Field types

When working with forms you don't want to be limited to just text input fields - HTML forms provide a lot of input options such as radio buttons, checkboxes etc, and Editor makes it easy to configure and use these input types with an editable DataTable through the fields.type option for field definitions.

Each field type provides its own options for configuration and user interaction methods. The three types used in this example are text (the default), select and radio. The select and radio options are configured through their options options array, which defines the options for the fields, as shown in the example below.

The field types that are built into Editor are documented on the Editor web-site and additional types can be added through the use of field type plug-ins.

Priority	Item	Status

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/todo.php',
	fields: [
		{
			label: 'Item:',
			name: 'item'
		},
		{
			label: 'Status:',
			name: 'done',
			type: 'radio',
			options: [
				{ label: 'To do', value: 0 },
				{ label: 'Done', value: 1 }
			]
		},
		{
			label: 'Priority:',
			name: 'priority',
			type: 'select',
			options: [
				{ label: '1 (highest)', value: '1' },
				{ label: '2', value: '2' },
				{ label: '3', value: '3' },
				{ label: '4', value: '4' },
				{ label: '5 (lowest)', value: '5' }
			]
		}
	],
	table: '#example'
});

$('#example').DataTable({
	ajax: '../php/todo.php',
	columns: [
		{ data: 'priority', className: 'dt-body-center' },
		{ data: 'item' },
		{
			data: 'done',
			render: function (val, type, row) {
				return val == 0 ? 'To do' : 'Done';
			}
		}
	],
	layout: {
		topStart: {
			buttons: [
				{ extend: 'create', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'edit', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'remove', editor: editor }
			]
		}
	},
	select: true
});

const editor = new DataTable.Editor({
	ajax: '../php/todo.php',
	fields: [
		{
			label: 'Item:',
			name: 'item'
		},
		{
			label: 'Status:',
			name: 'done',
			type: 'radio',
			options: [
				{ label: 'To do', value: 0 },
				{ label: 'Done', value: 1 }
			]
		},
		{
			label: 'Priority:',
			name: 'priority',
			type: 'select',
			options: [
				{ label: '1 (highest)', value: '1' },
				{ label: '2', value: '2' },
				{ label: '3', value: '3' },
				{ label: '4', value: '4' },
				{ label: '5 (lowest)', value: '5' }
			]
		}
	],
	table: '#example'
});

new DataTable('#example', {
	ajax: '../php/todo.php',
	columns: [
		{ data: 'priority', className: 'dt-body-center' },
		{ data: 'item' },
		{
			data: 'done',
			render: (val) => (val == 0 ? 'To do' : 'Done')
		}
	],
	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:

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.

Field types

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