Preamble

When using DataTables with server-side processing the default behaviour is to have DataTables automatically go the server and load the data, removing anything which might already be on the page. However, this behaviour might not always be desirable when the first page of the table has already been preloaded in the HTML. This is achieved by using the iDeferLoading initialisation property. It serves two purposes, firstly to include that deferred loading is required, but also to tell DataTables how many records there are in the full table, in this case 57 (this allows the information element and pagination to be displayed correctly).

In this example the preloaded data is hardcoded in, but you could use a PHP include or anything else to put the data in the table for the first page - DataTables won't process it at all, simply display it and be ready to load the next page / search / sort etc.

Live example

Rendering engine	Browser	Platform(s)	Engine version	CSS grade
Gecko	Firefox 1.0	Win 98+ / OSX.2+	1.7	A
Gecko	Firefox 1.5	Win 98+ / OSX.2+	1.8	A
Gecko	Firefox 2.0	Win 98+ / OSX.2+	1.8	A
Gecko	Firefox 3.0	Win 2k+ / OSX.3+	1.9	A
Gecko	Camino 1.0	OSX.2+	1.8	A
Gecko	Camino 1.5	OSX.3+	1.8	A
Gecko	Netscape 7.2	Win 95+ / Mac OS 8.6-9.2	1.7	A
Gecko	Netscape Browser 8	Win 98SE+	1.7	A
Gecko	Netscape Navigator 9	Win 98+ / OSX.2+	1.8	A
Gecko	Mozilla 1.0	Win 95+ / OSX.1+	1	A
Rendering engine	Browser	Platform(s)	Engine version	CSS grade

Initialisation code

$(document).ready(function() {
	$('#example').dataTable( {
		"bProcessing": true,
		"bServerSide": true,
		"sAjaxSource": "scripts/server_processing.php",
		"iDeferLoading": 57
	} );
} );

Other examples

Basic initialisation

• Zero configuration
• Feature enablement
• Sorting data
• Multi-column sorting
• Multiple tables
• Hidden columns
• DOM positioning
• State saving
• Alternative pagination styles
• Scrolling: Horizontal / Vertical / Both / Themed / Infinite
• Change language information (internationalisation)
• ThemeRoller themes (Smoothness)

Advanced initialisation

• Events (pre initialisation)
• Events (post initialisation)
• Column rendering
• Sorting without HTML tags
• Multiple table controls (sDom)
• Defining length menu options
• Custom toolbar (element) around table
• Row highlighting with CSS
• Column grouping through col/row spans
• Row grouping
• Row callback
• Footer callback
• Change language information from a file (internationalisation)

Data sources

• DOM
• Javascript array
• Ajax source
• Server side processing

Server-side processing

• Obtain server-side data
• Add extra HTTP variables
• Use HTTP POST
• Custom column ordering (in callback data)
• Pipelining data (reduce Ajax calls for paging)
• Show and hide details about a particular record
• User selectable rows (multiple rows)

API

• Dynamically add a new row
• Individual column filtering (using "input" elements)
• Individual column filtering (using "select" elements)
• Highlight rows and columns
• Show and hide details about a particular record
• User selectable rows (multiple rows)
• User selectable rows (single row) and delete rows
• Editable rows (with jEditable)
• Submit form with elements in table
• Index column (static number column)
• Show and hide columns dynamically
• API function use in initialisation object (callback)
• DataTables scrolling and tabs
• Regular expression filtering

Plug-ins

• Add custom API functions
• Sorting and type detection
• Custom pagination controls
• Range filtering / custom filtering
• Live DOM sorting
• Automatic HTML type detection

Please refer to the DataTables documentation for full information about its API properties and methods.