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This site contains the legacy documentation for DataTables v1.9 and earlier for reference only.
DataTables 1.9 was End Of Life in 2014. Do not use it for new work.
The current release of DataTables can always be found on DataTables.net.

Server-side processing | PHP with MySQL

Important - Do not use this script for new development - it will not work! It is no longer maintained and does not support DataTables 1.10+'s server-side processing mode. This page is retained only for legacy users and it will likely be removed in the near future.

This script serves as the basis for the testing and development that happens with DataTables, so it is always right up to date, and will always implement all of the features that are supported in DataTables with server-side processing (with the exception of regex filtering - for database access speed reasons).

To use the code on your own server, simply change the $aColumns array to list the columns you wish to include from your database, set $sIndexColumn to a column which is indexed (for speed), $sTable to the table name, and finally fill in your database connection parameters to $gaSql. Please note that this script uses json_encode which requires PHP 5.2 or newer. For a version of this script which is compatible with older versions please see the PHP 4 compatible version.

Feature set

Code

<?php
	/*
	 * Script:    DataTables server-side script for PHP and MySQL
	 * Copyright: 2010 - Allan Jardine, 2012 - Chris Wright
	 * License:   GPL v2 or BSD (3-point)
	 */
	
	/* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
	 * Easy set variables
	 */
	
	/* Array of database columns which should be read and sent back to DataTables. Use a space where
	 * you want to insert a non-database field (for example a counter or static image)
	 */
	$aColumns = array( 'engine', 'browser', 'platform', 'version', 'grade' );
	
	/* Indexed column (used for fast and accurate table cardinality) */
	$sIndexColumn = "id";
	
	/* DB table to use */
	$sTable = "ajax";
	
	/* Database connection information */
	$gaSql['user']       = "";
	$gaSql['password']   = "";
	$gaSql['db']         = "";
	$gaSql['server']     = "localhost";
	
	
	/* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
	 * If you just want to use the basic configuration for DataTables with PHP server-side, there is
	 * no need to edit below this line
	 */
	
	/* 
	 * Local functions
	 */
	function fatal_error ( $sErrorMessage = '' )
	{
		header( $_SERVER['SERVER_PROTOCOL'] .' 500 Internal Server Error' );
		die( $sErrorMessage );
	}

	
	/* 
	 * MySQL connection
	 */
	if ( ! $gaSql['link'] = mysql_pconnect( $gaSql['server'], $gaSql['user'], $gaSql['password']  ) )
	{
		fatal_error( 'Could not open connection to server' );
	}

	if ( ! mysql_select_db( $gaSql['db'], $gaSql['link'] ) )
	{
		fatal_error( 'Could not select database ' );
	}
	
	
	/* 
	 * Paging
	 */
	$sLimit = "";
	if ( isset( $_GET['iDisplayStart'] ) && $_GET['iDisplayLength'] != '-1' )
	{
		$sLimit = "LIMIT ".intval( $_GET['iDisplayStart'] ).", ".
			intval( $_GET['iDisplayLength'] );
	}
	
	
	/*
	 * Ordering
	 */
	$sOrder = "";
	if ( isset( $_GET['iSortCol_0'] ) )
	{
		$sOrder = "ORDER BY  ";
		for ( $i=0 ; $i<intval( $_GET['iSortingCols'] ) ; $i++ )
		{
			if ( $_GET[ 'bSortable_'.intval($_GET['iSortCol_'.$i]) ] == "true" )
			{
				$sOrder .= $aColumns[ intval( $_GET['iSortCol_'.$i] ) ]."
				 	".($_GET['sSortDir_'.$i]==='asc' ? 'asc' : 'desc') .", ";
			}
		}
		
		$sOrder = substr_replace( $sOrder, "", -2 );
		if ( $sOrder == "ORDER BY" )
		{
			$sOrder = "";
		}
	}
	
	
	/* 
	 * Filtering
	 * NOTE this does not match the built-in DataTables filtering which does it
	 * word by word on any field. It's possible to do here, but concerned about efficiency
	 * on very large tables, and MySQL's regex functionality is very limited
	 */
	$sWhere = "";
	if ( isset($_GET['sSearch']) && $_GET['sSearch'] != "" )
	{
		$sWhere = "WHERE (";
		for ( $i=0 ; $i<count($aColumns) ; $i++ )
		{
			if ( isset($_GET['bSearchable_'.$i]) && $_GET['bSearchable_'.$i] == "true" )
			{
				$sWhere .= $aColumns[$i]." LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string( $_GET['sSearch'] )."%' OR ";
			}
		}
		$sWhere = substr_replace( $sWhere, "", -3 );
		$sWhere .= ')';
	}
	
	/* Individual column filtering */
	for ( $i=0 ; $i<count($aColumns) ; $i++ )
	{
		if ( isset($_GET['bSearchable_'.$i]) && $_GET['bSearchable_'.$i] == "true" && $_GET['sSearch_'.$i] != '' )
		{
			if ( $sWhere == "" )
			{
				$sWhere = "WHERE ";
			}
			else
			{
				$sWhere .= " AND ";
			}
			$sWhere .= $aColumns[$i]." LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['sSearch_'.$i])."%' ";
		}
	}
	
	
	/*
	 * SQL queries
	 * Get data to display
	 */
	$sQuery = "
		SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS ".str_replace(" , ", " ", implode(", ", $aColumns))."
		FROM   $sTable
		$sWhere
		$sOrder
		$sLimit
	";
	$rResult = mysql_query( $sQuery, $gaSql['link'] ) or fatal_error( 'MySQL Error: ' . mysql_errno() );
	
	/* Data set length after filtering */
	$sQuery = "
		SELECT FOUND_ROWS()
	";
	$rResultFilterTotal = mysql_query( $sQuery, $gaSql['link'] ) or fatal_error( 'MySQL Error: ' . mysql_errno() );
	$aResultFilterTotal = mysql_fetch_array($rResultFilterTotal);
	$iFilteredTotal = $aResultFilterTotal[0];
	
	/* Total data set length */
	$sQuery = "
		SELECT COUNT(".$sIndexColumn.")
		FROM   $sTable
	";
	$rResultTotal = mysql_query( $sQuery, $gaSql['link'] ) or fatal_error( 'MySQL Error: ' . mysql_errno() );
	$aResultTotal = mysql_fetch_array($rResultTotal);
	$iTotal = $aResultTotal[0];
	
	
	/*
	 * Output
	 */
	$output = array(
		"sEcho" => intval($_GET['sEcho']),
		"iTotalRecords" => $iTotal,
		"iTotalDisplayRecords" => $iFilteredTotal,
		"aaData" => array()
	);
	
	while ( $aRow = mysql_fetch_array( $rResult ) )
	{
		$row = array();
		for ( $i=0 ; $i<count($aColumns) ; $i++ )
		{
			if ( $aColumns[$i] == "version" )
			{
				/* Special output formatting for 'version' column */
				$row[] = ($aRow[ $aColumns[$i] ]=="0") ? '-' : $aRow[ $aColumns[$i] ];
			}
			else if ( $aColumns[$i] != ' ' )
			{
				/* General output */
				$row[] = $aRow[ $aColumns[$i] ];
			}
		}
		$output['aaData'][] = $row;
	}
	
	echo json_encode( $output );
?>