DataTables 1.6.0 released

allan

Hello all,

I'm very pleased to announce that DataTables 1.6.0 is now released and ready to go!

After just one beta, I've decided to go ahead and make this release, as it continues a wide range of improvements over the 1.5.x series, and includes an update to each of the three major plug-ins (FixedHeader, KeyTables and TableTools). The documentation on the site has all been updated, and while the migration from 1.5.x should be almost pain free, there are a few things to be aware of, which are detailed on the ( http://www.datatables.net/upgrade/1.6 ) 1.5 to 1.6 migration page.

The key features of the 1.6 release are:
- Multiple table control elements can now be used (sDom)
- Improved API for table manipulation

Others are detailed in the full release notes:
http://datatables.net/download

You can download DataTables 1.6.0 here:
http://datatables.net/releases/dataTables-1.6.0.zip

Short term future development of DataTables:
While this release doesn't have massive changes in it from 1.5.x, it certain includes some very welcome ones. Aside from the bug fixes which will no doubt be required in this 1.6.x series, the main focus here will be to squeeze a bit more speed out of it. I've got several ideas for how this can be achieved, so look out for that in future.

Long term future development of DataTables:
With an eye towards what would be DataTables 2, the idea would be to provide a much stronger architecture for DataTables itself and plug-in modules, while still providing it's current range of features. Memory management would also be improved, as well as initialisation speed. When this will happen - who knows. As the community surrounding DataTables grows, so does the support work involved, leaving less time for development.

On that note, please consider making donation towards the continued support and development of DataTables:
http://datatables.net/donate

Enjoy!
Allan

u2fan

Hi Allan

I have been trying to migrate from 1.5 to 1.6, and am having issues, at least with our good friend IE6.

The problem seems to surface when specifying a language URL in the configuration

oLanguage: {
"sUrl": "media/language/de_DE.txt"
}

I get the message "Object doesn't support this property or method" in IE6. It happens before the $.getJSON function's callback returns, so that the alert I have put in the callback never executes:

$.getJSON( oSettings.oLanguage.sUrl, null, function( json ) {
alert('inside console');
_fnLanguageProcess( oSettings, json, true );
} );

I have confirmed that $.getJSON was not undefined. It appears that the entire rest of the constructor executes before the error message is shown, so the bug looks like it occurs after the constructor call.

Hope this helps with troubleshooting. I don't know what else would be useful.

Thanks!

u2fan

Allan, the free dynaTrace AJAX Edition tool has been recommended by Steve Souders and John Resig, and may well assist in optimisation efforts:

http://ajax.dynatrace.com/pages/

I've given it a brief test and what I've seen so far is impressive!

allan

Hi u2fan,

Does this page error for you in IE6? http://datatables.net/examples/advanced_init/language_file.html . It appears to be okay for me at the moment - which suggests it might be something else at work. When you enable the Javascript debugger, does it say where the error is occuring?

Thanks,
Allan

vex

Thanks for the new release (and wow, this one came out pretty damn fast too!), still works wonderfully!

Perhaps you should add a notice to the migration page that fnSettings().anFeatures was renamed to fnSettings().aanFeatures (at least the fnSetFilteringDelay() plugin was failing because of that).

u2fan

Hi Allan

Yes, that page works fine for me. I'm afraid that at our workplace IE's settings have been "locked down" so that we cannot use a JavaScript debugger... it's a right pain. Is there any other info I can give you to help with troubleshooting, or do you have some suggestions for alert-style debugging?

Thanks

u2fan

Hi again

My initialisation call is as follows:

[code]
var oDataTable = oTable.dataTable({
sPaginationType: 'custom',

sDom: 'rt<"pagingFooter"p>',

iDisplayLength: 10,

bLengthChange: false,

oLanguage: {
sUrl: "media/language/de_DE.txt"
}
});
[/code]

This results in a table without any pagination (all records are shown on the page) and no visible pagination control. Note also that the error is still present (and results in the same behaviour) if sPaginationType is changed to 'full_numbers'.

Do you see anything in there which might be causing the JavaScript error?

u2fan

Hi Allan

I noticed that the language example ( http://datatables.net/examples/advanced_init/language_file.html ) is still using Datatables version 1.5.6. The JS error I have might show up if you upgrade to 1.6 (so far I have been unable to duplicate the whole page to make this modification though).

zirconx

Any chance this version can resize the columns? I'm trying to replace Ext grids with something using jQuery. Datatables looks like it will work great, but my users want to resize the columns like they could with Ext.

-thanks

allan

@u2fan: I think you might need to clear your cache. The linked example is using 1.6.0. Also I've tried in in Safari, Firefox and IE now, and all appear to work as expect. Can you link to an example showing the problem you are having?

@zirconx: Resizing isn't built into DataTables, but it should be relatively easy to add support for it. I've been meaning to write a small plug-in for it at some point, but just haven't had a chance to get around to it yet!

Regards,
Allan

u2fan

Hi Allan

Apologies for the false alarm. I found out that in my company's environment AJAX is outlawed, so XHRs simply do not work. I am not sure how exactly this is done (potentially via the security settings of IE6?). Is there a way to emit some alert in such a case in Datatables code, for those in the same situation?

Loading the correct language object into a variable upfront and using that in the Datatables initialisation was a way around my problem. It is a more efficient approach and allows me to easily use custom language entries to apply to things like tooltips on adornments to the table.

So far v1.6 works flawlessly :)

Thanks

allan

Hi,

Good to hear 1.6 is going well for you. Amazing that XHR is banned... Yes I think you can disable it using the IE settings - and I suppose if your company are still using IE6, then this is the kind of thing they might do ;-). I think it's probably down to jQuery to detect and report this to be honest (and it obviously doesn't) since I just use it for all my Ajax stuff. Quite unusual now - I guess they don't want the overhead...

Regards,
Allan