Row reordering

This example shows the RowReorder extension for DataTables being used with Editor. RowReorder provides the ability for end users to quickly and easily reorder items in the table by click and drag. The integration with Editor that it provides (rowReorder.editor) makes use of Editor's multi-row editing abilities to update all rows to take account of the row ordered data.

This can make for a really easy to use interface for end users where they have data that they can place into a custom order.

In this example a list of audio books is shown and the user has the ability to define their own reading order through RowReorder's drag and drop. To demonstrate, reorder the rows using the numbers shown in the Order column.

Note also that we have to take special consideration when inserting and removing rows. In this case events are used in the server-side libraries to perform the requires data update based on the inserted/deleted rows, and the table is reloaded using ajax.reload when the postCreate and postRemove events occur.

Order	Title	Author	Duration
Order	Title	Author	Duration

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({
	ajax: '../php/sequence.php',
	fields: [
		{
			label: 'Order:',
			name: 'readingOrder'
		},
		{
			label: 'Title:',
			name: 'title'
		},
		{
			label: 'Author:',
			name: 'author'
		},
		{
			label: 'Duration (seconds):',
			name: 'duration'
		}
	],
	table: '#example'
});

var table = $('#example').DataTable({
	ajax: '../php/sequence.php',
	columns: [
		{ data: 'readingOrder', className: 'reorder' },
		{ data: 'title' },
		{ data: 'author' },
		{
			data: 'duration',
			render: function (data, type, row) {
				return parseInt(data / 60, 10) + 'h ' + (data % 60) + 'm';
			}
		}
	],
	columnDefs: [{ orderable: false, targets: [1, 2, 3] }],
	layout: {
		topStart: {
			buttons: [
				{ extend: 'create', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'edit', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'remove', editor: editor }
			]
		}
	},
	rowReorder: {
		dataSrc: 'readingOrder',
		editor: editor
	},
	select: true
});

editor
	.on('postCreate postRemove', function () {
		// After create or edit, a number of other rows might have been effected -
		// so we need to reload the table, keeping the paging in the current position
		table.ajax.reload(null, false);
	})
	.on('initCreate', function () {
		// Enable order for create
		editor
			.field('readingOrder')
			.fieldInfo('Leave empty to insert as next in list.')
			.enable();
	})
	.on('initEdit', function () {
		// Disable for edit (re-ordering is performed by click and drag)
		editor
			.field('readingOrder')
			.fieldInfo('This field can only be edited via click and drag row reordering.')
			.disable();
	});

const editor = new DataTable.Editor({
	ajax: '../php/sequence.php',
	fields: [
		{
			label: 'Order:',
			name: 'readingOrder'
		},
		{
			label: 'Title:',
			name: 'title'
		},
		{
			label: 'Author:',
			name: 'author'
		},
		{
			label: 'Duration (seconds):',
			name: 'duration'
		}
	],
	table: '#example'
});

const table = new DataTable('#example', {
	ajax: '../php/sequence.php',
	columns: [
		{ data: 'readingOrder', className: 'reorder' },
		{ data: 'title' },
		{ data: 'author' },
		{
			data: 'duration',
			render: (data) => parseInt(data / 60, 10) + 'h ' + (data % 60) + 'm'
		}
	],
	columnDefs: [{ orderable: false, targets: [1, 2, 3] }],
	layout: {
		topStart: {
			buttons: [
				{ extend: 'create', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'edit', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'remove', editor: editor }
			]
		}
	},
	rowReorder: {
		dataSrc: 'readingOrder',
		editor: editor
	},
	select: true
});

editor
	.on('postCreate postRemove', function () {
		// After create or edit, a number of other rows might have been effected -
		// so we need to reload the table, keeping the paging in the current position
		table.ajax.reload(null, false);
	})
	.on('initCreate', function () {
		// Enable order for create
		editor
			.field('readingOrder')
			.fieldInfo('Leave empty to insert as next in list.')
			.enable();
	})
	.on('initEdit', function () {
		// Disable for edit (re-ordering is performed by click and drag)
		editor
			.field('readingOrder')
			.fieldInfo('This field can only be edited via click and drag row reordering.')
			.disable();
	});

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:

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.

Row reordering

Other examples

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Advanced initialisation

DataTables as an input

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