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Description:

djangoajaxdatatable 4.5.0

1 django-ajax-datatable
django-ajax-datatable is a Django app (previously named morlandi/django-datatables-view) which provides advanced integration for a Django project with the jQuery Javascript library DataTables.net,
when used in server-side processing mode.
In this context, the rendering of the table is the result of a serie of Ajax
requests to the server following user interactions (i.e. when paging, ordering, searching, etc.).
With django-ajax-datatable, basically you have to provide a AjaxDatatableView-derived view
to describe the desired table content and behaviour, and the app manages the interaction
with DataTables.net by reacting to the ajax requests with suitable responses.
Notes:

Since someone asked …

I use this app for my own projects, and improve it from time to time as new needs arises.
I received so much from the Django community, so I’m more than happy to share something hopefully useful for others.
The app is intended to be opensource; feel free to use it we no restrictions at all.
I added a MIT Licence file to the github repo, to make this more explicit.
Since v4.0.0, the package has been renamed from django-datatables-view to django-ajax-datatable
to avoid a conflict on PyPI
Unfortunately I only have a few unit tests, and didn’t bother (yet) to add a TOX procedure to run then with
different Python/Django versions.
Having said this, I can confirm that I do happen to use it with no problems in projects based on Django 2.x.
However, most recent improvements have been tested mainly with Django 3.
As far as I know, no Django3-specific features have been applied.
In case, please open an issue, and I will fix it.
I’m not willing to support Python 2.x and Django 1.x any more; in case, use a previous release (tagged as v2.x.x);
old releases will be in place in the repo forever

Features:

Pagination
Column ordering
Global generic search
Global date-range search over “get_latest_by” column
Column specific filtering
Foreign key fields can be used, using the “model1__model2__field” notation
Customizable rendering of table rows
and more …

Inspired from:
https://github.com/monnierj/django-datatables-server-side

Contents

1 django-ajax-datatable

1.1 Demo site and examples
1.2 Installation
1.3 Pre-requisites
1.4 Basic AjaxDatatableView
1.5 AjaxDatatableView Class attributes
1.6 column_defs customizations
1.7 Provide “extra data” to narrow down the initial queryset
1.8 Add a sidebar with custom filters
1.9 Automatic addition of table row ID
1.10 Sorting columns
1.11 Filtering single columns
1.12 Filtering multiple values
1.13 Computed (placeholder) columns
1.14 Clipping results
1.15 Receiving table events
1.16 Overridable AjaxDatatableView methods

1.16.1 get_initial_queryset()
1.16.2 get_foreign_queryset()
1.16.3 customize_row()
1.16.4 render_row_details()
1.16.5 footer_message()
1.16.6 toolbar_message()
1.16.7 render_clip_value_as_html()

2 Queryset optimization

2.1 A real use case

3 App settings
4 More details

4.1 Add row tools as first column
4.2 row details customization
4.3 Filter by global date range
4.4 Debugging

5 Generic tables (advanced topic)
6 Javascript Code Snippets

6.1 Workaround: Adjust the column widths of all visible tables
6.2 Redraw all tables
6.3 Redraw table holding the current paging position
6.4 Redraw a single table row
6.5 change DataTables’ error reporting mechanism

7 JS Utilities

7.1 Internationalization

8 Application examples

8.1 Adding a button for editing
8.2 Customize row details by rendering prettified json fields
8.3 Change row color based on row content
8.4 Modify table content on the fly (via ajax)

9 Possible future improvements

9.1 Check these extensions:
9.2 Column rendering
9.3 Column filtering

9.3.1 add a specific widget for dates
9.3.2 support for optional autocompletion widget
9.3.3 add a specific widget for boolean fields

10 History

10.1 v4.5.0
10.2 v4.4.5
10.3 v4.4.4
10.4 v4.4.3
10.5 v4.4.2
10.6 v4.4.1
10.7 v4.4.0
10.8 v4.3.1
10.9 v4.3.0
10.10 v4.2.1
10.11 v4.2.0
10.12 v4.1.7
10.13 v4.1.6
10.14 v4.1.5
10.15 v4.1.4
10.16 v4.1.3
10.17 v4.1.2
10.18 v4.1.1
10.19 v4.1.0
10.20 v4.0.8
10.21 v4.0.7
10.22 v4.0.6
10.23 v4.0.5
10.24 v4.0.4
10.25 v4.0.3
10.26 v4.0.2
10.27 v4.0.1
10.28 v4.0.0
10.29 v3.2.3
10.30 v3.2.2
10.31 v3.2.1
10.32 v3.2.0
10.33 v3.1.4
10.34 v3.1.3
10.35 v3.1.2
10.36 v3.1.1
10.37 v3.1.0
10.38 v3.0.4
10.39 v3.0.3
10.40 v3.0.2
10.41 v3.0.1
10.42 v3.0.0
10.43 v2.3.5
10.44 v2.3.4
10.45 v.2.3.3
10.46 v2.3.2
10.47 v2.3.1
10.48 v2.3.0
10.49 v2.2.9
10.50 v2.2.8
10.51 v2.2.7
10.52 v2.2.6
10.53 v2.2.5
10.54 v2.2.4
10.55 v2.2.3
10.56 v2.2.2
10.57 v2.2.1
10.58 v2.2.0
10.59 v2.1.3
10.60 v2.1.2
10.61 v2.1.1
10.62 v2.1.0
10.63 v2.0.6
10.64 v2.0.5
10.65 v2.0.4
10.66 v2.0.0
10.67 v1.2.4
10.68 v1.2.3
10.69 v1.2.2
10.70 v1.2.1
10.71 v1.2.0
10.72 v1.0.1
10.73 v1.0.0
10.74 v0.0.2

1.1 Demo site and examples
A very minimal working Django project which uses django-ajax-datatable can be found in the folder example_minimal.
A more realistic solution, with a frontend based on Bootstrap4, can be found in example,
and is published as a demo site at the address: http://django-ajax-datatable-demo.brainstorm.it/.

1.2 Installation
Install the package by running:
pip install django-ajax-datatable
or:
pip install git+https://github.com/morlandi/django-ajax-datatable@v4.0.0
then add ‘ajax_datatable’ to your INSTALLED_APPS:
INSTALLED_APPS = [
...
'ajax_datatable',
]
Optional dependencies (for better debug tracing):

sqlparse
termcolor
pygments

1.3 Pre-requisites
Your base template should include what required by datatables.net, plus:

/static/ajax_datatable/css/style.css
/static/ajax_datatable/js/utils.js

Example (plain jQuery from CDN):
{% block extrastyle %}

<link href="{% static 'ajax_datatable/css/style.css' %}" rel="stylesheet" />
<link href="//cdn.datatables.net/1.10.22/css/jquery.dataTables.min.css" />

{% endblock extrastyle %}

{% block extrajs %}

<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.5.1.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="{% static 'ajax_datatable/js/utils.js' %}"></script>
<script src="//cdn.datatables.net/1.10.22/js/jquery.dataTables.min.js"></script>

