Using Datatables with MVC4 and WebAPI

FredFlintstone

hi - i have been trying for a couple of days (i know!) to wire up a datatable with json returned from an apicontroller without success. was wondering if anyone here has managed to do this. among other things, i have tried the approach suggested here:

http://www.briankeating.net/post/2012/07/08/Using-DataTablesnet-with-Asp-MVC-Web-Api.aspx

EDIT: the approach advocated is:

[code]
$('#example').dataTable({
"bJQueryUI": true,
"bProcessing": true,
"bServerSide": true,
"sAjaxSource": "/api/myapicontroller/get"
});
[/code]

without success. i can't even make the call hit the controller.

also tried $.getJSON which does call the controller but the datatable resolutely refuses to render out the returned JSON. :(

allan

1. Have you fully implemented server-side processing in your controller? http://datatables.net/usage/server-side (since you've enabled it in DataTables, it expects a valid reply).

2. Please link us to a test page showing the issue.

Allan

FredFlintstone

hi allan, thanks for your reply. unfortunately i can't post a link to a page as this is still very much in development. my controller signature looks like

public IEnumerable Get(int sEcho,
int iDisplayStart,
int iDisplayLength,
string sSearch,
int iSortCol_0,
string sSortDir_0)

but this simply isn't being hit.

allan

Is the browser sending an XHR? If not then is there a Javascript error on the page? If it is, then we can't really help here as this isn't a WebAPI forum.

FredFlintstone

fiddler indicates that nothing is being sent. all very odd.

FredFlintstone

and no javascript error

allan

In that case I've no idea I'm afraid. We'd really need to be able to see a test case since it could be almost anything.

Allan

FredFlintstone

just a thought - is there a requirement for the datatable to be hosted on a file with a specific extension eg .html, .aspx etc? just wondering as i can't get even the most basic of samples to work and the table lives in a .cshtml file

allan

No - absolutely not. As long as you can run Javascript, you can run DataTables. I presume you can run Javascript? Can you run the DataTables debugger on the page?

Allan

FredFlintstone

no - i get this:


DataTables debug bookmarklet
DataTables is not available on this page.

clearly something is badly wrong with my configuration :(

FredFlintstone

hi allan,

got it! it was the mvc4 way of bundling scripts that was improperly configured. sorry for wasting your time on this...