About

django-datatables-view is a base view for handling server side processing for the awesome datatables 1.9.x, 1.10.x (http://datatables.net).

django-datatables-view simplifies handling of sorting, filtering and creating JSON output, as defined at: http://datatables.net/examples/server_side/

Example

Example project that uses django-datatables-view is available at: https://bitbucket.org/pigletto/django-datatables-view-example/

Usage

1. Install django-datatables-view

pip install django-datatables-view

2. Edit views.py

django_datatables_view uses GenericViews, so your view should just inherit from base class: BaseDatatableView, and override few things (there is also a DatatableMixin - pure datatables handler that can be used with the mixins of your choice, eg. django-braces). These are:

• model - the model that should be used to populate the datatable
• columns - the columns that are going to be displayed. If not defined then django_datatables_view will look for ' data' or 'name' in the columns definition provided in the request by DataTables, eg.: columns: [{data: 'first_name'}] (only works for datatables 1.10+)
• order_columns - list of column names used for sorting (e.g. if user sorts by second column then second column name from this list will be used with order by clause). If not defined then django_datatables_view will look for 'data' or 'name' in the columns definition provided in the request by DataTables, eg.: columns: [{data: 'first_name'}] (only works for datatables 1.10+)
• filter_queryset - if you want to filter your DataTable in some specific way then override this method. In case of older DataTables (pre 1.10) you need to override this method or there will be no filtering.
• filter_method - returns 'istartswith' by default, you can override it to use different filtering method, e.g. icontains: return self.FILTER_ICONTAINS

For more advanced customisation you might want to override:

• get_initial_queryset - method that should return queryset used to populate datatable
• prepare_results - this method should return list of lists (rows with columns) as needed by datatables
• escape_values - you can set this attribute to False in order to not escape values returned from render_column method

The code is rather simple so do not hesitate to have a look at it. Method that is executed first (and that calls other methods to execute whole logic) is get_context_data. Definitely have a look at this method!

See example below:

from django_datatables_view.base_datatable_view import BaseDatatableView
from django.utils.html import escape


class OrderListJson(BaseDatatableView):
    # The model we're going to show
    model = MyModel

    # define the columns that will be returned
    columns = ['number', 'user', 'state', 'created', 'modified']

    # define column names that will be used in sorting
    # order is important and should be same as order of columns
    # displayed by datatables. For non-sortable columns use empty
    # value like ''
    order_columns = ['number', 'user', 'state', '', '']

    # set max limit of records returned, this is used to protect our site if someone tries to attack our site
    # and make it return huge amount of data
    max_display_length = 500

    def render_column(self, row, column):
        # We want to render user as a custom column
        if column == 'user':
            # escape HTML for security reasons
            return escape('{0} {1}'.format(row.customer_firstname, row.customer_lastname))
        else:
            return super(OrderListJson, self).render_column(row, column)

    def filter_queryset(self, qs):
        # use parameters passed in GET request to filter queryset

        # simple example:
        search = self.request.GET.get('search[value]', None)
        if search:
            qs = qs.filter(name__istartswith=search)

        # more advanced example using extra parameters
        filter_customer = self.request.GET.get('customer', None)

        if filter_customer:
            customer_parts = filter_customer.split(' ')
            qs_params = None
            for part in customer_parts:
                q = Q(customer_firstname__istartswith=part) | Q(customer_lastname__istartswith=part)
                qs_params = qs_params | q if qs_params else q
            qs = qs.filter(qs_params)
        return qs

3. Edit urls.py

Add typical django's urlconf entry:

url(r'^my/datatable/data/$', login_required(OrderListJson.as_view()), name='order_list_json'),

4. Define HTML + JavaScript

Example JS:

$(document).ready(function () {
    var oTable = $('.datatable').dataTable({
        // ...
        "processing": true,
        "serverSide": true,
        "ajax": "{% url 'order_list_json' %}"
    });
    // ...
});

Another example of views.py customisation

from django_datatables_view.base_datatable_view import BaseDatatableView
from django.utils.html import escape


class OrderListJson(BaseDatatableView):
    order_columns = ['number', 'user', 'state']

    def get_initial_queryset(self):
        # return queryset used as base for further sorting/filtering
        # these are simply objects displayed in datatable
        # You should not filter data returned here by any filter values entered by user. This is because
        # we need some base queryset to count total number of records.
        return MyModel.objects.filter(something=self.kwargs['something'])

    def filter_queryset(self, qs):
        # use request parameters to filter queryset

        # simple example:
        search = self.request.GET.get('search[value]', None)
        if search:
            qs = qs.filter(name__istartswith=search)

        # more advanced example
        filter_customer = self.request.GET.get('customer', None)

        if filter_customer:
            customer_parts = filter_customer.split(' ')
            qs_params = None
            for part in customer_parts:
                q = Q(customer_firstname__istartswith=part) | Q(customer_lastname__istartswith=part)
                qs_params = qs_params | q if qs_params else q
            qs = qs.filter(qs_params)
        return qs

    def prepare_results(self, qs):
        # prepare list with output column data
        # queryset is already paginated here
        json_data = []
        for item in qs:
            json_data.append([
                escape(item.number),  # escape HTML for security reasons
                escape("{0} {1}".format(item.customer_firstname, item.customer_lastname)),
                # escape HTML for security reasons
                item.get_state_display(),
                item.created.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"),
                item.modified.strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")
            ])
        return json_data

Yet another example of views.py customisation

This sample assumes that list of columns and order columns is defined on the client side (DataTables), eg.:

$(document).ready(function () {
    var dt_table = $('.datatable').dataTable({
        order: [[0, "desc"]],
        columns: [
            {
                data: 'name',
                orderable: true,
                searchable: true
            },
            {
                data: 'description',
                orderable: true,
                searchable: true,
            }
        ],
        searching: true,
        processing: true,
        serverSide: true,
        stateSave: true,
        ajax: TESTMODEL_LIST_JSON_URL
    });
});

class TestModelListJson(BaseDatatableView):
    model = TestModel