This example shows how Responsive can be used with complex headers (i.e. headers that contain colspan attributes for one or more cells).
As Responsive will removed columns one at a time the cell with the colspan attribute can end up forcing the width of a column, disrupting the flow.
Rather than removing all columns under the colspan cell, we want to reduce the amount of text that is visible in that cell. This example shows how
that can be achieved thought a little bit of jQuery and CSS.
We use jQuery to find the header cells which have a colspan attribute and wrap their contents in a span
tag. That span is then set to position: absolute; using text-overflow: ellipsis. The result is
that the text of the colspan cell will reduce automatically to fit the available area based on the contents of the column cells below it.
This functionality is not currently built into Responsive. It might be included in future.
| Name | HR Information | This is a really long column title! | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Salary | Office | Extn. | ||
| Name | Position | Salary | Office | Extn. | |
| Airi Satou | Accountant | $162,700 | Tokyo | 5407 | a.satou@datatables.net |
| Angelica Ramos | Chief Executive Officer (CEO) | $1,200,000 | London | 5797 | a.ramos@datatables.net |
| Ashton Cox | Junior Technical Author | $86,000 | San Francisco | 1562 | a.cox@datatables.net |
| Bradley Greer | Software Engineer | $132,000 | London | 2558 | b.greer@datatables.net |
| Brenden Wagner | Software Engineer | $206,850 | San Francisco | 1314 | b.wagner@datatables.net |
| Brielle Williamson | Integration Specialist | $372,000 | New York | 4804 | b.williamson@datatables.net |
| Bruno Nash | Software Engineer | $163,500 | London | 6222 | b.nash@datatables.net |
| Caesar Vance | Pre-Sales Support | $106,450 | New York | 8330 | c.vance@datatables.net |
| Cara Stevens | Sales Assistant | $145,600 | New York | 3990 | c.stevens@datatables.net |
| Cedric Kelly | Senior Javascript Developer | $433,060 | Edinburgh | 6224 | c.kelly@datatables.net |
| Charde Marshall | Regional Director | $470,600 | San Francisco | 6741 | c.marshall@datatables.net |
| Colleen Hurst | Javascript Developer | $205,500 | San Francisco | 2360 | c.hurst@datatables.net |
| Dai Rios | Personnel Lead | $217,500 | Edinburgh | 2290 | d.rios@datatables.net |
| Donna Snider | Customer Support | $112,000 | New York | 4226 | d.snider@datatables.net |
| Doris Wilder | Sales Assistant | $85,600 | Sidney | 3023 | d.wilder@datatables.net |
| Finn Camacho | Support Engineer | $87,500 | San Francisco | 2927 | f.camacho@datatables.net |
| Fiona Green | Chief Operating Officer (COO) | $850,000 | San Francisco | 2947 | f.green@datatables.net |
| Garrett Winters | Accountant | $170,750 | Tokyo | 8422 | g.winters@datatables.net |
| Gavin Cortez | Team Leader | $235,500 | San Francisco | 2860 | g.cortez@datatables.net |
| Gavin Joyce | Developer | $92,575 | Edinburgh | 8822 | g.joyce@datatables.net |
| Gloria Little | Systems Administrator | $237,500 | New York | 1721 | g.little@datatables.net |
| Haley Kennedy | Senior Marketing Designer | $313,500 | London | 3597 | h.kennedy@datatables.net |
| Hermione Butler | Regional Director | $356,250 | London | 1016 | h.butler@datatables.net |
| Herrod Chandler | Sales Assistant | $137,500 | San Francisco | 9608 | h.chandler@datatables.net |
| Hope Fuentes | Secretary | $109,850 | San Francisco | 6318 | h.fuentes@datatables.net |
| Howard Hatfield | Office Manager | $164,500 | San Francisco | 7031 | h.hatfield@datatables.net |
| Jackson Bradshaw | Director | $645,750 | New York | 1042 | j.bradshaw@datatables.net |
| Jena Gaines | Office Manager | $90,560 | London | 3814 | j.gaines@datatables.net |