{% endcompress %}
Example (with Bootstrap4 support):
{% block extrastyle %}

<link href="{% static 'ajax_datatable/css/style.css' %}" rel="stylesheet" />

<link rel='stylesheet' href="{% static 'datatables.net-bs4/css/dataTables.bootstrap4.min.css' %}">
<link rel='stylesheet' href="{% static 'datatables.net-buttons-bs/css/buttons.bootstrap.min.css' %}">

{% endblock extrastyle %}

{% block extrajs %}

<script type="text/javascript" src="{% static 'ajax_datatable/js/utils.js' %}"></script>

<script src="{% static 'datatables.net/js/jquery.dataTables.min.js' %}"></script>

<script src="{% static 'datatables.net-bs4/js/dataTables.bootstrap4.min.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'datatables.net-buttons/js/dataTables.buttons.min.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'datatables.net-buttons/js/buttons.print.min.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'datatables.net-buttons/js/buttons.html5.min.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'datatables.net-buttons-bs/js/buttons.bootstrap.min.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'jszip/dist/jszip.min.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'pdfmake/build/pdfmake.min.js' %}"></script>
<script src="{% static 'pdfmake/build/vfs_fonts.js' %}"></script>

{% endcompress %}

1.4 Basic AjaxDatatableView
To provide server-side rendering of a Django Model, you will need:

an ordinary view which will render an HTML page containing:

an empty HTML <table> element
a javascript code which links this HTML table to the (AjaxDatatableView-derived) second view

a specific view derived from AjaxDatatableView() which will be called multiple times
via Ajax during data navigation; this second view has two duties:

render the initial table layout based on specified columns
respond to datatables.net requests, as a consequence of the user interaction with the table

Example:
We start by rendering an HTML page from this template:
file permissions_list.html
<table id="datatable_permissions">
</table>

or:

<div class="table-responsive">
<table id="datatable_permissions" width="100%" class="table table-striped table-bordered dt-responsive compact nowrap">
</table>
</div>

...

<script language="javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.initialize_table(
$('#datatable_permissions'),
"{% url 'ajax_datatable_permissions' %}",
{
// extra_options (example)
processing: false,
autoWidth: false,
full_row_select: true,
scrollX: false
}, {
// extra_data
// ...
},
);
});

</script>
Here, “{% url ‘ajax_datatable_permissions’ %}” is the endpoint to the specialized view:
file urls.py
from django.urls import path
from . import ajax_datatable_views

app_name = 'frontend'

urlpatterns = [
...
path('ajax_datatable/permissions/', ajax_datatable_views.PermissionAjaxDatatableView.as_view(), name="ajax_datatable_permissions"),
]
The javascript helper AjaxDatatableViewUtils.initialize_table(element, url, extra_options={}, extra_data={})
connects the HTML table element to the “server-size table rendering” machinery, and performs
a first call (identified by the action=initialize parameter) to the AjaxDatatableView-derived
view.
This in turn populates the HTML empty table with a suitable layout,
while subsequent calls to the view will be performed to populate the table with real data.
This strategy allows the placement of one or more dynamic tables in the same page.
I often keep all AjaxDatatableView-derived views in a separate “ajax_datatable_views.py” source file,
to make it crystal clear that you should never call them directly:
file ajax_datatable_views.py
from ajax_datatable.views import AjaxDatatableView
from django.contrib.auth.models import Permission

class PermissionAjaxDatatableView(AjaxDatatableView):

model = Permission
title = 'Permissions'
initial_order = [["app_label", "asc"], ]
length_menu = [[10, 20, 50, 100, -1], [10, 20, 50, 100, 'all']]
search_values_separator = '+'

column_defs = [
AjaxDatatableView.render_row_tools_column_def(),
{'name': 'id', 'visible': False, },
{'name': 'codename', 'visible': True, },
{'name': 'name', 'visible': True, },
{'name': 'app_label', 'foreign_field': 'content_type__app_label', 'visible': True, },
{'name': 'model', 'foreign_field': 'content_type__model', 'visible': True, },
]
In the previous example, row id is included in the first column of the table,
but hidden to the user.
AjaxDatatableView will serialize the required data during table navigation.
This is the resulting table:

You can use common CSS style to customize the final rendering:

AjaxDatatableViewUtils.initialize_table() parameters are:

element
table element

url
action (remote url to be called via Ajax)

extra_options={}
custom options for dataTable()

extra_data={}
extra parameters to be sent via ajax for global “initial queryset” filtering;
see: Provide “extra data” to narrow down the initial queryset

1.5 AjaxDatatableView Class attributes
Required:

model
column_defs

Optional:

initial_order = [[1, “asc”], [5, “desc”]] # positions can also be expressed as column names: [[‘surname’, ‘asc’], ]
length_menu = [[10, 20, 50, 100], [10, 20, 50, 100]]
latest_by = None
show_date_filters = None
show_column_filters = None
disable_queryset_optimization = False
disable_queryset_optimization_only = False
disable_queryset_optimization_select_related = False
disable_queryset_optimization_prefetch_related = False
table_row_id_prefix = ‘row-’
table_row_id_fieldname = ‘id’
render_row_details_template_name = “render_row_details.html”
search_values_separator = ‘’
sort_field: None

or override the following methods to provide attribute values at run-time,
based on request:
def get_column_defs(self):
return self.column_defs

def get_initial_order(self):
return self.initial_order

def get_length_menu(self):
return self.length_menu

def get_latest_by(self, request):
"""
Override to customize based on request.

Provides the name of the column to be used for global date range filtering.
Return either '', a fieldname or None.

When None is returned, in model's Meta 'get_latest_by' attributed will be used.
"""
return self.latest_by

def get_show_date_filters(self, request):
"""
Override to customize based on request.

Defines whether to use the global date range filter.
Return either True, False or None.

When None is returned, will'll check whether 'latest_by' is defined
"""
return self.show_date_filters

def get_show_column_filters(self, request):
"""
Override to customize based on request.

Defines whether to use the column filters.
Return either True, False or None.

When None is returned, check if at least one visible column in searchable.
"""
return self.show_column_filters

def get_table_row_id(self, request, obj):
"""
Provides a specific ID for the table row; default: "row-ID"
Override to customize as required.
"""
result = ''
if self.table_row_id_fieldname:
try:
result = self.table_row_id_prefix + str(getattr(obj, self.table_row_id_fieldname))
except:
result = ''
return result

1.6 column_defs customizations
Example:
column_defs = [{
'name': 'currency', # required
'data': None,
'title': 'Currency', # optional: default = field verbose_name or column name
'visible': True, # optional: default = True
'searchable': True, # optional: default = True if visible, False otherwise
'orderable': True, # optional: default = True if visible, False otherwise
'foreign_field': 'manager__name', # optional: follow relation
'm2m_foreign_field': 'manager__name', # optional: follow m2m relation
'placeholder': False, # ???
'className': 'css-class-currency', # optional class name for cell
'defaultContent': '<h1>test</h1>', # ???
'width': 300, # optional: controls the minimum with of each single column
'choices': None, # see `Filtering single columns` below
'initialSearchValue': None, # see `Filtering single columns` below
'autofilter': False, # see `Filtering single columns` below
'boolean': False, # treat calculated column as BooleanField
'max_length': 0, # if > 0, clip result longer then max_length
'lookup_field': '__icontains', # used for searches; default: '__iexact' for columns with choices, '__icontains' in all other cases
}, {
...
Notes:

title: if not supplied, the verbose name of the model column (when available)
or name will be used
width: for this to be effective, you need to add table-layout: fixed; style
to the HTML table, but in some situations this causes problems in the computation
of the table columns’ widths (at least in the current version 1.10.19 of Datatables.net)

