Envelope display controller

This example highlights how Editor can effortlessly present the form by utilising display containers. Editor makes very few assumptions about how its form will actually be displayed to the end user (where in the DOM, interaction etc) leaving the actual positioning and final display of the form to the display controller.

Editor has two built-in display controllers ('lightbox' and 'envelope') which can be specified by using the display initialisation option - 'lightbox' is the default. Please note that these two display controllers are only designed to operate with the default DataTables styling, and the other frameworks such as Bootstrap don't have an equivalent, so this example specifically uses the DataTables styling. Additional display controllers can be added as plug-ins to Editor if you wish to use a different display method.

This example builds on the simple example utilising Buttons to control the form. The envelope display method has a number of configuration options available to it, including the ability to toggle automatic scrolling of the window and attaching the form to the table header, both of which are shown here. The Envelope with inline controls example shows the default effect for these settings, while we alter the defaults here.

Name	Position	Office	Extn.	Start date	Salary
Name	Position	Office	Extn.	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:

// Configure the envelope display to attach to the header
DataTable.Editor.display.envelope.conf.attach = 'head';

var editor = new DataTable.Editor({
	ajax: '../php/staff.php',
	display: 'envelope',
	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'
		}
	],
	table: '#example'
});

$('#example').DataTable({
	ajax: '../php/staff.php',
	columns: [
		{
			data: null,
			render: function (data, type, row) {
				// Combine the first and last names into a single table field
				return data.first_name + ' ' + data.last_name;
			}
		},
		{ data: 'position' },
		{ data: 'office' },
		{ data: 'extn' },
		{ data: 'start_date' },
		{ data: 'salary', render: DataTable.render.number(null, null, 0, '$') }
	],
	layout: {
		topStart: {
			buttons: [
				{ extend: 'create', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'edit', editor: editor },
				{ extend: 'remove', editor: editor }
			]
		}
	},
	select: true
});

// Configure the envelope display to attach to the header
DataTable.Editor.display.envelope.conf.attach = 'head';

const editor = new DataTable.Editor({
	ajax: '../php/staff.php',
	display: 'envelope',
	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'
		}
	],
	table: '#example'
});

$('#example').DataTable({
	ajax: '../php/staff.php',
	columns: [
		{
			data: null,
			render: (data) => data.first_name + ' ' + data.last_name
		},
		{ data: 'position' },
		{ data: 'office' },
		{ data: 'extn' },
		{ data: 'start_date' },
		{ data: 'salary', render: DataTable.render.number(null, null, 0, '$') }
	],
	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.

Envelope display controller

Other examples

Simple initialisation

Advanced initialisation

DataTables as an input

Dates and time

DataTables extensions

Inline editing

Bubble editing

API

Standalone

Styling

Plug-ins

DataTables