Datatables is a Rails 3 plugin that enables the easy creation of dynamic datatable views on top of any ActiveRecord model. Datatables provides a simple helper that can be utilized in the view to automatically display a dynamic view on top of a model. Datatables handles the entire front end and backend support to do this.
To install datatables to your rails project, follow these simple steps:
gem 'datatables', :git => 'git://github.com/Caseproof/datatables.git'
<%= stylesheet_link_tag "datatable_page" %> <%= stylesheet_link_tag "datatable_table" %> <%= javascript_include_tag 'jquery.dataTables.min' %>
6. Add the Datatable helper mixin to your ApplicationHelper (app/helpers/application_helper.rb) like so:¶ ↑
module ApplicationHelper include Datatables::Helpers end
With datatables it’s easy to add rich datatables to your views that correspond with your active record models.
There is a lovely helper that you can use to render your datatable that takes in a whole host of options. Unfortunately, there’s still quite a bit of work to do with these options to handle every scenario but here’s what it support so far:
The following examples will use the following database table:
mysql> desc companies; +-------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | Field | Type | Null | Key | Default | Extra | +-------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+ | id | int(11) | NO | PRI | NULL | auto_increment | | name | varchar(255) | YES | MUL | NULL | | | slug | varchar(255) | YES | MUL | NULL | | | domain | varchar(255) | YES | MUL | NULL | | | category_id | int(11) | NO | MUL | NULL | | | created_at | datetime | YES | | NULL | | | updated_at | datetime | YES | | NULL | | +-------------+--------------+------+-----+---------+----------------+
The first argument to the datatable helper is the name of the model or an array of model & scope. The second argument is a hash of column names & options.
<%= datatable('company', { :name => { :type => 'string',
:label => 'Name',
:width => '20%' },
:slug => { :type => 'string',
:label => 'Slug',
:width => '15%' },
:domain => { :type => 'string',
:label => 'Domain',
:width => '15%' }
}) %>
Note that the edit link path utilizes the :id field in the database table to automatically insert the correct id on a row by row basis:
<%= datatable('company', { :id => { :type => 'hidden' },
:name => { :type => 'link',
:label => 'Name',
:link => edit_admin_company_path(:id),
:replace => 'id',
:width => '50%' },
:slug => { :type => 'string',
:label => 'Slug',
:width => '25%' },
:domain => { :type => 'string',
:label => 'Domain',
:width => '25%' }
}) %>
<%= datatable(['company','dot_org_domains'], { :id => { :type => 'hidden' },
:name => { :type => 'link',
:label => 'Name',
:link => edit_admin_company_path(:id),
:replace => 'id',
:width => '50%' },
:slug => { :type => 'string',
:label => 'Slug',
:width => '25%' },
:domain => { :type => 'string',
:label => 'Domain',
:width => '25%' }
}) %>
<%= datatable(['company','dot_org_domains'], { :id => { :type => 'hidden' },
:name => { :type => 'link',
:label => 'Name',
:link => edit_admin_company_path(:id),
:replace => 'id',
:width => '40%' },
:slug => { :type => 'string',
:label => 'Slug',
:width => '20%' },
:domain => { :type => 'string',
:label => 'Domain',
:width => '20%' },
:category_name => { :type => 'string',
:label => 'Category',
:column => 'categories.name',
:width => '20%',
:class => 'center' }
}) %>
It is the easiest way to integrate dynamic datatables using the jQuery datatables plugin into your rails app.
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Version 1.0.0
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First Release
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If you’ve got some ideas for datatables let me know and, even better, if you’ve made some enhancements to the code send me a pull request!
Bug report? Faulty/incomplete documentation? Feature request? Please post an issue on ‘github.com/Caseproof/metafy/issues’. If its urgent, please contact me from my website at ‘blairwilliams.com/contact’
Copyright © 2004-2011 Caseproof, LLC, released under the MIT license