Hi Alfred,

This is a bug our QA Team discovered.

We are still doing a lot of tests to isolate when it happens exactly and if there is a scenario where the bug does not happen, such as the types of tables, server-side processing versus non-server side tables - does it happen only via POST or GET method for Master-Details, etc.

For now, we can confirm this is certainly a bug from our end and our developers will do their best to build a fix as soon as possible.

This is the initial behaviour we found :
When the Master-Detail functionality is enabled and a template with placeholders is used, clicking on a row to view more details leaves the placeholders in the format %originheader% if some fields in that row are empty, instead of replacing them with empty values.

 We don't have an ETA on when the fix will be available, but please keep a lookout on our wpDataTables changeLog.

It will be stated there during updates which bug fixes have been implemented at each update.

If they create a fix in between updates, I will make sure to send it to you.


For now, we found one 'workaround' which you can try, to avoid this bug.
If the table is editable, you can edit any cell which is blank - and add an 'empty space/white space' in this cell.

This way, our Master-Details will 'consider' that as a 'value' rather than being completely blank and then, it will just render an empty value instead of showing the header placeholder, like %Header Name%.

- You can also try to see if it happens in the same way on your table, if you change between the "POST" and "GET" methods in the Master-Details configurations.

Let me know if you perhaps discover a new detail which we haven't found yet, and in the meantime, our devs will do their best to make a fix as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Hi Alfred,

Just to answer your questions first :
Question on your work-around solution - does the wpDataTable draw data from the MySQL database each time? If yes, I could make the work-around solution in one SQL at MySQL.

- It depends on what is your table type. If it is a Manual table or SQL Query based table, then yes, any time the table loads, it will do a Query on the database.

- But if you have another table type, like linked from file source such as Spreadsheets, PHP array, JSON etc, in that case, if you use Google Sheet, it calls cache from Google;
Or if you use an Excel/CSV - this calls from the source file, on the location where you store it.

Unless if you use our Cache feature - then a cache source is saved in the WP database, and it's being called from that, etc.

Basically, this part about where the source data of a table is being called from is not relevant for this Master Details empty value bug, it happens for all table types.


2, Additionally, I have URL link fields which are NULL and replacing that with spaces results in an error for valid contents. There is no 'Allow Empty Value' setting for URL link fields.

- Yes, if this column is URL link type, then the workaround is not valid.
This only works for String values, which allows an empty space in the cell.

3. And finally, I spoke with our QA Team, they confirmed this is a bug which is worked on by our developers.
Unfortunately, we still don't have a fix, but the devs are doing their best, it should be fixed in one of our upcoming updates, I just can't say an exact ETA.

You can follow our changeLog to see when the fix will be released.

4. Your question about whether this is POST or GET, I only use POST. I do not understand how the GET function works.

If you use a PopUp for Master Details, you don't have this option.
If you change to render the 'more details' on a Page/Post, then you get to change from POST to GET method.

It seems this bug happens to both methods, unfortunately.

This is all the information we have for now, but let me know if you have any additional questions.

Thank you.

Hi Alfred,

Understood. We will close this one, but we are going to cover all your other tickets as quickly as possible.
Thank you.