1.7 Provide “extra data” to narrow down the initial queryset
Sometimes you might need to restrict the initial queryset based on the context.
To that purpose, you can provide a dictionary of additional filters during table initialization;
this dictionary will be sent to the View, where you can use it for queryset filtering.
Provide as many key as required; assign either constant values or callables.
The special keys ‘date_from’ and ‘date_to’ may be used to override values collected
by the optional global date range filter (format: ‘YYYY-MM-DD’).
Example:
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.initialize_table(
element,
url,
{
// extra_options (example)
processing: false,
autoWidth: false,
full_row_select: false,
scrollX: true,
bFilter: false
}, {
// extra_data
client_id: '{{client.id}}',
date_from: function() { return date_input_to_isoformat('#date_from'); },
date_to: function() { return date_input_to_isoformat('#date_to'); }
}
);
then:
class SampleAjaxDatatableView(AjaxDatatableView):

...

def get_initial_queryset(self, request=None):

if not request.user.is_authenticated:
raise PermissionDenied

# We accept either GET or POST
if not getattr(request, 'REQUEST', None):
request.REQUEST = request.GET if request.method=='GET' else request.POST

queryset = self.model.objects.all()

if 'client_id' in request.REQUEST:
client_id = int(request.REQUEST.get('client_id'))
queryset = queryset.filter(client_id=client_id)

return queryset

1.8 Add a sidebar with custom filters
Sometimes you need to provide complex or very specific filters to let the user control
the content of the table in an advanced manner.
In those cases, the global or column filters provided by AjaxDatatableView,
which are based on simple <input> and <select> widgets, may not be enought.
Still, you can easily add a sidebar with custom filters, and apply to them
the concepts explained in the previous paragraph (Provide “extra data” to narrow down the initial queryset).
An example of this technique has been added to the Example project; the result
and a detailed explanation is presented here:
http://django-ajax-datatable-demo.brainstorm.it/side_filters/

1.9 Automatic addition of table row ID
Starting from v3.2.0, each table row is characterized with a specific ID on each row
(tipically, the primary key value from the queryset)

The default behaviour is to provide the string “row-ID”, where:

“row-” is retrieved from self.table_row_id_prefix
“ID” is retrieved from the row object, using the field with name self.table_row_id_fieldname (default: “id”)

Note that, for this to work, you are required to list the field “id” in the column list (maybe hidden).
This default behaviour can be customized by either:

replacing the values for table_row_id_fieldname and/or table_row_id_prefix, or
overriding def get_table_row_id(self, request, obj)

1.10 Sorting columns
Sorting is managed the by the overridable method sort_queryset(), and fully
delegated to the database for better performances.
For each orderable column, the column name will be used, unless a sort_field
has been specified; in which case, the latter will be used instead.

1.11 Filtering single columns
DatatableView.show_column_filters (or DatatableView.get_show_column_filters(request))
defines whether to show specific filters for searchable columns as follows:

None (default): show if at least one visible column in searchable
True: always show
False: always hide

By default, a column filter for a searchable column is rendered as a text input box;
you can instead provide a select box using the following attributes:

choices

None (default) or False: no choices (use text input box)

True: use Model’s field choices;

failing that, we might use “autofilter”; that is: collect the list of distinct values from db table
or, for BooleanField columns, provide (None)/Yes/No choice sequence
calculated columns with attribute ‘boolean’=True are treated as BooleanFields

((key1, value1), (key2, values), …) : use supplied sequence of choices

autofilter

default = False
when set: if choices == True and no Model’s field choices are available,
collects distinct values from db table (much like Excel “autofilter” feature)

For the first rendering of the table:

initialSearchValue

optional initial value for column filter

Note that initialSearchValue can be a value or a callable object.
If callable it will be called every time a new object is created.
For example:
class MyAjaxDatatableView(AjaxDatatableView):

def today():
return datetime.datetime.now().date()

...

column_defs = [
...
{
'name': 'created',
'choices': True,
'autofilter': True,
'initialSearchValue': today
},
...
]

1.12 Filtering multiple values
Searching on multiple values can be obtained by assigning a “search value separator”
as in the following example:
search_values_separator = '+'
In this case, if the user inputs “aaa + bbb”, the following search will be issued:
Q("aaa") | Q("bbb")
This works for text search on both global and columns filters.
TODO: test with dates, choices and autofilter.

1.13 Computed (placeholder) columns
You can insert placeholder columns in the table, and feed their content with
arbitrary HTML.
Example:
@method_decorator(login_required, name='dispatch')
class RegisterAjaxDatatableView(AjaxDatatableView):

model = Register
title = _('Registers')

column_defs = [
{
'name': 'id',
'visible': False,
}, {
'name': 'created',
}, {
'name': 'dow',
'title': 'Day of week',
'placeholder': True,
'searchable': False,
'orderable': False,
'className': 'highlighted',
}, {
...
}
]

def customize_row(self, row, obj):
days = ['monday', 'tuesday', 'wednesday', 'thyrsday', 'friday', 'saturday', 'sunday']
if obj.created is not None:
row['dow'] = '<b>%s</b>' % days[obj.created.weekday()]
else:
row['dow'] = ''
return

1.14 Clipping results
Sometimes you might want to clip results up to a given maximum length, to control the column width.
This can be obtained by specifying a positive value for the max_length column_spec attribute.
Results will be clipped in both the column cells and in the column filter.

Clipped results are rendered as html text as follows:
def render_clip_value_as_html(self, long_text, short_text, is_clipped):
"""
Given long and shor version of text, the following html representation:
<span title="long_text">short_text[ellipsis]</span>

To be overridden for further customisations.
"""
return '<span title="{long_text}">{short_text}{ellipsis}</span>'.format(
long_text=long_text,
short_text=short_text,
ellipsis='…' if is_clipped else ''
)
You can customise the rendering by overriding render_clip_value_as_html()

1.15 Receiving table events
The following table events are broadcasted to your custom handlers, provided
you subscribe them:

initComplete(table)
drawCallback(table, settings)
rowCallback(table, row, data)
footerCallback(table, row, data, start, end, display)

Please note the the first parameter of the callback is always the event,
and next parameters are additional data:
.trigger('foo', [1, 2]);

.on('foo', function(event, one, two) { ... });
More events triggers sent directly by DataTables.net are listed here:

https://datatables.net/reference/event/

Example:
<div class="table-responsive">
<table id="datatable" width="100%" class="table table-striped table-bordered dataTables-log">
</table>
</div>

<script language="javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {

// Subscribe "rowCallback" event
$('#datatable').on('rowCallback', function(event, table, row, data ) {
//$(e.target).show();
console.log('rowCallback(): table=%o', table);
console.log('rowCallback(): row=%o', row);
console.log('rowCallback(): data=%o', data);
});

// Initialize table
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.initialize_table(
$('#datatable'),
"{% url 'frontend:object-datatable' model|app_label model|model_name %}",
extra_option={},
extra_data={}
);
});
</script>

1.16 Overridable AjaxDatatableView methods

1.16.1 get_initial_queryset()
Provides the queryset to work with; defaults to self.model.objects.all()
Example:
def get_initial_queryset(self, request=None):
if not request.user.view_all_clients:
queryset = request.user.related_clients.all()
else:
queryset = super().get_initial_queryset(request)
return queryset

1.16.2 get_foreign_queryset()
When collecting data for autofiltering in a “foreign_field” column, we need some data
source for doing the lookup.
The default implementation is as follows:
def get_foreign_queryset(self, request, field):
queryset = field.model.objects.all()
return queryset
You can override it for further reducing the resulting list.

