application - an interface that they are familiar with is shown to them.

	First name	Last name	Position	Office	Start date	Salary

Javascript
HTML
CSS
Ajax
Server-side script
Comments

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

var editor; // use a global for the submit and return data rendering in the examples

$(document).ready(function() {
	editor = new $.fn.dataTable.Editor( {
		ajax: "../php/staff.php",
		table: "#example",
		fields: [ {
				label: "First name:",
				name: "first_name"
			}, {
				label: "Last name:",
				name: "last_name"
			}, {
				label: "Position:",
				name: "position"
			}, {
				label: "Office:",
				name: "office"
			}, {
				label: "Extension:",
				name: "extn"
			}, {
				label: "Start date:",
				name: "start_date",
				type: "datetime"
			}, {
				label: "Salary:",
				name: "salary"
			}
		]
	} );

	var table = $('#example').DataTable( {
		dom: "Bfrtip",
		ajax: "../php/staff.php",
		columns: [
			{
				data: null,
				defaultContent: '',
				className: 'select-checkbox',
				orderable: false
			},
			{ data: "first_name" },
			{ data: "last_name" },
			{ data: "position" },
			{ data: "office" },
			{ data: "start_date" },
			{ data: "salary", render: $.fn.dataTable.render.number( ',', '.', 0, '$' ) }
		],
		autoFill: {
			columns: ':not(:first-child)',
			editor:  editor
		},
		keys: {
			columns: ':not(:first-child)',
			editor:  editor
		},
		select: {
			style:    'os',
			selector: 'td:first-child',
			blurable: true
		},
		buttons: [
			{ extend: "create", editor: editor },
			{ extend: "edit",   editor: editor },
			{ extend: "remove", editor: editor }
		]
	} );

	// Disable KeyTable while the main editing form is open
	editor
		.on( 'open', function ( e, mode, action ) {
			if ( mode === 'main' ) {
				table.keys.disable();
			}
		} )
		.on( 'close', function () {
			table.keys.enable();
		} );
} );

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:

div.DTE_Inline input {
		border: none;
		background-color: transparent;
		padding: 0 !important;
		font-size: 90%;
	}

	div.DTE_Inline input:focus {
		outline: none;
		background-color: transparent;
	}

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 processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.

AutoFill and KeyTable together

Other examples

Simple initialisation

Advanced initialisation

DataTables extensions

Dates and time

Inline editing

Bubble editing

API

Standalone

Styling

Plug-ins