Question

I’m trying to work with the jQuery Datatables plugin. It has everything I want, except there isn’t any flexibility with how one shows the aLengthMenu variables. It displays it in a <select> dropdown which is fine, but I have a design that isn’t flexible and wants the variables as just links.

This is how it currently displays with:

"aLengthMenu": [[5, 15, 30, 60, -1], [5, 15, 30, 60, "All"]]

I would love for it to just display links like this so one can just click a link and it would show the amount specified like this:

I know I’m messing with the core of the Datatables plugin and more specifically the _fnFeatureHtmlLength function but it would be so awesome if I could get some help on this.

Answer 1

There is no easy way to do this without opening up the jquery.dataTables.js file and editing it.
Yes, you are correct… you will have to edit the ‘_fnFeatureHtmlLength’ function.

I am working with jquery.dataTables.js version 1.9.1
Goto the ‘_fnFeatureHtmlLength’ function (do a search in the file for ‘function _fnFeatureHtmlLength(oSettings)’ and you should find it, mines on line 2296)

Since you are editing this file I’d make a backup first. Also, comment out the lines you are replacing so you can always refer back to them.

EDITS

function _fnFeatureHtmlLength(oSettings) {
        if (oSettings.oScroll.bInfinite) {
            return null;
        }

        /* This can be overruled by not using the _MENU_ var/macro in the language variable */
        var sName = 'name="' + oSettings.sTableId + '_length"';
        //var sStdMenu = '<select size="1" '+sName+'>';
        var sStdMenu = '';
        var i, iLen;
        var aLengthMenu = oSettings.aLengthMenu;

        if (aLengthMenu.length == 2 && typeof aLengthMenu[0] === 'object' &&
                typeof aLengthMenu[1] === 'object') {
            for (i = 0, iLen = aLengthMenu[0].length; i < iLen; i++) {
                //sStdMenu += '<option value="' + aLengthMenu[0][i] + '">' + aLengthMenu[1][i] + '</option>';
                sStdMenu += '<a href="#" value="' + aLengthMenu[0][i] + '">' + aLengthMenu[1][i] + '</a>';
            }
        }
        else {
            for (i = 0, iLen = aLengthMenu.length; i < iLen; i++) {
                //sStdMenu += '<option value="' + aLengthMenu[i] + '">' + aLengthMenu[i] + '</option>';
                sStdMenu += '<a href="#" value="' + aLengthMenu[i] + '">' + aLengthMenu[i] + '</a>';
            }
        }
        //sStdMenu += '</select>';

        var nLength = document.createElement('div');
        if (!oSettings.aanFeatures.l) {
            nLength.id = oSettings.sTableId + '_length';
        }
        nLength.className = oSettings.oClasses.sLength;
        nLength.innerHTML = '<label>' + oSettings.oLanguage.sLengthMenu.replace('_MENU_', sStdMenu) + '</label>';

        /*
        * Set the length to the current display length - thanks to Andrea Pavlovic for this fix,
        * and Stefan Skopnik for fixing the fix!
        */
        //$('select option[value="' + oSettings._iDisplayLength + '"]', nLength).attr("selected", true);

        //$('select', nLength).bind('change.DT', function (e) {
        $('a', nLength).bind('click', function (e) {
            //var iVal = $(this).val();
            e.preventDefault();
            var iVal = $(this).attr('value');

            /* Update all other length options for the new display */
            var n = oSettings.aanFeatures.l;
            for (i = 0, iLen = n.length; i < iLen; i++) {
                if (n[i] != this.parentNode) {
                    //$('select', n[i]).val(iVal);
                }
            }

            /* Redraw the table */
            oSettings._iDisplayLength = parseInt(iVal, 10);
            _fnCalculateEnd(oSettings);

            /* If we have space to show extra rows (backing up from the end point - then do so */
            if (oSettings.fnDisplayEnd() == oSettings.fnRecordsDisplay()) {
                oSettings._iDisplayStart = oSettings.fnDisplayEnd() - oSettings._iDisplayLength;
                if (oSettings._iDisplayStart < 0) {
                    oSettings._iDisplayStart = 0;
                }
            }

            if (oSettings._iDisplayLength == -1) {
                oSettings._iDisplayStart = 0;
            }

            _fnDraw(oSettings);
        });


        //$('select', nLength).attr('aria-controls', oSettings.sTableId);

        return nLength;
    }

Also I made changes to the datatables.css file:

.dataTables_length a{
margin-right:6px;
}

But you can style it however. Also in the click event in the function I edited you maybe want to add a ‘active’ class to the selected ‘a’ tag and style however you want. Just remember to remove the active class from all other ‘a’.

I have not fully tested these changes, and since I did not write datatables I don’t know if these changes will have any side effects. Also I did not test with any plug-ins… so use at your own risk!