how to add row as html to BootStrap Plugin DataTable? - php

Question

Is there a way to add row as html to datatable? I understand that the suggested way of doing it is this:
$('#addRow').on( 'click', function () {
t.row.add( [
counter +'.1',
counter +'.2',
counter +'.3',
counter +'.4',
counter +'.5'
] ).draw( false );
counter++;
} );
But I have a complex JSON input and I want to pre process it in PHP. Is it doable or even possible?
EDIT:
So instead of doing the code above:
t.row.add(resultfromphpserverwithalltherows);
UPDATE:
JSON output
{"student":[{"id":"2008-161","name":"Joseph Taylor","age":"20","status":"married","address":"USA","subjects":[{"math":"90","science":96,"history":99,"literature":93,"pe":"96"}],"remarks":"passed"}
and sometimes:
{"student":[{"id":"2008-161","name":"Joseph Taylor","age":"20","status":"married","address":"USA","subjects":[{"math":"90","science":96,"history":99,"literature":93,"pe":"96"}],"remarks":"passed","othersubjects":[{"applied math":"90","general science":96,"world history":99,"literature":93,"pe":"96"}],"remarks":"passed"}
So I can't really define the columns because the JSON output is dynamic and that's why I want to preprocess it in PHP first.

Answer 1

No matter how you approach this, there's going to be some significant data-formatting required.
Best approach for what you're asking: use DataTables server-side tools.
It requires including some additional components, but will simplify the javascript down to:
$('#example').DataTable( {
"processing": true,
"serverSide": true,
"ajax": "../server_side/scripts/server_processing.php"
} );
...with a little tweaking, you can simplify that further:
$(function(){
var dt = new dataTableAuto();
dt.load();
});
function dataTableAuto() {
this.params = {
"processing": true,
"serverSide": true,
"ajax": "../server_side/scripts/server_processing.php"
};
this.load = function() {
$('#example').DataTable( this.params );
}
}
php ajax server to send raw JSON as a single row
Simply send an ajax request to php which includes the counter, then respond with a json array matching what you want to build.
Javascript snippet
counter = 0;
$.ajax({
url: '[your url]',
type: 'post',
data: {"counter":counter},
contentType: "application/json",
dataType: 'json',
success: function(response){
t.row.add(JSON.parse(response)).draw( false );
counter++;
},
});
php Snippet
$jsonString = file_get_contents('php://input');
$data = json_decode($jsonString);
$counter = $data['counter'];
$totalRows = 10;
for( $i = 0; $i < $totalRows; $i++) {
$result[] = $counter .".". $i;
}
header('Content-Type: application/json', true, 200);
echo json_encode($result);
exit;
DataTables pure AJAX approach
javascript
$(function(){
t = $('#example');
$.ajax({
url: '[your url]',
type: 'post',
data: {"classID":12},
contentType: "application/json",
dataType: 'json',
success: function(response){
t.DataTable( JSON.parse(response) );
},
});
});
php
$jsonString = file_get_contents('php://input');
$data = json_decode($jsonString);
$classID = intval($data['classID']);
$cols = array('Name', 'Position', 'Score');
foreach ( $cols as $colName ) {
$entry = new stdClass();
$entry->title = $colName;
$result['columns'][] = $entry;
}
$result = // some query [ex: get rows by class id]
foreach( $result as $row) {
$thisRow = array();
foreach ( $cols as $colName ) {
$thisRow[] = $row['$colName']
}
$result['data'][] = $thisRow;
}
header('Content-Type: application/json', true, 200);
echo json_encode($result);
exit;
This should produce an object similar to:
{
data: [
['Joseph Taylor', '22', '90']
],
columns: [
{ title: "Name" },
{ title: "Position" },
{ title: "Score" }
]
}