1.16.3 customize_row()
Called every time a new data row is required by the client, to let you further
customize cell content
Example:
def customize_row(self, row, obj):
# 'row' is a dictionary representing the current row, and 'obj' is the current object.
row['code'] = '<a class="client-status client-status-%s" href="%s">%s</a>' % (
obj.status,
reverse('frontend:client-detail', args=(obj.id,)),
obj.code
)
if obj.recipe is not None:
row['recipe'] = obj.recipe.display_as_tile() + ' ' + str(obj.recipe)
return

1.16.4 render_row_details()
Renders an HTML fragment to show table row content in “detailed view” fashion,
as previously explained later in the Add row tools as first column section.
Having “pk” in your column_defs list is needed to have the script get the object to render.
See also: row details customization
Example:
def render_row_details(self, pk, request=None):
client = self.model.objects.get(pk=pk)
...
return render_to_string('frontend/pages/includes/client_row_details.html', {
'client': client,
...
})
OR you can have your own callback called instead (thanks to PetrDlouhy):
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.initialize_table(
element,
url,
{
// extra_options
...
detail_callback: function(data, tr) {
console.log('tr: %o', tr);
console.log('data: %o', data);

// for example: open a Bootstrap3 modal
$('.modal-body').html(data, 'details');
$('.modal').modal();
}
}, {
// extra_data
...
},
);

1.16.5 footer_message()
You can annotate the table footer with a custom message by overridding the
following View method.
def footer_message(self, qs, params):
"""
Overriden to append a message to the bottom of the table
"""
return None
Example:
def footer_message(self, qs, params):
return 'Selected rows: %d' % qs.count()
<style>
.dataTables_wrapper .dataTables_extraFooter {
border: 1px solid blue;
color: blue;
padding: 8px;
margin-top: 8px;
text-align: center;
}
</style>

1.16.6 toolbar_message()
Same as footer_message() but appends message to toolbar:
def footer_message(self, qs, params):
return 'Selected rows: %d' % qs.count()

1.16.7 render_clip_value_as_html()
Renders clipped results as html span tag, providing the non-clipped value as title:
def render_clip_value_as_html(self, long_text, short_text, is_clipped):
"""
Given long and shor version of text, the following html representation:
<span title="long_text">short_text[ellipsis]</span>

To be overridden for further customisations.
"""
return '<span title="{long_text}">{short_text}{ellipsis}</span>'.format(
long_text=long_text,
short_text=short_text,
ellipsis='…' if is_clipped else ''
)
Override to customise the rendering of clipped cells.

2 Queryset optimization
As the purpose of this module is all about querysets rendering, any chance to optimize
data extractions from the database is more then appropriate.
Starting with v2.3.0, AjaxDatatableView tries to burst performances in two ways:

by using only to limit the number of columns in the result set
by using select_related to minimize the number of queries involved

The parameters passed to only() and select_related() are inferred from column_defs.
Should this cause any problem, you can disable queryset optimization in two ways:

globally: by activating the AJAX_DATATABLE_DISABLE_QUERYSET_OPTIMIZATION setting
per table: by setting to True the value of the disable_queryset_optimization attribute

Alternatively, you can selectively disable the only or select_related optimization with the following flags:

self.disable_queryset_optimization_only
self.disable_queryset_optimization_select_related

2.1 A real use case

Plain queryset:
SELECT "tasks_devicetesttask"."id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."description",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."created_on",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."created_by_id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."started_on",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."completed_on",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."job_id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."status",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."mode",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."failure_reason",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."progress",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."log_text",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."author",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."order",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."appliance_id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."serial_number",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."program_id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."position",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."hidden",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."is_duplicate",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."notes"
FROM "tasks_devicetesttask"
WHERE "tasks_devicetesttask"."hidden" = FALSE
ORDER BY "tasks_devicetesttask"."created_on" DESC
[sql] (233ms) 203 queries with 182 duplicates

With select_related():
SELECT "tasks_devicetesttask"."id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."description",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."created_on",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."created_by_id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."started_on",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."completed_on",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."job_id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."status",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."mode",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."failure_reason",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."progress",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."log_text",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."author",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."order",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."appliance_id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."serial_number",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."program_id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."position",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."hidden",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."is_duplicate",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."notes",
"backend_appliance"."id",
"backend_appliance"."description",
"backend_appliance"."hidden",
"backend_appliance"."created",
"backend_appliance"."created_by_id",
"backend_appliance"."updated",
"backend_appliance"."updated_by_id",
"backend_appliance"."type",
"backend_appliance"."rotation",
"backend_appliance"."code",
"backend_appliance"."barcode",
"backend_appliance"."mechanical_efficiency_min",
"backend_appliance"."mechanical_efficiency_max",
"backend_appliance"."volumetric_efficiency_min",
"backend_appliance"."volumetric_efficiency_max",
"backend_appliance"."displacement",
"backend_appliance"."speed_min",
"backend_appliance"."speed_max",
"backend_appliance"."pressure_min",
"backend_appliance"."pressure_max",
"backend_appliance"."oil_temperature_min",
"backend_appliance"."oil_temperature_max",
"backend_program"."id",
"backend_program"."description",
"backend_program"."hidden",
"backend_program"."created",
"backend_program"."created_by_id",
"backend_program"."updated",
"backend_program"."updated_by_id",
"backend_program"."code",
"backend_program"."start_datetime",
"backend_program"."end_datetime",
"backend_program"."favourite"
FROM "tasks_devicetesttask"
LEFT OUTER JOIN "backend_appliance" ON ("tasks_devicetesttask"."appliance_id" = "backend_appliance"."id")
LEFT OUTER JOIN "backend_program" ON ("tasks_devicetesttask"."program_id" = "backend_program"."id")
WHERE "tasks_devicetesttask"."hidden" = FALSE
ORDER BY "tasks_devicetesttask"."created_on" DESC
[sql] (38ms) 3 queries with 0 duplicates

