Is there any way to change columns reactively?

[francisbyrne]

@austinrivas I'm wondering if there would be any way to modify the table columns reactively. For example, I'd like to be able to change which columns are shown based on a checkbox, to switch between e.g. percent vs absolute performance.

Something like the below, where Session.get('displayPercent') is linked to a checkbox, so the change column switches data source when it is checked and unchecked.

columns: [{
          title: "symbol",
          data: "symbol"
        },{
          title: "price",
          data: "price"
        },{
          title: "change",
          data: function() {
            return ( Session.get('displayPercent') ? 'changePercent' : 'change' );
          }]

Outside of my specific use-case, I think it would be a useful feature for doing things like selecting columns to show in a table, etc.

Would there be any way to achieve this?

[gjolund]

@francisbyrne I have been using the DataTables colVis plugin for these types of modifications, but I can see why you would also want external access.

I should be able to make all of the datatables configuration options reactive in the same way as the query, I'll try to get something working in the next few days.

[francisbyrne]

I worked out that you can actually just do this in the mRender; it's a bit of a hack but works fine:

mRender: function(data, type, full) {
            return Session.get('displayPercent') && full.changePercent || data;
          }

[gjolund]

What makes you feel like its a hack? From my perspective that is the intended use of the mRender callaback.