DataTables 1.7 available

allan

Hello all,

It is with real pleasure that I can announce the availability of DataTables 1.7.0! For those wanted to get on with it immediately:

- Download: http://datatables.net/releases/dataTables-1.7.0.zip
- New features summary: http://datatables.net/new/1.7
- Upgrade notes: http://datatables.net/upgrade/1.7

Please note, if you are using regular expression filtering in DataTables, there has been a change to this interface in 1.7.0. Likewise the internal data cache 'aoData' has changed slightly to no longer allow null values. Please read the upgrade notes if you use either of these features!

In a bit more detail: DataTables 1.7 has been planned more or less since the moment 1.6 was released, and as been under active development for the last three months. It has three primary new features:

- Object retrieval - you can use the DataTables initialisation function to retrieve the object that was originally created for the DataTable (so you don't need to keep global variables any more).
- Column definitions - the aoColumns array was very rigid before, requiring exactly the right number of entries in it (often with many 'null's to make up the numbers). While this is still available, aoColumnDefs is now available to allow targeting of specific columns.
- Scrolling - A DataTable can now be placed into a scrolling viewport.

In addition to these new features, there are a number of smaller ones which aim to make your life as a developer much easier, bug fixes and code tidy up. Indeed it is worth noting that DataTables 1.7.0 when minified, is actually smaller that 1.6.x due to the use of Google's excellent Closure compiler!

I would like to extend a huge thank you to all of those who have been beta testing this new release of DataTables, and reporting bugs back to me. Thanks also to everyone for suggesting enhancements which can be made to DataTables!

Finally, if you are finding DataTables useful - please consider making a donation towards it's continued development: http://datatables.net/donate :-)

Enjoy DataTables 1.7!

Regards,
Allan

jnm99

congratulations!

One small thing I noticed is that comments in media/css/demo_table_jui.css say that most of it is the same as demo_table.css but a diff shows that the parts that are supposed to be common are out of sync.

allan

Hi jnm99,

Good spotting! I've put an updated version of the jui.css file here: http://datatables.net/release-datatables/media/css/demo_table_jui.css .

Regards,
Allan

kkudi

Hi Allan,

Quick question, column alignment works fine, but when it comes to the end of the last column there's perhaps space of one centimetre of scrolling ( horizontally) and taking it further to the right, misaligns the columns..

any idea why?

links :

http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/5290/alignmentm.jpg

http://i25.tinypic.com/t7la14.jpg

allan

Can you link to an example which is doing this please? Also which browser are you using - as that will most likely make a difference.

Allan

kkudi

Allan,

That was Safari 5, but the same behaviour is replicated on Firefox and IE7.

I wish I was able to give you a link but I can't. It's all firewalled and running locally on my machine.

allan

Can you tell me how to set up one of my examples to reproduce this then please? I can't seem to reproduce it. I have seen this effect with some of the betas (the reason as that the wrapper around the header wasn't being expanded as it should have been), but that was fixed during the beta series - so this might be related, or something else...

Allan

kkudi

[code]
$('#trading_positions_table').dataTable({
"sDom": '<"top"i>rt<"pos_links"><"bottom"p><"clear">',
"aoColumns":[
{"sType": "string"},
{"sType": "numeric-comma"},
{"sType": "numeric-comma"},
{"sType": "numeric-comma"},
{"sType": "numeric-comma"},
{"sType": "numeric-comma"},
{"sType": "numeric-comma"},
{"sType": "numeric-comma"},
{"sType": "numeric-comma"},
{"sType": "string"},
{"sType": "numeric-comma"},
{"sType": "string"},
{"sType": "numeric-comma"}
],
"sPaginationType": "full_numbers",
"bPaginate": true,
"aLengthMenu": [[10, 25, 50,100, -1], [10, 25, 50,100, "All"]],
"aaSorting":[],
"bFilter": false,
"bInfo":true,
"bAutoWidth": true,
"bSortClasses": false,
"iDisplayLength": 250,
"sScrollY":"275px",
"sScrollX":"100%",
"bProcessing":true,
"fnRowCallback": function( nRow, aData, iDisplayIndex ) {
//decorateTradingPosRow(nRow);
return nRow;
},
"oLanguage":{
"sZeroRecords": "No positions",
"sEmptyTable": "No positions"
}

});

[/code]

html for table:
[code]



<%
int i = 0;
for (String col : tradingPositionColumns) {
if (i==0 || i==9 || i == 11 || i == 1) {
%> <%=col%>
<%
} else {
%>
<%=col%>
<%
}
%>
<% i++; }

%>





[/code]

The class='right' in some of the columns does nothing.