With select_related() and only():
SELECT "tasks_devicetesttask"."id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."started_on",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."completed_on",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."status",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."failure_reason",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."author",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."order",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."appliance_id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."serial_number",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."program_id",
"tasks_devicetesttask"."position",
"backend_appliance"."id",
"backend_appliance"."code",
"backend_program"."id",
"backend_program"."code"
FROM "tasks_devicetesttask"
LEFT OUTER JOIN "backend_appliance" ON ("tasks_devicetesttask"."appliance_id" = "backend_appliance"."id")
LEFT OUTER JOIN "backend_program" ON ("tasks_devicetesttask"."program_id" = "backend_program"."id")
WHERE "tasks_devicetesttask"."hidden" = FALSE
ORDER BY "tasks_devicetesttask"."created_on" DESC
[sql] (19ms) 3 queries with 0 duplicates

3 App settings
AJAX_DATATABLE_MAX_COLUMNS = 30
AJAX_DATATABLE_TRACE_COLUMNDEFS = False # enables debug tracing of applied column defs
AJAX_DATATABLE_TRACE_QUERYDICT = False # enables debug tracing of datatables requests
AJAX_DATATABLE_TRACE_QUERYSET = False # enables debug tracing of applied query
AJAX_DATATABLE_TEST_FILTERS = False # trace results for each individual filter, for debugging purposes
AJAX_DATATABLE_DISABLE_QUERYSET_OPTIMIZATION = False # all queryset optimizations are disabled
AJAX_DATATABLE_STRIP_HTML_TAGS = True # string HTML tags when rendering the table

4 More details

4.1 Add row tools as first column
You can insert AjaxDatatableView.render_row_tools_column_def() as the first element
in column_defs to obtain some tools at the beginning of each table row.
If full_row_select=true is specified as extra-option during table initialization,
row details can be toggled by clicking anywhere in the row.
datatables_views.py
from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required
from django.utils.decorators import method_decorator

from ajax_datatable.views import AjaxDatatableView
from backend.models import Register

@method_decorator(login_required, name='dispatch')
class RegisterAjaxDatatableView(AjaxDatatableView):

model = Register
title = 'Registers'

column_defs = [
AjaxDatatableView.render_row_tools_column_def(),
{
'name': 'id',
'visible': False,
}, {
...
By default, these tools will provide an icon to show and hide a detailed view
below each table row.
The tools are rendered according to the template ajax_datatable/row_tools.html,
which can be overridden.
Row details are automatically collected via Ajax by calling again the views
with a specific ?action=details parameters, and will be rendered by the
method:
def render_row_details(self, pk, request=None)
which you can further customize when needed.
The default behaviour provided by the base class if shown below:

4.2 row details customization
The default implementation of render_row_details() tries to load a template
in the following order:

ajax_datatable/<app_label>/<model_name>/<render_row_details_template_name>
ajax_datatable/<app_label>/<render_row_details_template_name>
ajax_datatable/<render_row_details_template_name>

(where the default value for <render_row_details_template_name> is “render_row_details.html”)
and, when found, uses it for rendering.
The template receives the following context:
html = template.render({
'model': self.model,
'model_admin': self.get_model_admin(),
'object': obj,
'extra_data': [extra_data dict retrieved from request]
}, request)
model_admin, when available, can be used to navigate fieldsets (if defined)
in the template, much like django’s admin/change_form.html does.
If no template is available, a simple HTML table with all field values
is built instead.
In all cases, the resulting HTML will be wrapped in the following structure:
<tr class="details">
<td class="details">
<div class="row-details-wrapper" data-parent-row-id="PARENT-ROW-ID">
...

4.3 Filter by global date range
When a latest_by column has been specified and show_date_filter is active,
a global date range filtering widget is provided, based on jquery-ui.datepicker:

The header of the column used for date filtering is decorated with the class
“latest_by”; you can use it to customize it’s rendering.
You can fully replace the widget with your own by providing a custom fn_daterange_widget_initialize()
callback at Module’s initialization, as in the following example, where we
use bootstrap.datepicker:
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.init({
search_icon_html: '<i class="fa fa-search"></i>',
language: {
},
fn_daterange_widget_initialize: function(table, data) {
var wrapper = table.closest('.dataTables_wrapper');
var toolbar = wrapper.find(".toolbar");
toolbar.html(
'<div class="daterange" style="float: left; margin-right: 6px;">' +
'{% trans "From" %}: <input type="text" class="date_from" autocomplete="off">' +
'  ' +
'{% trans "To" %}: <input type="text" class="date_to" autocomplete="off">' +
'</div>'
);
var date_pickers = toolbar.find('.date_from, .date_to');
date_pickers.datepicker();
date_pickers.on('change', function(event) {
// Annotate table with values retrieved from date widgets
var dt_from = toolbar.find('.date_from').data("datepicker");
var dt_to = toolbar.find('.date_to').data("datepicker");
table.data('date_from', dt_from ? dt_from.getFormattedDate("yyyy-mm-dd") : '');
table.data('date_to', dt_to ? dt_to.getFormattedDate("yyyy-mm-dd") : '');
// Redraw table
table.api().draw();
});
}
});

4.4 Debugging
In case of errors, Datatables.net shows an alert popup:

You can change it to trace the error in the browser console, insted:
// change DataTables' error reporting mechanism to throw a Javascript
// error to the browser's console, rather than alerting it.
$.fn.dataTable.ext.errMode = 'throw';
All details of Datatables.net requests can be logged to the console by activating
these setting:
AJAX_DATATABLE_TRACE_COLUMNDEFS = True
AJAX_DATATABLE_TRACE_QUERYDICT = True
The resulting query (before pagination) can be traced as well with:
AJAX_DATATABLE_TRACE_QUERYSET = True
Debugging traces for date range filtering, column filtering or global filtering can be displayed
by activating this setting:
AJAX_DATATABLE_TEST_FILTERS

5 Generic tables (advanced topic)
Chances are you might want to supply a standard user interface for listing
several models.
In this case, it is possible to use a generic approach and avoid code duplications,
as detailed below.
First, we supply a generic view which receives a model as parameter,
and passes it to the template used for rendering the page:
file frontend/datatables_views.py:
@login_required
def object_list_view(request, model, template_name="frontend/pages/object_list.html"):
"""
Render the page which contains the table.
That will in turn invoke (via Ajax) object_datatable_view(), to fill the table content
"""
return render(request, template_name, {
'model': model,
})
In the urlconf, link to specific models as in the example below:
file frontend/urls.py:
path('channel/', datatables_views.object_list_view, {'model': backend.models.Channel, }, name="channel-list"),
The template uses the model received in the context to display appropriate verbose_name
and verbose_name_plural attributes, and to extract app_label and model_name
as needed; unfortunately, we also had to supply some very basic helper templatetags,
as the _meta attribute of the model is not directly visible in this context.
{% extends 'frontend/base.html' %}
{% load static datatables_view_tags i18n %}

{% block breadcrumbs %}
<li>
<a href="{% url 'frontend:index' %}">{% trans 'Home' %}</a>
</li>
<li class="active">
<strong>{{model|model_verbose_name_plural}}</strong>
</li>
{% endblock breadcrumbs %}

{% block content %}

{% testhasperm model 'view' as can_view_objects %}
{% if not can_view_objects %}
<h2>{% trans "Sorry, you don't have the permission to view these objects" %}</h2>
{% else %}

