I'd like to set my tables so they don't display until they fully load. However it takes a second or two to load and I don't want my visitors to think the page is blank and leave. Is there a way of displaying a 'timer glass' or 'progress spinner' so the user knows the table is being processed?  

There is a progress spinner that shows when you enable Hide until loaded feature under the Display tab.

OK, I didn't recall seeing this. I'll take another look. Thanks

Take a look here: https://www.useloom.com/share/b293f1f2eca94927b7a566653ba32399

Excuse my ignorance. I'm not sure about the difference between server side or not. The table I'm planning will use a JSON link as it's source.

OK so it looks like the server side processing is limited to the SQL query based tables. Mt tables could get very large (several thousand rows) so maybe I need to think about switching from JSON to SQL now or in the near future. All the data will be held in fields in a custom post type. Do you have any videos showing how to create an SQL query for data held in a custom post type? If not do you know anyone I could pay to do it for me?  

OK so it looks like the server side processing is limited to the SQL query based tables. Mt tables could get very large (several thousand rows) so maybe I need to think about switching from JSON to SQL now or in the near future. All the data will be held in fields in a custom post type. Do you have any videos showing how to create an SQL query for data held in a custom post type? If not do you know anyone I could pay to do it for me?  

Just looking at your videos it looks like the option to query the Wordpress database is potential the best solution for me. However, when I select that option I don't get the query builder like I saw in the video. Instead I just get the normal select data source options. Am I doing something wrong.

Also I'm using Formidable Forms to populate the custom post. Is the Formidable Addon a Server Side table? 

Sorry, another question. Do either the Wordpress database query or Formidable query allow data in two or more fields to be combined into a single cell. I'm thinking about URL fields where I would normally join two fields with the || symbols?  

Just realised why I wasn't getting the query builder. wpDataTables had run an update and I needed to clear my browser cache.

here are the basics.

1: I’ve created a custom post type with approx 100 fields

2: I’m using Formidable to create the custom posts

3: I’ve had a code snippet written which turns the custom posts into JSON

4: I the use the JSON to present the post content as a table. 

All this works well. However I’m worried that as the number of posts increases 10 per day up to a total of many thousands the JSON process might break or slow down. 

Thus I’m interested in replicating the output via an SQL or Wordpress query. I don’t really have the skill to do this myself. 

Also I will need to combine some fields such as creating a hypertext link. However I believe I can do this during the post creation process using hidden Formidable fields.

The table would need to dynamically update as new posts are added. It needs to be able of handling thousands of rows. And I would like it to be as fast as possible. 

If you were doing this yourself how would you chose to do it? 

Thanks

Jon

OK. I've decide it's time to teach my self how to write an SQL query. I'll do some reading and have a go. I'll report back if I manage it.

Thanks

First query built and functioning, so all well so far.