# Editor example In table form controls

Many of the Editor examples use Buttons to provide buttons and row selection interaction options. While it is sometimes convenient to use Buttons in this manner, it might not always be the interface method that you wish to present to your end users. Editor does not require Buttons in order to function, as shown in this example where edit and delete icons are shown in the table and the 'new' option is a link at the top of the table. We use FontAwesome to provide the icons here, but you could use images / font you prefer.

This example shows the use of the `create()`, `edit()` and `remove()` API methods, which are activated when required by standard jQuery events. With this API, Editor is very powerful as it can be accessed and controlled in any way you wish.

Two other points worth noting about the example is the use of `columns.defaultContent` for the edit / delete columns (in combination with a `null` value for `columns.data`) to display the edit and delete icons.

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:

`var editor = new DataTable.Editor({ ajax: '../../controllers/staff.php', 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' }); $('#example').DataTable({ ajax: '../../controllers/staff.php', buttons: [ { text: 'Create new record', action: function () { // Create new record editor.create({ title: 'Create new record', buttons: 'Add' }); } } ], columns: [ { data: null, render: function (data, type, row) { // Combine the first and last names into a single table field return data.first_name + ' ' + data.last_name; } }, { data: 'position' }, { data: 'office' }, { data: 'extn' }, { data: 'start_date' }, { data: 'salary', render: DataTable.render.number(null, null, 0, '$') }, { data: null, className: 'dt-center editor-edit', defaultContent: '<i class="fa fa-pencil"/>', orderable: false }, { data: null, className: 'dt-center editor-delete', defaultContent: '<i class="fa fa-trash"/>', orderable: false } ], dom: 'Bfrtip' }); // New record $('a.editor-create').on('click', function (e) { e.preventDefault(); editor.create({ title: 'Create new record', buttons: 'Add' }); }); // Edit record $('#example').on('click', 'td.editor-edit', function (e) { e.preventDefault(); editor.edit($(this).closest('tr'), { title: 'Edit record', buttons: 'Update' }); }); // Delete a record $('#example').on('click', 'td.editor-delete', function (e) { e.preventDefault(); editor.remove($(this).closest('tr'), { title: 'Delete record', message: 'Are you sure you wish to remove this record?', buttons: 'Delete' }); });`
`const editor = new DataTable.Editor({ ajax: '../../controllers/staff.php', 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' }); const table = new DataTable('#example', { ajax: '../../controllers/staff.php', buttons: [ { text: 'Create new record', action: () => { // Create new record editor.create({ title: 'Create new record', buttons: 'Add' }); } } ], 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, '$') }, { data: null, className: 'dt-center editor-edit', defaultContent: '<i class="fa fa-pencil"/>', orderable: false }, { data: null, className: 'dt-center editor-delete', defaultContent: '<i class="fa fa-trash"/>', orderable: false } ], dom: 'Bfrtip' }); // Edit record table.on('click', 'td.editor-edit', function (e) { e.preventDefault(); editor.edit(e.target.closest('tr'), { title: 'Edit record', buttons: 'Update' }); }); // Delete a record table.on('click', 'td.editor-delete', function (e) { e.preventDefault(); editor.remove(e.target.closest('tr'), { title: 'Delete record', message: 'Are you sure you wish to remove this record?', buttons: 'Delete' }); });`

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/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://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/font-awesome/4.7.0/css/font-awesome.min.css
- 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/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.