Newbie - HELP!

prithivi

i am attempting to use the DataTables plugin but cant quite work it all out. right bits in the header... calling a php file to query the server... nothing displays except the column names. I am REALLY new to JQuery but have experience in php. Any ideas where i might be going wrong? help much appreciated. thanks in advance.

allan

Hi prithivi,

I'm going to need a little more information that than to be able to help I think :-). What kind of data source are you using - are you just trying to enhance an HTML table for example? What initialisation are you using for DataTables? It would be very helpful if you could give me a link to your page.

Allan

prithivi

Hey Alan, thanks for the reply.
its on an internal server at the moment.
I have this in the header:

$(document).ready(function() {
$('#example').dataTable( {
"bProcessing": true,
"bServerSide": true,
"sAjaxSource": "./server_processing.php"
} );
} );


then entered the relevent details into server_processing....

and then i am embarrassed to say i hit a bit of a wall.
i didn't know how to call up an instance of your datagrid in the page...
so i looked at the source of a page on your site but still couldn't get it to work.
yeah - i know its all really basic but i think its my blond hair holding me back.

prithivi

sorry...
blond again!
its calling a table in mysql

prithivi

as you identified i am trying to improve my table skills...
heres what i am trying to improve:
[code]
<?php
$sql2 = "SELECT COUNT(id) FROM suggestions";
$rs_result2 = mysql_query($sql2);
$row2 = mysql_fetch_row($rs_result2);
$total_records = $row2[0];
$total_pages = ceil($total_records / $r);
?>


 
 


Date
Notes
Completed
Page


<?php
for ($j=1; $j<=$total_pages; $j++) {
echo "".$j." | ";
} ;
?>


<?php
$jj== 1;
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($rs_result)) {
$jj++;
$id = $row["id"];
$comp = $row["complete"];
if($comp == 'Y'){$comp1 = 'Yes';}else{$comp1 = 'No';}
if($jj % 2){echo "";}else{echo "";}
?>
<? echo $row["date"]; ?>
<? echo $row["notes"]; ?>
<? echo $comp1; ?>
<? echo "view" ?>

<?php
};
?>

Page

<?php

for ($i=1; $i<=$total_pages; $i++) {
echo "".$i." | ";
} ;
?>
[/code]

allan

Heh - no worries. This is the schema that my demo scripts use: http://datatables.net/development/server-side/sql . Obviously you'll want to customise the parameters at the top of the page though in order to use your own data. From there, looking at the JSON return in Firebug can be helpful to resolve any issues.

Allan

allan

Posts overlapped there. So your PHP above is outputting an HTML table - is that correct? In which case, you aren't using server-side processing, and probably don't want to (unless you've got 10'000+ rows of data). There is a discussion here of the data source types that DataTables can consume: http://datatables.net/usage/#data_sources

So, assuming you are just enhancing a plain HTML table you would want to do something like that shown in this example: http://datatables.net/examples/basic_init/zero_config.html

Allan

prithivi

Allan, thanks again. Yes enhancing plain html. however as you can see it takes data from mysql and iterates filling the table. i cant see how to do it. if its really obvious - forgive me - i feel so stupid!

allan

Include the following at the top of your page:

[/code]

@import "../../media/css/demo_page.css";
@import "../../media/css/demo_table.css";




$(document).ready(function() {
$('#example').dataTable();
} );

[/code]
You may need to alter the paths for the include files. You might also need to change the selector for the dataTable() initialisation.

Allan

prithivi

Hi Allan, thanks for that. got all the stuff at the top its the dataTable() initialisation i cant get.

allan

In what way can't you get it? Is it giving a Javascript error or something?

Allan

prithivi

Hi Allan, The reason i cant get it to work is that i am new and dont quite understand how to. I did apologise and explain this at the beginning. could i ask to its us in a raw unprocessed file or could you tell me how to call it. thank you in advance.

allan

It's no problem - we all have to start somewhere. The raw unprocessed file that I use for my examples is here: http://datatables.net/examples/basic_init/zero_config.html . Right click and select "View source" - that's the plain HTML for the page - you will see a TABLE element in there with the data. Then using the code that I posted above, jQuery and DataTables are included, and than DataTables initialised. The DataTables initialisation code above is simply $('#example').dataTable(); (i.e. a jQuery selector for the 'example' element, and then call DataTables).

Allan

prithivi

Hi Allan,

It was a long weekend and i was extremely tired and blonde!
I took it all back to basics and resolved the problem.
a combination of php mysql jquery and some sleep.

code enclosed in case someone else needs a light shining in their mental darkness.

Thanks again for your assistance.;))



[code]



date
notes
status
actions





<?php

include("../../connection/connectdb.php");

$query = "SELECT * FROM suggestions ";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$num = mysql_num_rows ($result);

if ($num > 0 ) {
$i=0;


while ($i < $num) {
$uid = mysql_result($result,$i,"uid");
$date = mysql_result($result,$i,"date");
$notes = mysql_result($result,$i,"notes");
$complete = mysql_result($result,$i,"status");
$id = mysql_result($result,$i,"id");


echo "";
echo "$date";
echo "$notes";
echo "$status";
echo "view";
echo "";



++$i; }
echo ""; } else { echo "The database is empty"; }?>



date
notes
status
actions



[/code]