<div>
<h5>{% trans 'All' %} {{ model|model_verbose_name_plural }}</h5>
{% ifhasperm model 'add' %}
<a href="#">{% trans 'Add ...' %}</a>
{% endifhasperm %}
</div>
<div class="table-responsive">
<table id="datatable" width="100%" class="table table-striped table-bordered table-hover dataTables-example">
</table>
</div>

{% ifhasperm model 'add' %}
<a href="#">{% trans 'Add ...' %}</a>
{% endifhasperm %}

{% endif %}

{% endblock content %}

{% block extrajs %}
<script language="javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.initialize_table(
$('#datatable'),
"{% url 'frontend:object-datatable' model|app_label model|model_name %}",
extra_option={},
extra_data={}
);
});

</script>
{% endblock %}
app_label and model_name are just strings, and as such can be specified in an url.
The connection with the Django backend uses the following generic url:
{% url 'frontend:object-datatable' model|app_label model|model_name %}
from urls.py:
# List any Model
path('datatable/<str:app_label>/<str:model_name>/', datatables_views.object_datatable_view, name="object-datatable"),
object_datatable_view() is a lookup helper which navigates all AjaxDatatableView-derived
classes in the module and selects the view appropriate for the specific model
in use:
file frontend/datatables_views.py:
import inspect

def object_datatable_view(request, app_label, model_name):

# List all AjaxDatatableView in this module
datatable_views = [
klass
for name, klass in inspect.getmembers(sys.modules[__name__])
if inspect.isclass(klass) and issubclass(klass, AjaxDatatableView)
]

# Scan AjaxDatatableView until we find the right one
for datatable_view in datatable_views:
model = datatable_view.model
if (model is not None and (model._meta.app_label, model._meta.model_name) == (app_label, model_name)):
view = datatable_view
break

return view.as_view()(request)
which for this example happens to be:
@method_decorator(login_required, name='dispatch')
class ChannelAjaxDatatableView(BaseAjaxDatatableView):

model = Channel
title = 'Channels'

column_defs = [
AjaxDatatableView.render_row_tools_column_def(),
{
'name': 'id',
'visible': False,
}, {
'name': 'description',
}, {
'name': 'code',
}
]

6 Javascript Code Snippets

6.1 Workaround: Adjust the column widths of all visible tables
setTimeout(function () {
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.adjust_table_columns();
}, 200);
or maybe better:
var table = element.DataTable({
...
"initComplete": function(settings) {
setTimeout(function () {
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.adjust_table_columns();
}, 200);
}
where:
function adjust_table_columns() {
// Adjust the column widths of all visible tables
// https://datatables.net/reference/api/%24.fn.dataTable.tables()
$.fn.dataTable
.tables({
visible: true,
api: true
})
.columns.adjust();
}

6.2 Redraw all tables
$.fn.dataTable.tables({
api: true
}).draw();

6.3 Redraw table holding the current paging position
table = $(element).closest('table.dataTable');
$.ajax({
type: 'GET',
url: ...
}).done(function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
table.DataTable().ajax.reload(null, false);
});

6.4 Redraw a single table row
table.DataTable().row(tr).invalidate().draw(false);
Working example:
{% get_current_language as LANGUAGE_CODE %}

function onToggleQueueStatus(event) {

// The link is a table cell
event.preventDefault();
let td = $(event.target).closest('td');

// Retrieve the table row and the record id
let tr = td.closest('tr');
// Es: "row-692255dc-7eaa-4150-be19-a555a8b34188"
let row_id = tr.attr('id').substr(4);

// Call the server via AJAX to process the record
let url = sprintf('/{{LANGUAGE_CODE}}/j/product_order/%s/toggle_queue_status/', row_id);
FrontendForms.overlay_show(tr);
var promise = $.ajax({
type: 'POST',
url: url,
data: null,
cache: false,
crossDomain: false,
headers: {
'X-CSRFToken': FrontendForms.getCookie('csrftoken')
}
}).done(function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
//console.log('OK; data=%o', data);
}).fail(function(jqXHR, textStatus, errorThrown) {
console.log('ERROR: ' + jqXHR.responseText);
Frontend.display_server_error_ex(jqXHR);
}).always(function() {

// Since the record has been changed, we need to update the table row;
// Redraw the row holding the current paging position
let table = $(tr).closest('table.dataTable');
table.DataTable().row(tr).invalidate().draw(false);

});
return promise;
}
Another (very old) Example:
var table = $(element).closest('table.dataTable');
var table_row_id = table.find('tr.shown').attr('id');
$.ajax({
type: 'POST',
url: ...
}).done(function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
table.DataTable().ajax.reload(null, false);

// Since we've update the record via Ajax, we need to redraw this table row
var tr = table.find('#' + table_row_id);
var row = table.DataTable().row(tr)
row.invalidate().draw();

// Hack: here we would like to enhance the updated row, by adding the 'updated' class;
// Since a callback is not available upon draw completion,
// let's use a timer to try later, and cross fingers
setTimeout(function() {
table.find('#' + table_row_id).addClass('updated');
}, 200);
setTimeout(function() {
table.find('#' + table_row_id).addClass('updated');
}, 1000);

});

6.5 change DataTables’ error reporting mechanism
// change DataTables' error reporting mechanism to throw a Javascript
// error to the browser's console, rather than alerting it.
$.fn.dataTable.ext.errMode = 'throw';

7 JS Utilities

AjaxDatatableViewUtils.init(options)
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.initialize_table(element, url, extra_options={}, extra_data={})
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.after_table_initialization(table, data, url)
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.adjust_table_columns()
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.redraw_all_tables()
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.redraw_table(element)

7.1 Internationalization
You can provide localized messages by initializing the AjaxDatatableViewUtils JS module
as follow (example in italian):
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.init({
search_icon_html: '<i class="fa fa-search" style="font-size: 16px"></i>',
language: {
"decimal": "",
"emptyTable": "Nessun dato disponibile",
"info": "Visualizzate da _START_ a _END_ di _TOTAL_ righe",
"infoEmpty": "",
"infoFiltered": "(filtered from _MAX_ total entries)",
"infoPostFix": "",
"thousands": ",",
"lengthMenu": "Visualizza _MENU_ righe per pagina",
"loadingRecords": "Caricamento in corso ...",
"processing": "Elaborazione in corso ...",
"search": "Cerca:",
"zeroRecords": "Nessun record trovato",
"paginate": {
"first": "Prima",
"last": "Ultima",
"next": ">>",
"previous": "<<"
},
"aria": {
"sortAscending": ": activate to sort column ascending",
"sortDescending": ": activate to sort column descending"
}
}
});
You can do this, for example, in your “base.html” template, and it will be in effect
for all subsequent instantiations:
<script language="javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
AjaxDatatableViewUtils.init({
...
});
});
</script>

8 Application examples

8.1 Adding a button for editing
Since the list of table columns is controlled by the library, based on column_defs list
specified in the AjaxDatatableView class, you can’t insert a custom column “javascript-side”.
However, you can easily do it “python-side”:
class ArtistAjaxDatatableView(AjaxDatatableView):

...

column_defs = [
...
{'name': 'edit', 'title': 'Edit', 'placeholder': True, 'searchable': False, 'orderable': False, },
...
]

def customize_row(self, row, obj):
row['edit'] = """
<a href="#" class="btn btn-info btn-edit"
onclick="var id=this.closest('tr').id.substr(4); alert('Editing Artist: ' + id); return false;">
Edit
</a>
"""
...

