Often when editing data in tables, you may wish to edit consecutive records. While in Editor it is perfectly feasible to save a row, then click to edit another, Editor can be customised to provide a consecutive record editing friendly interface with Previous and Next buttons as well as the regular save button. These two addition buttons also save the record that has been worked on, but rather than closing the editing display, they immediately load the next record in the table and present that for editing.
This is done by making use of the buttons()E API method Editor presents and the TableTools API to select and activate the next row. A
little bit of extra CSS styling is also used to visually group the three buttons.
| Name | Position | Office | Extn. | Start date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Position | Office | Extn. | Start date | Salary |
The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:
var editor; // use a global for the submit and return data rendering in the examples
$(document).ready(function() {
editor = new $.fn.dataTable.Editor( {
ajax: "../php/staff.php",
table: "#example",
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"
}, {
label: "Salary:",
name: "salary"
}
]
} );
var table = $('#example').DataTable( {
dom: "Tfrtip",
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: $.fn.dataTable.render.number( ',', '.', 0, '$' ) }
],
tableTools: {
sRowSelect: "os",
aButtons: [
{ sExtends: "editor_create", editor: editor },
{
sExtends: "editor_edit",
sButtonClass: "editor_edit",
editor: editor,
formButtons: [
{
label: "<",
fn: function (e) {
this.submit( function () {
var tt = $.fn.dataTable.TableTools.fnGetInstance('example');
var row = tt.fnGetSelected()[0];
var rows = table.rows( {filter:'applied'} ).nodes();
var index = rows.indexOf( row );
tt.fnDeselect( row );
if ( rows[index-1] ) {
tt.fnSelect( rows[index-1] );
$('a.editor_edit').click();
}
}, null, null, false );
}
},
{
label: "Save",
fn: function (e) {
this.submit();
}
},
{
label: ">",
fn: function (e) {
this.submit( function () {
var tt = $.fn.dataTable.TableTools.fnGetInstance('example');
var row = tt.fnGetSelected()[0];
var rows = table.rows( {filter:'applied'} ).nodes();
var index = rows.indexOf( row );
tt.fnDeselect( row );
if ( rows[ index+1 ] ) {
tt.fnSelect( rows[index+1] );
$('a.editor_edit').click();
}
}, null, null, false );
}
}
]
},
{ sExtends: "editor_remove", editor: editor }
]
}
} );
} );
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:
div.DTE_Footer_Content {
position: relative;
}
div.DTE_Form_Buttons {
float: right;
}
div.DTE div.DTE_Form_Buttons button {
float: left;
margin: 0;
border-radius: 0;
}
div.DTE div.DTE_Form_Buttons button:first-child {
border-top-left-radius: 3px;
border-bottom-left-radius: 3px;
}
div.DTE div.DTE_Form_Buttons button:last-child {
border-top-right-radius: 3px;
border-bottom-right-radius: 3px;
}
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 processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.