= Simple Datatables

Connects two awesome plugins - Datatables for Jquery and Meta Search together for Rails 3.1

== Install

Add the following to your Gemfile to install simple datatables:

  gem 'simple_datatables'

After bundle install add this line to rails 3.1 assets pipeline and restart server:

  //= require simple_datatables

Installation completed.

== Description

There are two ways to map awesome Datatables plugin request fields for Rails.

* First is to convert request on the server side
* Second is to prepare correct request on the client side  

This gem provides interface for the second way. 
To use it you should do the following easy three steps:

Create simple meta_search and will_paginate controller action as usual and add ".datatables" format

  respond_to :html, :datatables
  
  def search
    @products = Product.search(params[:search]).paginate(:page => params[:page], :per_page=>params[:per_page])
    respond_with @products
  end

Use standard datatables initializer options for creating table:

* bServerSide: true
* sAjaxSource: path to your controller
* fnServerData: point to simpleDatatables function
* aoColumns: you *should* define all searchable/fiterable sName attributes here. Use format as used in meta_search (with underscores) 

Create Jsonify view with column values for columns listed in aoColumns. See example for clarification.

This gem uses:
* meta_search for nice search and sort request syntax mapping
* will_paginate for nice pagination request syntax mapping
* jsonify for simple output generation 

Gem works only with rails 3.1.

Gem includes datatables library and fnSetFilteringDelay plugin so you haven't include it by yourself.

== Search for all fields

Note that fulltext search will work only with text fields due to meta_search restrictions. To prevent errors use bSearchable: false for non-text columns in aoColumns field.

== Regex search

Due to meta_search restrictions it is impossible to use regex search for now.

Instead, this gem recognizes bSearch flag as "contains" meta_search finder.

By default "starts_with" is used due to database performance reasons.

Independent fields search will always search using "starts_with" finder.

== Example

The following code will show products list datatables. Manufacturer is belongs_to association for Product.

In your controller:

  respond_to :html, :datatables
  
  # GET /products/search
  def search
    @products = Product.search(params[:search]).paginate(:page => params[:page], :per_page=>params[:per_page])
    respond_with @products
  end

In your search view:

  @products.each do |product|
    json << [product.name, product.manufacturer.name]
  end

In your index view:

  %table#products
    %thead
      %tr
        %th= Product.human_attribute_name :name
        %th= Product.human_attribute_name :manufacturer
  
    %tbody


In your javascript:

  $("products").dataTable($("table#products"), {
      "sAjaxSource"     : "/products/search.datatables",
      "aaSorting"       : [[0, 'asc']],
      "aoColumns"       : [
        {"sName":"name"},
        {"sName":"manufacturer_name"},
      ],
      "bServerSide"     : true,
      "fnServerData"    : simpleDatatables
    });

== Copyright

Copyright (c) Grigory Dmitrenko, 2011. See LICENSE for details.