There are many ways to get your data into DataTables, and if you are working with seriously large databases, you might want to consider using the server-side options that DataTables provides. Basically all of the paging, filtering, sorting etc that DataTables does can be handed off to a server (or any other data source - Google Gears or Adobe Air for example!) and DataTables is just an events and display module.
The example here shows a very simple display of the CSS data (used in all my other examples), but in this instance coming from the server on each draw. Filtering, multi-column sorting etc all work as you would expect.
| Rendering engine | Browser | Platform(s) | Engine version | CSS grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loading data from server | ||||
| Rendering engine | Browser | Platform(s) | Engine version | CSS grade |
$(document).ready(function() {
$('#example').dataTable( {
"bProcessing": true,
"bServerSide": true,
"sAjaxSource": "../examples_support/server_processing.php"
} );
} );
<?php
/* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Easy set variables
*/
/* Array of database columns which should be read and sent back to DataTables. Use a space where
* you want to insert a non-database field (for example a counter or static image)
*/
$aColumns = array( 'engine', 'browser', 'platform', 'version', 'grade' );
/* Indexed column (used for fast and accurate table cardinality) */
$sIndexColumn = "id";
/* DB table to use */
$sTable = "ajax";
/* Database connection information */
$gaSql['user'] = "";
$gaSql['password'] = "";
$gaSql['db'] = "";
$gaSql['server'] = "localhost";
/* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* If you just want to use the basic configuration for DataTables with PHP server-side, there is
* no need to edit below this line
*/
/*
* MySQL connection
*/
$gaSql['link'] = mysql_pconnect( $gaSql['server'], $gaSql['user'], $gaSql['password'] ) or
die( 'Could not open connection to server' );
mysql_select_db( $gaSql['db'], $gaSql['link'] ) or
die( 'Could not select database '. $gaSql['db'] );
/*
* Paging
*/
$sLimit = "";
if ( isset( $_GET['iDisplayStart'] ) && $_GET['iDisplayLength'] != '-1' )
{
$sLimit = "LIMIT ".mysql_real_escape_string( $_GET['iDisplayStart'] ).", ".
mysql_real_escape_string( $_GET['iDisplayLength'] );
}
/*
* Ordering
*/
if ( isset( $_GET['iSortCol_0'] ) )
{
$sOrder = "ORDER BY ";
for ( $i=0 ; $i<intval( $_GET['iSortingCols'] ) ; $i++ )
{
if ( $_GET[ 'bSortable_'.intval($_GET['iSortCol_'.$i]) ] == "true" )
{
$sOrder .= $aColumns[ intval( $_GET['iSortCol_'.$i] ) ]."
".mysql_real_escape_string( $_GET['sSortDir_'.$i] ) .", ";
}
}
$sOrder = substr_replace( $sOrder, "", -2 );
if ( $sOrder == "ORDER BY" )
{
$sOrder = "";
}
}
/*
* Filtering
* NOTE this does not match the built-in DataTables filtering which does it
* word by word on any field. It's possible to do here, but concerned about efficiency
* on very large tables, and MySQL's regex functionality is very limited
*/
$sWhere = "";
if ( $_GET['sSearch'] != "" )
{
$sWhere = "WHERE (";
for ( $i=0 ; $i<count($aColumns) ; $i++ )
{
$sWhere .= $aColumns[$i]." LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string( $_GET['sSearch'] )."%' OR ";
}
$sWhere = substr_replace( $sWhere, "", -3 );
$sWhere .= ')';
}
/* Individual column filtering */
for ( $i=0 ; $i<count($aColumns) ; $i++ )
{
if ( $_GET['bSearchable_'.$i] == "true" && $_GET['sSearch_'.$i] != '' )
{
if ( $sWhere == "" )
{
$sWhere = "WHERE ";
}
else
{
$sWhere .= " AND ";
}
$sWhere .= $aColumns[$i]." LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['sSearch_'.$i])."%' ";
}
}
/*
* SQL queries
* Get data to display
*/
$sQuery = "
SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS ".str_replace(" , ", " ", implode(", ", $aColumns))."
FROM $sTable
$sWhere
$sOrder
$sLimit
";
$rResult = mysql_query( $sQuery, $gaSql['link'] ) or die(mysql_error());
/* Data set length after filtering */
$sQuery = "
SELECT FOUND_ROWS()
";
$rResultFilterTotal = mysql_query( $sQuery, $gaSql['link'] ) or die(mysql_error());
$aResultFilterTotal = mysql_fetch_array($rResultFilterTotal);
$iFilteredTotal = $aResultFilterTotal[0];
/* Total data set length */
$sQuery = "
SELECT COUNT(".$sIndexColumn.")
FROM $sTable
";
$rResultTotal = mysql_query( $sQuery, $gaSql['link'] ) or die(mysql_error());
$aResultTotal = mysql_fetch_array($rResultTotal);
$iTotal = $aResultTotal[0];
/*
* Output
*/
$sOutput = '{';
$sOutput .= '"sEcho": '.intval($_GET['sEcho']).', ';
$sOutput .= '"iTotalRecords": '.$iTotal.', ';
$sOutput .= '"iTotalDisplayRecords": '.$iFilteredTotal.', ';
$sOutput .= '"aaData": [ ';
while ( $aRow = mysql_fetch_array( $rResult ) )
{
$sOutput .= "[";
for ( $i=0 ; $i<count($aColumns) ; $i++ )
{
if ( $aColumns[$i] == "version" )
{
/* Special output formatting for 'version' */
$sOutput .= ($aRow[ $aColumns[$i] ]=="0") ?
'"-",' :
'"'.str_replace('"', '\"', $aRow[ $aColumns[$i] ]).'",';
}
else if ( $aColumns[$i] != ' ' )
{
/* General output */
$sOutput .= '"'.str_replace('"', '\"', $aRow[ $aColumns[$i] ]).'",';
}
}
/*
* Optional Configuration:
* If you need to add any extra columns (add/edit/delete etc) to the table, that aren't in the
* database - you can do it here
*/
$sOutput = substr_replace( $sOutput, "", -1 );
$sOutput .= "],";
}
$sOutput = substr_replace( $sOutput, "", -1 );
$sOutput .= '] }';
echo $sOutput;
?>
Please refer to the DataTables documentation for full information about its API properties and methods.