0
var headers = [{ "mDataProp": "Agents" },{ "mDataProp": "Buyer" },{ "mDataProp": "Date" }];
$(document).ready(function () {   
    $('#data-table').dataTable({
        "bFilter": false,
        "bLengthChange": false,
        "iDisplayLength": 25,
        "bJQueryUI": true,
        "bServerSide": true,
        "bProcessing": true,
        "sPaginationType": "full_numbers",
        "aoColumns": headers,
        "sAjaxSource": '/report/TestPaging',         
    });
});

If I remove the aoColumns from my code the datatable is generated normally, but when I add aoColumns I get :

DataTables warning (table id = 'data-table'): Requested unknown parameter 'Agents' from the data source for row 0

HTML: 

<table id="data-table">
                <thead>
                    <tr>                          
                        <th>tmp</th>
                        <th>tmp</th>
                        <th>tmp</th>
                    </tr>
                </thead>

                <tbody>
                </tbody>
            </table>

How can I configure header names? I need them for my sorting. Do they have to be same as in "th" tags? Json response from my controller is ok because it renders fine when I remove aoColumns

I have string[][](var data) with 3 strings in each line and return it as 

  Json(new{
            sEcho = param.sEcho,
            iTotalRecords = visitRepository.Query.Count(),
            iTotalDisplayRecords = visitRepository.Query.Count(),
            aaData = data
        }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
Medo
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  • How does your objects / json look like? – davidkonrad Mar 02 '14 at 20:32
  • That shouldn't be the problem,table generates just fine without aoColumns line. – Medo Mar 02 '14 at 20:54
  • see my answer, I think, no - I am certain - it actually **is** a JSON issue :) Try rename one of the JSON antries in the fiddle, just one col, like the first "Agents", and you can reproduce the error. – davidkonrad Mar 02 '14 at 20:57

1 Answers1

2

The error you are experiencing is caused by a mismatch between the contents of the JSON and your aoColumns definition. The names you are targeting in aoColumns must be exactly the same as those in the JSON, and the length of each object in the JSON must be equal to the number of columns in the original HTML table. See the docs for clarification. In your case, the JSON should look like this :

[{
  "Agents": "tM4Ga0zX",
  "Buyer": "ZKwMEiIa",
  "Date": "K3lS2yn9"
},
...]

...And your JSON doesnt follow that scheme. If you are not using aoColumns, then the data is inserted by index, not by name - and that is why it is working for you without it.

You configure header names (titles) by the sTitle property : 

aoColumns: [
  { mDataProp: "Agents", sTitle : "Agents" }, 
  { mDataProp: "Buyer", sTitle : "Buyer" },
  { mDataProp: "Date", sTitle : "Date" }
]

see this demonstration based on your question -> http://jsfiddle.net/kLR7G/

davidkonrad
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  • So I can't just use string[][] and return it as JSON? – Medo Mar 02 '14 at 21:01
  • Here is a great answer to that (asp.net-mvc-3 and sAjaxSource) -> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7835960/load-asp-net-mvc-jsonresult-jquery-datatables. The important thing, as for avoiding the error, is to form `aaData` correct, try the suggestion in the accepted answer in the link, and leave `sEcho`, `iTotalRecords` etc out. – davidkonrad Mar 02 '14 at 21:14
  • problem is that my columns aren't pre-set, they can be many things depending on other conditions. I was hoping to just name headers so I can sort with dynamic linq,but formatting json will be a bit harder with this format – Medo Mar 02 '14 at 22:23
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    Well, why dont you generate the whole table serverside? I do exactly that myself when I dont know the result in front. I return the whole thing, ``, and then I call dataTables upon that. The disadvantage by this approach is that you are limited to more or less 5000 rows before the browsers are reporting timeouts, because dataTables is slow when initializing (jQuery functions is very slow). Sad to say, I know very little to asp.net, can only say why datatables are throwing the error and how to avoid it :(
    ` and the complete `
     – davidkonrad Mar 03 '14 at 00:30
  • I have a few thousand rows,so I have to use pagination to reduce load time. And to use pagination I can't generate whole table because that would take too long, this way I can get table in miliseconds. I'll see what I can do about generating json response to be in line with headers – Medo Mar 03 '14 at 13:13