| Jenette Caldwell | Development Lead | $345,000 | New York | 1937 | j.caldwell@datatables.net |
| Jennifer Acosta | Junior Javascript Developer | $75,650 | Edinburgh | 3431 | j.acosta@datatables.net |
| Jennifer Chang | Regional Director | $357,650 | Singapore | 9239 | j.chang@datatables.net |
| Jonas Alexander | Developer | $86,500 | San Francisco | 8196 | j.alexander@datatables.net |
| Lael Greer | Systems Administrator | $103,500 | London | 6733 | l.greer@datatables.net |
| Martena Mccray | Post-Sales support | $324,050 | Edinburgh | 8240 | m.mccray@datatables.net |
| Michael Bruce | Javascript Developer | $183,000 | Singapore | 5384 | m.bruce@datatables.net |
| Michael Silva | Marketing Designer | $198,500 | London | 1581 | m.silva@datatables.net |
| Michelle House | Integration Specialist | $95,400 | Sidney | 2769 | m.house@datatables.net |
| Olivia Liang | Support Engineer | $234,500 | Singapore | 2120 | o.liang@datatables.net |
| Paul Byrd | Chief Financial Officer (CFO) | $725,000 | New York | 3059 | p.byrd@datatables.net |
| Prescott Bartlett | Technical Author | $145,000 | London | 3606 | p.bartlett@datatables.net |
| Quinn Flynn | Support Lead | $342,000 | Edinburgh | 9497 | q.flynn@datatables.net |
| Rhona Davidson | Integration Specialist | $327,900 | Tokyo | 6200 | r.davidson@datatables.net |
| Sakura Yamamoto | Support Engineer | $139,575 | Tokyo | 9383 | s.yamamoto@datatables.net |
| Serge Baldwin | Data Coordinator | $138,575 | Singapore | 8352 | s.baldwin@datatables.net |
| Shad Decker | Regional Director | $183,000 | Edinburgh | 6373 | s.decker@datatables.net |
| Shou Itou | Regional Marketing | $163,000 | Tokyo | 8899 | s.itou@datatables.net |
| Sonya Frost | Software Engineer | $103,600 | Edinburgh | 1667 | s.frost@datatables.net |
| Suki Burks | Developer | $114,500 | London | 6832 | s.burks@datatables.net |
| Tatyana Fitzpatrick | Regional Director | $385,750 | London | 1965 | t.fitzpatrick@datatables.net |
| Thor Walton | Developer | $98,540 | New York | 8327 | t.walton@datatables.net |
| Tiger Nixon | System Architect | $320,800 | Edinburgh | 5421 | t.nixon@datatables.net |
| Timothy Mooney | Office Manager | $136,200 | London | 7580 | t.mooney@datatables.net |
| Unity Butler | Marketing Designer | $85,675 | San Francisco | 5384 | u.butler@datatables.net |
| Vivian Harrell | Financial Controller | $452,500 | San Francisco | 9422 | v.harrell@datatables.net |
| Yuri Berry | Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) | $675,000 | New York | 6154 | y.berry@datatables.net |
| Zenaida Frank | Software Engineer | $125,250 | New York | 7439 | z.frank@datatables.net |
| Zorita Serrano | Software Engineer | $115,000 | San Francisco | 4389 | z.serrano@datatables.net |
The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:
$(document).ready(function() {
// jQuery update a column title from the demo table to contain a long description
// You would not need to do this in your own code.
$('#example thead tr:eq(0) th:eq(2)').html("This is a really long column title!");
// Wrap the colspan'ing header cells with a span so they can be positioned
// absolutely - filling the available space, and no more.
$('#example thead th[colspan]').wrapInner( '<span/>' ).append( ' ' );
// Standard initialisation
$('#example').DataTable( {
responsive: true,
paging: false
} );
} );
In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:
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:
th {
position: relative;
min-height: 41px;
}
th span {
display: block;
position: absolute;
left: 0;
right: 0;
white-space: nowrap;
text-overflow: ellipsis;
overflow: hidden;
}
The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:
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.