Question

I am using the datatables jquery plugin. I am trying to use it as a shared function so that I can call a datatable from numerous pages without putting a huge amount of code on each page.

So I am trying to make a variable for the columns that get passed to the datatables function:

var columnsObj = {"columns": [
    {"sName": "first_name","sTitle": "First Name","bSearchable": "true"},
    {"sName": "last_name","sTitle": "Last Name","bSearchable": "true"},
    {"sName": "email","sTitle": "Email","bSearchable": "true"}
]};

How would I take the above code and place that into the datatables function below properly?

Do i need to loop over the object? Or can I just include it somehow like below?

oTable = $("table.datatable").dataTable({
    "bProcessing": true,
    "bServerSide": true,
    "sAjaxSource": "getjson.cfc?method=tableData",
    "aoColumns": [columnsObj]
});

Answer 1

You can access columns as a property on columnsObj.

'aoColumns': columnsObj.columns

(just to be thorough, you can also access it by it’s string name too as an indexer…

'aoColumns': columnsObj['columns']

)