In the snippet above, we added an ‘edit’ column, customizing it’s content via customize_row().
Note how we retrieved the object id from the “row-NNN” table row attribute in the “onclick” handler.

8.2 Customize row details by rendering prettified json fields

import jsonfield
from ajax_datatable.views import AjaxDatatableView
from .utils import json_prettify

class MyAjaxDatatableView(AjaxDatatableView):

...

def render_row_details(self, pk, request=None):

obj = self.model.objects.get(pk=pk)
fields = [f for f in self.model._meta.get_fields() if f.concrete]
html = '<table class="row-details">'
for field in fields:
value = getattr(obj, field.name)
if isinstance(field, jsonfield.JSONField):
value = json_prettify(value)
html += '<tr><td>%s</td><td>%s</td></tr>' % (field.name, value)
html += '</table>'
return html
where:
import json
from pygments import highlight
from pygments.lexers import JsonLexer
from pygments.formatters import HtmlFormatter
from django.utils.safestring import mark_safe

def json_prettify_styles():
"""
Used to generate Pygment styles (to be included in a .CSS file) as follows:
print(json_prettify_styles())
"""
formatter = HtmlFormatter(style='colorful')
return formatter.get_style_defs()

def json_prettify(json_data):
"""
Adapted from:
https://www.pydanny.com/pretty-formatting-json-django-admin.html
"""

# Get the Pygments formatter
formatter = HtmlFormatter(style='colorful')

# Highlight the data
json_text = highlight(
json.dumps(json_data, indent=2),
JsonLexer(),
formatter
)

# # remove leading and trailing brances
# json_text = json_text \
# .replace('<span class="p">{</span>\n', '') \
# .replace('<span class="p">}</span>\n', '')

# Get the stylesheet
#style = "<style>" + formatter.get_style_defs() + "</style>"
style = ''

# Safe the output
return mark_safe(style + json_text)

8.3 Change row color based on row content

First, we mark the relevant info with a specific CSS class, so we can search
for it later
column_defs = [
...
}, {
'name': 'error_counter',
'title': 'errors',
'className': 'error_counter',
}, {
...
]
Have a callback called after each table redraw
var table = element.DataTable({
...
});

table.on('draw.dt', function(event) {
onTableDraw(event);
});
then change the rendered table as needed
var onTableDraw = function (event) {

var html_table = $(event.target);
html_table.find('tr').each(function(index, item) {

try {
var row = $(item);
text = row.children('td.error_counter').first().text();
var error_counter = isNaN(text) ? 0 : parseInt(text);

if (error_counter > 0) {
row.addClass('bold');
}
else {
row.addClass('grayed');
}
}
catch(err) {
}

});
}
or use a rowCallback as follows:
// Subscribe "rowCallback" event
$('#datatable').on('rowCallback', function(event, table, row, data ) {
$(row).addClass(data.read ? 'read' : 'unread');
}
This works even if the ‘read’ column we’re interested in is actually not visible.

8.4 Modify table content on the fly (via ajax)

Row details customization:
def render_row_details(self, pk, request=None):

obj = self.model.objects.get(pk=pk)
html = '<table class="row-details">'
html += "<tr><td>alarm status:</td><td>"
for choice in BaseTask.ALARM_STATUS_CHOICES:
# Lo stato corrente lo visualizziamo in grassetto
if choice[0] == obj.alarm:
html += '<b>%s</b> ' % (choice[1])
else:
# Se non "unalarmed", mostriamo i link per cambiare lo stato
# (tutti tranne "unalarmed")
if obj.alarm != BaseTask.ALARM_STATUS_UNALARMED and choice[0] != BaseTask.ALARM_STATUS_UNALARMED:
html += '<a class="set-alarm" href="#" onclick="set_row_alarm(this, \'%s\', %d); return false">%s</a> ' % (
str(obj.pk),
choice[0],
choice[1]
)
html += '</td></tr>'
Client-side code:
<script language="javascript">

function set_row_alarm(element, task_id, value) {
$("body").css("cursor", "wait");
//console.log('set_row_alarm: %o %o %o', element, task_id, value);
table = $(element).closest('table.dataTable');
//console.log('table id: %o', table.attr('id'));

$.ajax({
type: 'GET',
url: sprintf('/set_alarm/%s/%s/%d/', table.attr('id'), task_id, value),
dataType: 'html'
}).done(function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
table.DataTable().ajax.reload(null, false);
}).always(function( data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
$("body").css("cursor", "default");
});
}
Server-side code:
urlpatterns = [
...
path('set_alarm/<str:table_id>/<uuid:task_id>/<int:new_status>/',
views.set_alarm,
name="set_alarm"),
]

@login_required
def set_alarm(request, table_id, task_id, new_status):

# Retrieve model from table id
# Example table_id:
# 'datatable_walletreceivetransactionstask'
# 'datatable_walletcheckstatustask_summary'
model_name = table_id.split('_')[1]
model = apps.get_model('tasks', model_name)

# Retrieve task
task = get_object_by_uuid_or_404(model, task_id)

# Set alarm value
task.set_alarm(request, new_status)

return HttpResponse('ok')

9 Possible future improvements

9.1 Check these extensions:

Table row selection
Export table data to excel of pdf
Responsive table

9.2 Column rendering

specific rendering for boolean columns

9.3 Column filtering

9.3.1 add a specific widget for dates
Currently, an exact match is applied; a date-range selection would be better;
references:

https://datatables.net/plug-ins/filtering/row-based/range_dates
https://datatables.net/extensions/select/
https://github.com/RobinDev/jquery.dataTables.columnFilter.js?files=1

9.3.2 support for optional autocompletion widget

https://github.com/yourlabs/django-autocomplete-light
https://github.com/crucialfelix/django-ajax-selects

9.3.3 add a specific widget for boolean fields
A checkbox or a select

10 History

10.1 v4.5.0

Skip filter_queryset_by_date_range (that is: ignore date_from and date_to from requests params)
when show_date_filters is disabled

10.2 v4.4.5

Remove pytz since it’s deprecated in Django 4.0 and will be removed in Django 5.0

10.3 v4.4.4

few changes to allow the initialization of a DatatableView offline (for example, to export a filtered queryset from a background process)

10.4 v4.4.3

assign ‘__iexact’, instead of ‘__icontains’, as default ‘lookup_field’ value for columns with choices
added toolbar_message(): same as footer_message(), but appends message to toolbar

10.5 v4.4.2

fix: searching on a date/datetime field: when the value entered is not a valid date, we clear the table content to give a feedback to the user

10.6 v4.4.1

fix: when STRIP_HTML_TAGS is active, None was rendered as ‘None’ instead of ‘’

10.7 v4.4.0

Prepare for Django 4.0
Support choice lookup for m2m_foreign_field (many thanks to Martin Schwier and Etienne Pouliot)
Fix Multiple search values when you set search_values_separator = ‘+’ and try to search for term with + in it (many thanks to Petr Dlouhý)
POSSIBLE INCOMPATIBLE CHANGE: for security reason, HTML tags are now stripped by default in the rendered table; you can disable this setting AJAX_DATATABLE_STRIP_HTML_TAGS = False (thus restoring the previous behaviour); many thanks to Mich “Mike3285”

