DataTables.NetCore 0.1.0

DataTables.NetCore

This package provides a way to create self-contained DataTable classes for the famous datatables.net jQuery plugin which manage rendering, querying, filtering, sorting and other desireable tasks for you, written in .NET Standard for ASP.NET Core applications with focus on Entity Framework Core. The package is heavily inspired by Laravels (PHP) counterpart yajra/datatables and extensions of said package.

Usage

To create a DataTable, you'll need to create a new class implementing the IDataTable interface. There is an abstract base class called DataTable available for you to inherit from, providing default implementations for most methods. You only have to provide own implementations for a few methods:

public class PersonDataTable 
    : DataTable<Person, PersonViewModel>, IDataTable<Person, PersonViewModel>
{
    public override IList<DataTablesColumn<Person, PersonViewModel>> Columns()
    {
        return new List<DataTablesColumn<Person, PersonViewModel>>
        {
            // Your DataTable column definitions come here
        };
    }

    public override IQueryable<Person> Query()
    {
        return _dbContext.Persons;
    }

    public override Expression<Func<Person, PersonViewModel>> MappingFunction()
    {
        return p => AutoMapper.Mapper.Map<PersonViewModel>(p);
    }
}

As you can see, a DataTable always requires two models to work. One is used internally to access the underlying data while the other is used to render the results for the response. The dats is mapped using a configurable mapping function. We recommend using the great AutoMapper package by initializing the mapper in the Startup.cs and configuring the mapping function in the custom DataTable class as seen above.

// Startup.cs
Mapper.Initialize(m =>
{
    m.AddProfile<DefaultMappingProfile>();

    // Or, to pass some dependencies to the mapping profile (when using AutoMapper)
    m.AddProfile(new DefaultMappingProfile(services.BuildServiceProvider().GetService<IViewRenderService>()));
});

// PersonDataTable.cs
public override Expression<Func<Person, PersonViewModel>> MappingFunction()
{
    return p => AutoMapper.Mapper.Map<PersonViewModel>(p);
}

Of course you can also create a base class for all your DataTables with a generic implementation of the mapping provider function if you don't want to define the same function over and over again.

For a quick start, we recommend having a look at the PersonDataTable example in the Sample project. It is a basic example showcasing what is possible with this package and how easy it is to setup a new DataTable.

After defining a custom DataTable, you only have to register it in your service container, inject it to your controller and pass it to the view via the ViewBag. In the view, you can then render the HTML and the JavaScript for your table. Rendering the global defaults for your DataTables is optional:

// MyTable.cshtml
@{
    var DataTable = (MyCustomDataTable)ViewBag.MyCustomDataTable;
}

<div class="table-responsive">
  @Html.Raw(DataTable.RenderHtml())
</div>

@section Scripts {
    $(document).ready(function () {
        @Html.Raw(DataTable.RenderScript(Url.Action("TableData", "MyController")))
    });
}

// _Layout.cshtml (Optional)
<script type="text/javascript">
    @Html.Raw(DataTables.NetCore.Configuration.DataTablesConfigurationBuilder.BuildGlobalConfigurationScript())
</script>
@RenderSection("Scripts", required: false)