Bug in sorting (with fix)

systematical

I've found a bug with DataTables 1.10.0-beta.3.dev the following datatables setup:

[code]
var oTable = $('#report-table').dataTable({
"processing": true,
"paging": true,
"ordering": true,
"serverSide": true,
"sAjaxSource": "/hidden/hidden.json",
"ajax": "/hidden/hidden.json",
"sDom": 'frtip',
"iDisplayLength": 300,
"bAutoWidth": false,
"aoColumns": [
{mData:"Data.barcode"},
{mData:"Data.ref"},
{mData:"Data.line_number"},
{mData:"Data.company_name"},
{mData:"Data.name"},
{mData:"Data.buy_price"},
{mData:"Data.status"},
{mData:"Data.total_repairs",bSortable:false},
{mData:"Data.created"}
]
});
[/code]

What occurs is that when a column is sorted that has null as a value the following error is encountered:

[code]
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'replace' of null jquery.dataTables-1.10.0-beta.3.js?_44617362=:13760
[/code]

Example of XHR JSON response:
[code]
{
"sEcho": 1,
"iTotalRecords": 15517,
"iTotalDisplayRecords": 1039,
"aaData": [
{
"Data": {
"id": "229",
"barcode": "6153850",
"line_number": "3",
"ref": "3091200"
"created": "2013-09-25 14:57:12"
"company_name": "HIDDEN" ,
"barcode": "6153850",
"buy_price": "65.00",
"sell_price": "105.00",
"unit_number": "",
"customer_tag": "",
"production_week": "311",
"status": null,
"total_repairs": null
}
}
]
}
[/code]

Here is the change I made to the code:

[code]
"html-pre": function ( a ) {
return a.replace ?
a.replace( /<.*?>/g, "" ).toLowerCase() :
a+'';
},
[/code]

Changed to:

[code]
"html-pre": function ( a ) {
if(a != null){
return a.replace ?
a.replace( /<.*?>/g, "" ).toLowerCase() :
a+''
}
else{
return a;
}
},
[/code]

allan

To be honest, I don't think this is actually a bug. its not how I would expect the issue to crop up perhaps, but the issue is the null and DataTables isn't being told how to handle it. For that you want to use sDefaultContent / defaultContent . Simply set it to be an empty string.

Having said that, the html sorting type probably should cope with null values - I'll look into that.

Allan

systematical

It is odd to return null like that from the server, but this is they way CakePHP will return values if their is no related record on a LEFT JOIN. I'll use sDefaultContent rather than modifying dataTables core. Thanks.

allan

No - null is fine. It is 100% valid data - you just need to tell DataTables what to do with it. null isn't just assumed to be an empty space (this isn't Oracle software!).

I made the change to DataTables earlier on today: https://github.com/DataTables/DataTablesSrc/commit/46d1f3bbf . Forgot to post back here.

However, I would still recommend using sDefaultContent.

Allan