Field display styling options

This example shows Editor's built in options to alter the display of field input elements. By default, Editor makes extensive use of white-space to present a simple and clean looking form to an end user, particularly on larger monitors, but for more complex field types this can actually distract from the elegance of the form as input controls can be squashed together (a toolbar on a WYSIWYG input for example). It can also be useful to provide additional space for elements where a large amount of data is expected to be entered, such as with a textarea input.

The styling options can be added by using the fields.className option and two options are available:

full - Use all of the width available in the modal (on larger screens, by default Editor uses white-space to present a simple looking form).
block - Show the input element below the label, making use of that additional space to show a larger input control.

The full and block options can both be used on the field to combine their effects.

This example shows two fields without the additional classes, two fields with each individually and one with both.

Please note that these additional classes don't have the same effect on all styling frameworks. Some use a stacked (block) layout already, and some are already full width. Additionally, because of the mix of types, the display in this example can look somewhat scrappy. Typically you would use one style consistently rather than mashing them all together like this example!

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:

var editor = new DataTable.Editor({
	ajax: '../php/staff.php',
	table: '#example',
	fields: [
		{
			label: 'First name:',
			name: 'first_name'
		},
		{
			label: 'Last name:',
			name: 'last_name'
		},
		{
			label: 'Position (<code>block</code>):',
			name: 'position',
			className: 'block'
		},
		{
			label: 'Office (<code>full</code>):',
			name: 'office',
			className: 'full'
		},
		{
			label: 'Extension (<code>full block</code>):',
			name: 'extn',
			className: 'full block'
		}
	]
});

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

const editor = new DataTable.Editor({
	ajax: '../php/staff.php',
	table: '#example',
	fields: [
		{
			label: 'First name:',
			name: 'first_name'
		},
		{
			label: 'Last name:',
			name: 'last_name'
		},
		{
			label: 'Position (<code>block</code>):',
			name: 'position',
			className: 'block'
		},
		{
			label: 'Office (<code>full</code>):',
			name: 'office',
			className: 'full'
		},
		{
			label: 'Extension (<code>full block</code>):',
			name: 'extn',
			className: 'full block'
		}
	]
});

new DataTable('#example', {
	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.

Field display styling options

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