Question

Why the number of rows in jquery datatable (see the code below) is not set to 5? It is equal to 10 8as by default). Why 'iDisplayLength': 5 does not work here?

<script>
function loadData() {
    $.getJSON(
              'modules/getData.php',
        function(data) {
                  var oTable = $('#newspaper-b').dataTable({
                        "sPaginationType":"full_numbers",
                        "aaSorting":[[3, "asc"]],
                        "bJQueryUI":true,
                        'iDisplayLength': 5,
                        'bLengthChange': false
                  });

                  oTable.fnDraw();

                  var list = data.flights;
                  var textToInsert = '';

                  for (var i = 0; i < list.length; i++) {
                        aux = list[i];
                        textToInsert  += '<tr><td>';
                        textToInsert  += aux.Var1;                                                                  
                        textToInsert  += '</td> </tr>' ;

                    }
                  $('table#newspaper-b tbody').html(textToInsert);

              }
    );             
}         

</script>

Answer 1

Try something like this. DataTables has built-in options that let you pull data from an AJAX source without trying to build it yourself. Read the documentation and customize it as needed:

function loadData() {
    var oTable = $('#newspaper-b').dataTable({
            "sAjaxSource": 'modules/getData.php',
            "sPaginationType": "full_numbers",
            "aaSorting": [
                [3, "asc"]
            ],
            "bJQueryUI": true,
            'iDisplayLength': 5,
            'bLengthChange': false
    });
};

To modify the table in some way after the data is loaded, you’ll want to add the fnDrawCallback option:

 "fnDrawCallback": function( oSettings ) {
      // use jQuery to alter the content of certain cells
      $lastcell = $('#newspaper-b').find('tr').find('td:last');
      // manipulate it somehow
 }