DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery • Hacker News Board

DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery

#1

Post by Eyes2design » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 12:55 AM UTC

DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery
datatables.net

Re: DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery

#2

Post by gesman » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 2:32 AM UTC

Best thing to make sexy tables since the beginning of time

Re: DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery

#3

Post by dbieber » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 3:28 AM UTC

I used these when interning at Khan Academy this summer for an internal tool for video creators. Really very easy to get up and running, and looks good to boot.

Re: DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery

#4

Post by debaserab2 » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 3:38 AM UTC

While I have found DataTables to be useful in the past, there are (thankfully) many other alternatives available today with a much saner API.

DataTables might have the worst API I've ever seen in a Javascript library. Powerful, yes, but it has the most insane naming conventions I've ever seen. To this day I do not understand why so many properties are prefixed with random letters.

There was a time when there wasn't anything else out there that was even close to as good, though.

Re: DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery

#5

Post by enigmoid » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 3:41 AM UTC

debaserab2 wrote: post #4

While I have found DataTables to be useful in the past, there are (thankfully) many other alternatives available today with a much saner API. DataTables might have the worst API I've ever seen in a Javascript library. Powerful, yes, but it has the most insane naming conventions I've ever seen. To this day I do not understand why so many properties are prefixed with random letters. There was a time when there wasn't a…

I agree with your sentiment. I found datatables initially easy to set up and use, but I soon found the documentation to be sorely lacking. Searches for the most basic customizations led to SO answers outlining ugly workarounds when all I really needed to know was the name of the right flag.

The examples on the site aren't general or plentiful enough, and they assume more prior knowledge of the plugin than would seem reasonable. I couldn't even find a list of initialization options anywhere.

Re: DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery

#6

Post by freeasinfree » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 3:42 AM UTC

debaserab2 wrote: post #4

While I have found DataTables to be useful in the past, there are (thankfully) many other alternatives available today with a much saner API. DataTables might have the worst API I've ever seen in a Javascript library. Powerful, yes, but it has the most insane naming conventions I've ever seen. To this day I do not understand why so many properties are prefixed with random letters. There was a time when there wasn't a…

Alternatives such as? They use Hungarian Notation[0]; not random, but dated.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_notation

Re: DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery

#7

Post by greenpizza13 » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 3:54 AM UTC

Datatables is a nice, but very old set of tools. There are many more precise solutions out there. Datatables is whole cow when most people just want a piece of steak.

Re: DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery

#8

Post by jobowoo » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 3:59 AM UTC

debaserab2 wrote: post #4

While I have found DataTables to be useful in the past, there are (thankfully) many other alternatives available today with a much saner API. DataTables might have the worst API I've ever seen in a Javascript library. Powerful, yes, but it has the most insane naming conventions I've ever seen. To this day I do not understand why so many properties are prefixed with random letters. There was a time when there wasn't a…

What alternatives have you found to be better? I'd be interested in checking them out.

Re: DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery

#9

Post by shoebappa » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 4:01 AM UTC

debaserab2 wrote: post #4

While I have found DataTables to be useful in the past, there are (thankfully) many other alternatives available today with a much saner API. DataTables might have the worst API I've ever seen in a Javascript library. Powerful, yes, but it has the most insane naming conventions I've ever seen. To this day I do not understand why so many properties are prefixed with random letters. There was a time when there wasn't a…

Can you name a few of the alternatives you found? The ability to sort on more than one column ruled out a lot of them for us.

Re: DataTables – Table plug-in for jQuery

#10

Post by jonaldomo » Tue, Sep 17, 2013, 4:13 AM UTC

shoebappa wrote: post #9

debaserab2 wrote: post #4

While I have found DataTables to be useful in the past, there are (thankfully) many other alternatives available today with a much saner API. DataTables might have the worst API I've ever seen in a Javascript library. Powerful, yes, but it has the most insane naming conventions I've ever seen. To this day I do not understand why so many properties are prefixed with random letters. There was a time when there wasn't a…

Can you name a few of the alternatives you found? The ability to sort on more than one column ruled out a lot of them for us.

https://github.com/Mottie/tablesorter has multiple sorting using the shift key. I alternate between this and DataTables. The hungarian notation threw me off at first too. Far from insane though.