Editor example Excel like keyboard navigation

Editor's inline editing ability (inline()) can make for quick and easy updating of data, but if you combine it with KeyTable you can make your DataTable much more like an Excel spreadsheet with keyboard navigation.

KeyTable's keys.editor option binds your Editor instance with the key interface so that typing in a cell will automatically activate its inline editing. Data is then submitted when the cell looses focus.

Additional styling is used here to hide the borders of the input element, making it similar to editing a traditional spreadsheet.

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

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var editor; // use a global for the submit and return data rendering in the examples
 
$(document).ready(function() {
    editor = new $.fn.dataTable.Editor( {
        ajax: "../../controllers/staff.php",
        table: "#example",
        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"
            }
        ]
    } );
 
    var table = $('#example').DataTable( {
        dom: "Bfrtip",
        ajax: "../../controllers/staff.php",
        columns: [
            {
                data: null,
                defaultContent: '',
                className: 'select-checkbox',
                orderable: false
            },
            { data: "first_name" },
            { data: "last_name" },
            { data: "position" },
            { data: "office" },
            { data: "start_date" },
            { data: "salary", render: $.fn.dataTable.render.number( ',', '.', 0, '$' ) }
        ],
        order: [[1, 'asc']],
        keys: {
            columns: ':not(:first-child)',
            editor:  editor
        },
        select: {
            style:    'os',
            selector: 'td:first-child',
            blurable: true
        },
        buttons: [
            { extend: "create", editor: editor },
            { extend: "edit",   editor: editor },
            { extend: "remove", editor: editor }
        ]
    } );
} );

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

Editor submits and retrieves information by Ajax requests. The two blocks below show the data that Editor submits and receives, to and from the server. This is updated live as you interact with Editor so you can see what is submitted.

Submitted data:

The following shows the data that has been submitted to the server when a request is made to add, edit or delete data from the table.

// No data yet submitted

Server response:

The following shows the data that has been returned by the server in response to the data submitted on the left and is then acted upon.

// No data yet received