10.8 v4.3.1

Add custom lookup field; thanks to Javier Clavero Álvarez <jclaveroalvarez@gmail.com>

10.9 v4.3.0

Add support for ManyToMany field (many thanks to Etienne Pouliot); REQUIRES PYTHON 3.6
POSSIBLE INCOMPATIBLE CHANGE: PYTHON >= 3.6 REQUIRED
Fix #35: prevent ZeroDivisionError

10.10 v4.2.1

Example project cleanup
Added “side filters” sample
Readme updated

10.11 v4.2.0

deliver extra_data to render_row_details()
Allow to set detail callback, i.e. to display it in modal (thanks to PetrDlouhy)
Fetch ‘csrfmiddlewaretoken’ when csrftoken cookie is set to HttpOnly (thanks to shuki25)

10.12 v4.1.7

Allow to set order field for column (thanks Petr Dlouhý)

10.13 v4.1.6

Unused template ‘datatable.html’ removed.
Fix issues #2 and #8
Fix issue #9
Raise an exception when searching over a ManyToManyField (not supported yet)

10.14 v4.1.5

Edit button example
Better row-tools style (fix for Firefox)

10.15 v4.1.4

foreign_fields: render with __str__() if no attribute has been specified by ‘foreign_field’
[fix] added missing csrftoken header in first POST call (initialize_table())
selectively disable the only or select_related queryset optimization

10.16 v4.1.3

Filters: proper lookup choices for foreign columns
search_in_choices(): match substring instead of startswith()
Filter tracing: serialize with DjangoJSONEncoder

10.17 v4.1.2

pass “extra_data” during table initialization

10.18 v4.1.1

[fix] Restore capability to use both global and column filtering at the same time
improved tracing (optionally uses sqlparse, termcolor and pygments)

10.19 v4.1.0

Avoid duplicate column names
Add a border to “plus” and “minus” icons
Readme: added an example on how to use extra_data for initial queryset filtering
Improved layout of global date filters for easier style customization
Explicitly check field existence when initial order is expressed with fieldnames
Cleanup full_row_select option
[fix] Treat DateTimeField properly in filter_queryset_by_date_range()
App settings for debug tracing renamed

10.20 v4.0.8

Recover missing commits from develp

10.21 v4.0.7

[TODO] check for unwanted side-effects here: …
… Prevent click to move the HTML page to the top
Improved example project

10.22 v4.0.6

Accept the more generic “pk” column name instead of “id”; “id” still supported for backward compatibility
In the example project: a new page has been added to play with a model with a custom PK column name

10.23 v4.0.5

classifiers added to setup.py

10.24 v4.0.4

fix Readme

10.25 v4.0.3

[fix] accept anonymous POSTs
Another (this time really minimal) example working project

10.26 v4.0.2

overridable render_row_details_template_name attribute added
support to search multiple values (see search_values_separator)

10.27 v4.0.1

A few typo fixes here and there

10.28 v4.0.0

package renamed from django-datatables-view to django-ajax-datatable
published on PyPI
example project added
setup of demo site http://django-ajax-datatable-demo.brainstorm.it

10.29 v3.2.3

“data-parent-row-id” attribute added to details row

10.30 v3.2.2

accept positions expressed as column names in initial_order[]

10.31 v3.2.1

add className to filters
improved filtering with choices by including foreign_fields
optional “boolean” column attribute to treat calculated column as booleans on explicit request
optional “max_length” column attribute to clip results

10.32 v3.2.0

Automatic addition of table row ID (see get_table_row_id())
request parameter added to prepare_results() and get_response_dict()

10.33 v3.1.4

fix checkbox and radio buttons not working in a form embedded in the details row when full_row_select is active

10.34 v3.1.3

Better behaviour for full_row_select

10.35 v3.1.2

initialSearchValue can now be a value or a callable object

10.36 v3.1.1

Silly JS fix

10.37 v3.1.0

choices / autofilter support for column filters
optional initialSearchValue for column filters
Backward incompatible change: any unrecognized column_defs attribute will raises an exception

10.38 v3.0.4

Support length_menu = -1 (which means: “all”)

10.39 v3.0.3

Use full_row_select=true to toggled row details by clicking anywhere in the row

10.40 v3.0.2

Sanity check for initial_order[]

10.41 v3.0.1

js fix (same as v2.3.5)

10.42 v3.0.0

Bump major version to welcome Django 3

10.43 v2.3.5

js fix

10.44 v2.3.4

Add support for Django 3.0, drop Python 2

10.45 v.2.3.3

Some JS utilities added

10.46 v2.3.2

improved queryset optimization

10.47 v2.3.1

fix queryset optimization

10.48 v2.3.0

queryset optimization

10.49 v2.2.9

optional extra_data dictionary accepted by initialize_table()

10.50 v2.2.8

Remove table-layout: fixed; style from HTML table, as this causes problems in the columns’ widths computation

10.51 v2.2.7

Explicitly set width of “row tools” column
Localize “search” prompt in column filters

10.52 v2.2.6

Experimental: Optionally control the (minimum) width of each single column

10.53 v2.2.5

cleanup

10.54 v2.2.4

optionally specified extra options to initialize_table()

10.55 v2.2.3

accept language options

10.56 v2.2.2

fix default footer

10.57 v2.2.1

README revised

10.58 v2.2.0

Merge into master

10.59 v2.1.3

Remove initialize_datatable() from main project and replace with DatatablesViewUtils.initialize_table() to share common behaviour
Notify Datatable subscribers with various events
Cleanup global filtering on dates range
Derived view class can now specify ‘latest_by’ when different from model.get_latest_by
Documentation revised

10.60 v2.1.2

basic support for DateField and DateTimeField filtering (exact date match)

10.61 v2.1.1

choices lookup revised

10.62 v2.1.0

static/datatables_view/js/datatables_utils.js renamed as static/datatables_view/js/utils.js
js helper encapsulated in DatatablesViewUtils module
First “almost” working column filtering - good enought for text search

10.63 v2.0.6

Accept either GET or POST requests

10.64 v2.0.5

Global “get_latest_by” filtering improved

10.65 v2.0.4

Filter tracing (for debugging)

10.66 v2.0.0

DatatablesView refactoring: columns_specs[] used as a substitute for columns[],searchable_columns[] and foreign_fields[]

10.67 v1.2.4

recognize datatime.date column type

10.68 v1.2.3

render_row_details() passes model_admin to the context, to permit fieldsets navigation

10.69 v1.2.2

generic tables explained
render_row_details customizable via templates

10.70 v1.2.1

merged PR #1 from Thierry BOULOGNE

10.71 v1.2.0

Incompatible change: postpone column initialization and pass the request to get_column_defs() for runtime table layout customization

10.72 v1.0.1

fix choices lookup

10.73 v1.0.0

fix search
better distribution (make sure templates and statics are included)

10.74 v0.0.2

Package version added