DataTables and Rails 3.0.x question

mklem

Hello.

Great plugin. Thank you.

I am using DataTables to list my data which is working fine. I am displaying various input types on each row, like text fields, checkboxes, select menus. I noticed that the data is not saved when the form is submitted. Instead new rows are added. I found out why.

Without using DataTables, after each tr element, Rails adds a hidden input to track the id of the record for each row. Something like this:


When using DataTables, this data is removed.

My question is, am I using DataTables incorrectly? Is it only intended to display data and not handle inputs?

Is there a better way to do this?

Thanks

allan

DataTables was designed to display data, but that's no reason why it can't be used to do forms (indeed, forms are using successfully with DataTables in a lot of places - for example: http://datatables.net/blog/Inline_editing .

So the question is - how are you telling DataTables that data has been modified or updated? You need to use the API to do this: http://datatables.net/api - specifically fnAddData and fnUpdate. Otherwise DataTables doesn't know that a row has been added / removed / edited.

Allan