I am experiencing a very annoying problem. I created a MYSQL query table from scratch and then I duplicated it and made edits to the duplicate. On one of the columns when editing, the plugin failed to update and the updating circle just kept going round with nothing happening. So I went back to the list of tables but when I tried to open the duplicated table again to edit, all the data is gone and it shows as if I need to create the table afresh. I checked the list again and the table is there but cannot be edited.

I deleted it, reset the auto increment value in the MySQL database and tried again but the same thing happened. I do not understand how the table is listed but but has no data in it and cannot be edited.

By the way, this problem happens when I am editing the last column, regardless of the order of editing. Has happened 3 times in a row.

Thank you for the response.

I am working on a local development server and have not put the system online as it is meant for an in-house intranet which shall never be accessible from the net. However, I solved the problem by deleting all the entries for the duplicated table in the "wpdatatables_columns" table for the plugin, which forced the entries to be recreated and they worked correctly after that.

My investigations revealed that this problem seems to occur when I duplicate an existing MySQL table. Creating from scratch seems to work fine. When I then edit the columns of the duplicated table to set different parameters, I noticed that the plugin hangs when I am editing the filtering section on the final column (ie if I edit 4 columns, the 4th and last one to be edited causes the plugin to hang, even if I change the sequence of editing the columns). I even looked at the data in the columns of "wpdatatables_columns" but was not very clear about where the problem was. All I know for sure is that deleting the entries in "wpdatatables_columns" for the duplicated table always works.

I suggest you investigate under what circumstances a table can be seen on the list but is not editable unless you manually delete the entries in "wpdatatables_columns". It seems when they are copied into new entries, something happens which causes this problem and the problem appears to be connected to the settings related to filtering on the column.

I shall try to experiment further when I have time and maybe find out the steps to reproduce the bug exactly. I did so many things I cannot remember the precise steps.

The problem persists! Steps to reproduce:

1. Create the following table in the plugin (Version 2.1) after creating the MySQL database table using the attached SQL file (use "USD" for default value for VAR1):

--------------------------------------------------

SELECT
DATE_FORMAT(`date`, '%Y') AS `YEAR`, SUM(`business`) AS `AMOUNT`
FROM `business`
WHERE `currency` = '%VAR1%'
GROUP BY DATE_FORMAT(`date`, '%Y')

2. Follow main settings as in attached photos.

3. Edit settings on YEAR column first, as per attached photos.

4. Edit settings on AMOUNT column next, as per attached photos except the "Sorting" section which by default has sorting selected. Save changes.

5. Open AMOUNT column settings again and go to "Sorting". Change setting to disable sorting and save.

6. Plugin will just hang and do nothing.

7. Refresh page and all your settings are gone!

8. Go into "wpdatatables_columns" table and the "advanced_settings" column for "AMOUNT" row has the following data in it:

{"decimalPlaces":-1,"possibleValuesAddEmpty":0,"calculateAvg":1,"calculateMax":0,"calculateMin":0,"sorting":0,"exactFiltering":0,"filterLabel":"","checkboxesInModal":0,"editingDefaultValue":"","dateInputFormat":"","linkTargetAttribute":"_self","linkButtonAttribute":0,"linkButtonLabel":"","linkButtonClass":"","possibleValuesType":"read"}

9. Find in the contents shown above the part where it says

"sorting":0,

Change this back to

"sorting":1,

and everything begins working again, but with sorting enabled (which I do not want). I have tried this 5 times with same results.