# Editor example Envelope display controller

This example highlights how Editor can effortlessly present the form by utilising display containers. Editor makes very few assumptions about how its form will actually be displayed to the end user (where in the DOM, interaction etc) leaving the actual positioning and final display of the form to the display controller.

Editor has two built-in display controllers ('lightbox' and 'envelope') which can be specified by using the `display` initialisation option - 'lightbox' is the default. Additional display controllers can be added as plug-ins to Editor if you wish to use a different display method.

This example builds on the simple example utilising Buttons to control the form. The envelope display method has a number of configuration options available to it, including the ability to toggle automatic scrolling of the window and attaching the form to the table header, both of which are shown here. The Envelope with inline controls example shows the default effect for these settings, while we alter the defaults here.

Name | Position | Office | Extn. | Start date | Salary
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Name | Position | Office | Extn. | Start date | Salary

- Javascript
- HTML
- CSS
- Ajax
- Server-side script

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

`// Configure the envelope display to attach to the header DataTable.Editor.display.envelope.conf.attach = 'head'; var editor = new DataTable.Editor({ ajax: '../../controllers/staff.php', display: 'envelope', fields: [ { label: 'First name:', name: 'first_name' }, { label: 'Last name:', name: 'last_name' }, { label: 'Position:', name: 'position' }, { label: 'Office:', name: 'office' }, { label: 'Extension:', name: 'extn' }, { label: 'Start date:', name: 'start_date', type: 'datetime' }, { label: 'Salary:', name: 'salary' } ], table: '#example' }); $('#example').DataTable({ ajax: '../../controllers/staff.php', buttons: [ { extend: 'create', editor: editor }, { extend: 'edit', editor: editor }, { extend: 'remove', editor: editor } ], columns: [ { data: null, render: function (data, type, row) { // Combine the first and last names into a single table field return data.first_name + ' ' + data.last_name; } }, { data: 'position' }, { data: 'office' }, { data: 'extn' }, { data: 'start_date' }, { data: 'salary', render: DataTable.render.number(null, null, 0, '$') } ], dom: 'Bfrtip', select: true });`
`// Configure the envelope display to attach to the header DataTable.Editor.display.envelope.conf.attach = 'head'; const editor = new DataTable.Editor({ ajax: '../../controllers/staff.php', display: 'envelope', fields: [ { label: 'First name:', name: 'first_name' }, { label: 'Last name:', name: 'last_name' }, { label: 'Position:', name: 'position' }, { label: 'Office:', name: 'office' }, { label: 'Extension:', name: 'extn' }, { label: 'Start date:', name: 'start_date', type: 'datetime' }, { label: 'Salary:', name: 'salary' } ], table: '#example' }); $('#example').DataTable({ ajax: '../../controllers/staff.php', buttons: [ { extend: 'create', editor }, { extend: 'edit', editor }, { extend: 'remove', editor } ], columns: [ { data: null, render: data => data.first_name + ' ' + data.last_name }, { data: 'position' }, { data: 'office' }, { data: 'extn' }, { data: 'start_date' }, { data: 'salary', render: DataTable.render.number(null, null, 0, '$') } ], dom: 'Bfrtip', select: true });`

In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:

- https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.0.js
- https://cdn.datatables.net/1.13.5/js/jquery.dataTables.min.js
- https://cdn.datatables.net/buttons/2.4.1/js/dataTables.buttons.min.js
- https://cdn.datatables.net/select/1.7.0/js/dataTables.select.min.js
- https://cdn.datatables.net/datetime/1.5.1/js/dataTables.dateTime.min.js
- ../../js/dataTables.editor.min.js

The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

``

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

- https://cdn.datatables.net/1.13.5/css/jquery.dataTables.min.css
- https://cdn.datatables.net/buttons/2.4.1/css/buttons.dataTables.min.css
- https://cdn.datatables.net/select/1.7.0/css/select.dataTables.min.css
- https://cdn.datatables.net/datetime/1.5.1/css/dataTables.dateTime.min.css
- ../../css/editor.dataTables.min.css

This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.