So after reading and looking over the plugin extensively. I have come up with some thoughts. I even compared this plugin to Ninja Tables which has features that I would love to use in Wpdatatables.
Cell rendered concatenation It would awesome to add HTML data and data template tags {cell#} before and after an rendered cell. e.g: <a href="{cell2}">{cell1}</a> Ninja tables has this feature already here. With WPDT, a user would have to add the HTML in the database first BEFORE the renders :( this is so so backwards.
Adding new custom columns. This would be awesome to add new columns to the rendered datatable. The cell data could be that of Shortcodes, meta fields, ACF fields, and cell template tags. [myshortcode id="{ID}"] where the {ID} is a cell label or number. Ninja tables does this well already here, here, here and here!
Better Frontend Editing After looking into way to editing data from the frontend, I thing a user should be-able to Edit on SQL, REST and POST-table generated WPdatatables. There should be options to edit Multiple rows at once! When a user makes an REST WPDT, they should have the option to edit back via SQL to db or a POST command using REST - including credential fields of course. And columns can be chosen of which to edit back to db.
Expand row to show secondary results. Maybe perhaps a + button that exposes desire data based on a column field result or maybe show the rest of the columns of a row in the expand row. Here is the example.
Better external JSON url support. So I am using WP REST Routes plugin which exposes my data from db to serialized form to a 2-dimension array JSON form. This work awesome for anyone wishing to use external WP REST data into WPDatatables! However, if would be great if WPDT can have this build in by making an EXT that will convert db data into a JSON 2-dimensional array. This can be a free plugin with a short that will expose data on page and then is ingested into WPDT. Ninja Tables does NOT support this feature.
Option to remove ALL styles from WPDT. I already have styling set, just need the plain-jane WPDT!
You are correct, and wpDataTables does not use cell tags. However, by looking at the link you provided, I can show you another way of doing this.
If you have e-mail addresses in a column, you simply need to mark that column as "E-mail", and it will be rendered as an e-mail. If, on the other hand you wish to add some custom text to it, that'd become a bit difficult if you're importing data. So, to edit it to use a hyperlink, the column would have to be "string", and values:
I can understand where using the cell tags would come useful here, but if you're pulling the data from the database, you can always use the CONCAT function for a column, and add the "<a href="mailto:" before, and "">E-mail</a>" after the column values.
We have cell tags in plan for some of our future releases, though.
As for creating tables from posts, you can do this with our query constructor. However, adding new columns would all have to be done through a query.
Expandable rows are one of the features of wpDataTables, and you can read about that in our documentation. The width can also be customized so the same feature is implemented on desktops as well as on mobiles and tablets. You can see how to do this if you take a look at the video in the documentation, around 1:00 mark.
What do you mean by styling? Color, font, font size, skins, or all of the above?
Thank you for all your suggestions. We're constantly working on improving our plugins, so I will forward your ticket to our development team, and your suggestions will be added to our list of ideas to be considered for some future updates of the plugin.
So after reading and looking over the plugin extensively. I have come up with some thoughts. I even compared this plugin to Ninja Tables which has features that I would love to use in Wpdatatables.
Cell rendered concatenation
It would awesome to add HTML data and data template tags {cell#} before and after an rendered cell. e.g: <a href="{cell2}">{cell1}</a> Ninja tables has this feature already here. With WPDT, a user would have to add the HTML in the database first BEFORE the renders :( this is so so backwards.
Adding new custom columns.
This would be awesome to add new columns to the rendered datatable. The cell data could be that of Shortcodes, meta fields, ACF fields, and cell template tags. [myshortcode id="{ID}"] where the {ID} is a cell label or number. Ninja tables does this well already here, here, here and here!
Better Frontend Editing
After looking into way to editing data from the frontend, I thing a user should be-able to Edit on SQL, REST and POST-table generated WPdatatables. There should be options to edit Multiple rows at once! When a user makes an REST WPDT, they should have the option to edit back via SQL to db or a POST command using REST - including credential fields of course. And columns can be chosen of which to edit back to db.
Expand row to show secondary results.
Maybe perhaps a + button that exposes desire data based on a column field result or maybe show the rest of the columns of a row in the expand row. Here is the example.
Better external JSON url support.
So I am using WP REST Routes plugin which exposes my data from db to serialized form to a 2-dimension array JSON form. This work awesome for anyone wishing to use external WP REST data into WPDatatables! However, if would be great if WPDT can have this build in by making an EXT that will convert db data into a JSON 2-dimensional array. This can be a free plugin with a short that will expose data on page and then is ingested into WPDT. Ninja Tables does NOT support this feature.
Option to remove ALL styles from WPDT.
I already have styling set, just need the plain-jane WPDT!
Hello again Sam.
You are correct, and wpDataTables does not use cell tags. However, by looking at the link you provided, I can show you another way of doing this.
If you have e-mail addresses in a column, you simply need to mark that column as "E-mail", and it will be rendered as an e-mail. If, on the other hand you wish to add some custom text to it, that'd become a bit difficult if you're importing data. So, to edit it to use a hyperlink, the column would have to be "string", and values:
Same goes for phones:
I can understand where using the cell tags would come useful here, but if you're pulling the data from the database, you can always use the CONCAT function for a column, and add the "<a href="mailto:" before, and "">E-mail</a>" after the column values.
We have cell tags in plan for some of our future releases, though.
As for creating tables from posts, you can do this with our query constructor. However, adding new columns would all have to be done through a query.
Expandable rows are one of the features of wpDataTables, and you can read about that in our documentation. The width can also be customized so the same feature is implemented on desktops as well as on mobiles and tablets. You can see how to do this if you take a look at the video in the documentation, around 1:00 mark.
What do you mean by styling? Color, font, font size, skins, or all of the above?
Thank you for all your suggestions. We're constantly working on improving our plugins, so I will forward your ticket to our development team, and your suggestions will be added to our list of ideas to be considered for some future updates of the plugin.
Best regards.
Kind Regards,
Aleksandar Vuković
[email protected]
Rate my support
wpDataTables: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Front-end and back-end demo | Docs
Amelia: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Amelia demo sites | Docs | Discord Community
You can try wpDataTables add-ons before purchasing on these sandbox sites:
Powerful Filters | Gravity Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Formidable Forms Integration for wpDataTables | Master-Detail Tables