Hi Jeremy,
Thank you for your interest in wpdatatables.

WordPress and its plugins store the data in a specific MySQL database, usually referred to as “WPDB”. The structure familiar to users, is based on different post types, post custom (meta) fields, and taxonomies; all stored in a collection of MySQL tables. Querying these elements, however might be somewhat of a headache to someone not that familiar with relative database structures and building SQL queries.

wpDataTables has a built-in WPDB query constructor to help those users. It has a graphical user interface which allows a user to pick the post types, custom/meta fields, and taxonomies, and generates a query and a preview. You can modify the query as needed, and create a wpDataTable based on the modified query.

You can read more in our docs about Create a MySQL-query-based table by generating a query to WordPress database.

The WPDB we studied in the previous link is a custom example of a MySQL database. MySQL based tables are one of the most popular table types in wpDataTables, which is why a specific “Generate a query to MySQL database” option was created; a more generic MySQL query generator also exists in wpDataTables.

You can read more in our docs about Create a MySQL-query-based table by querying a database.

You can try our sandbox site: Front-end & Back-end - you can find a fully functional version there to try out all plugin premium features.

All useful information about all wpdatatables features that are explained (video and text) you can find in our DOCUMENTATION.

Best regards.