My javascript loops through a result set, and uses fnAddData to add each row, does an fnDraw at the very end

and then continuously updates every 5 seconds or so using fnUpdate ( each row)

the only change I made to ur code was to add an extra parameter in fnAddData so that the buildSearchArray is not called every time I add a row as this was making it extremely slow.

kkudi

Also, for some reason, the following returns -183px for some reason and IE says that it's an invalid argument for nScrollHeadInner.style.width

Firefox prints -183 but somehow fixes it and returns the correct value.

Any idea why?


[code]

nScrollHeadInner.style.width = _fnStringToCss( $(o.nTable).outerWidth()+o.oScroll.iBarWidth );

[/code]

kkudi

It's interesting to say that if I comment out the following line, the mis-alignment is gone and the error in IE is also gone.

[code]

nScrollHeadInner.style.width = _fnStringToCss( $(o.nTable).outerWidth()+o.oScroll.iBarWidth );

[/code]

gutzofter

@Allan - could you give us a guesstimate of the number of programming hours you spent putting together this release?

wcmanes

Hi Allan,

Just wanted to say that DataTables 1.7 is a great accomplishment. The scrolling features are a significant improvement in the user interface. It's remarkable what you have done with this product. You're my hero :)

jsmreese

Thanks for including the exact feature I was looking for (aoColumnDefs) right when I needed it!

You may want to add a note note on the Columns page where you document aoColumnDefs that it is a new feature with dataTables 1.7. I'd been using 1.6 and didn't know about the update, so I was a little confused when I tried to use the parameter and it did nothing!

allan

@kkudi - any chance you can provide a link showing the -183px issue? I'd really like to get to the bottom of that. It is exactly the right size for the scroll bar width to have been calculated if you add 200px!

@gutzofter - good question. It's not something I've been keeping a track of, but at a rough guess I'd say around 80-100 hours for the development time - plus whatever on the forums.

@wcmanes - thanks! :-)

@jsmreese - Good point! The documentaiton on the site always refers to the latest sable version - but I'd agree that this is worth mentioned here. So I've added a note in for it.

Regards,
Allan

ikvarma

I noticed the following change when i moved from 1.6 to 1.7
[code]
"aoColumns": [
{
"sWidth": "10%",
"fnRender": function (oObj) {
return function_name1(oObj.aData[0]);
}
},
{
"fnRender": function (oObj) {
return function_name2(oObj.aData[1]);
}
},
{
"fnRender": function (oObj) {
return function_name3(oObj.aData[0],oObj.aData[2]);
}
}]
[/code]

for the above code when i am using 1.6
In the third column oObj.aData[0] used to be same value as in 1st column

when i moved to 1.7 ,
oObj.aData[0] is now changed to the return value of function_name1(oObj.aData[0]);

I just want to know whether it is a change or an issue in my code ?

allan

Hi ikvarma,

I'm slightly surprised that this has changed - and indeed, I just tried it with 1.6.2 and it seems to give the same behaviour as 1.7 - which as you point out is to use the rendered data after it has been rendered.

The only way around this really at the moment is to use bUseRendered for the column - but that will impact on filtering and sorting. It might be that DataTables needs to store the original data as well as the rendered one, so it is available. Something to consider for a future release. Until then, one way around this would be to have a variable which you can assign aData[0] to. For example:

[code]

"aoColumns": [
{
"sWidth": "10%",
"fnRender": function (oObj) {
col0 = oObj.aData[0];
return function_name1(oObj.aData[0]);
}
},
{
"fnRender": function (oObj) {
return function_name2(oObj.aData[1]);
}
},
{
"fnRender": function (oObj) {
return function_name3(col0,oObj.aData[2]);
}
}]

[/code]
Since the functions will execute sequentially this should work okay.

Allan