Preamble

Although DataTables is built from the principle of progressive enhancement, it is often useful to be able to construct a table from an AJAX source. This can be done in one of two ways - either using the aData initialisation parameter which takes an array of data, or using the sAjaxSource initialisation parameter which will have DataTables go to that source with an XHR call and load data from there. This example shows the latter method in action. DataTables expects an object with an array called "aaData" with the data source.

Live example

Initialisation code

$(document).ready(function() {
	$('#example').dataTable( {
		"bProcessing": true,
		"sAjaxSource": 'media/examples_support/json_source.txt'
	} );
} );

Other examples

Basic initialisation

• Zero configuration
• Feature enablement
• Sorting data
• Multi-column sorting
• Multiple tables
• Hidden columns
• DOM positioning
• State saving
• Alternative pagination styles
• Change language information (internationalisation)

Advanced initialisation

• Events (pre initialisation)
• Events (post initialisation)
• Column rendering
• Sorting without HTML tags
• Row callback
• Footer callback
• Ajax source
• Change language information from a file (internationalisation)

API

• Dynamically add a new row
• Dynamically create a table
• Individual column filtering
• Highlight rows and columns
• User selectable rows (multiple rows)
• User selectable rows (single row) and delete rows
• Editable rows (with jEditable)
• Submit form with elements in table
• Add custom API functions (plug-ins)

Please refer to the DataTables documentation for full information about it's API properties and methods.