# Editor example Basic initialisation

Editor is a Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) extensions for DataTables that provides the ability to easily add, edit and delete rows on a database that is displayed by a DataTable. Editor provides a clean API that allows form creation and manipulation to let the end user modify enter the required data, and a well defined server interaction protocol.

This simple example shows a table with seven fields, each of which can be edited as plain text. In other examples we will explore how to add date pickers, `select` elements and other controls to make form input intuitive for the system user, among many other aspects of the Editor API.

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- Javascript
- HTML
- CSS
- Ajax
- Server-side script

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

`var editor; // use a global for the submit and return data rendering in the examples $(document).ready(function() { editor = new $.fn.dataTable.Editor( { ajax: "../php/staff.php", table: "#example", fields: [ { label: "First name:", name: "first_name" }, { label: "Last name:", name: "last_name" }, { label: "Position:", name: "position" }, { label: "Office:", name: "office" }, { label: "Extension:", name: "extn" }, { label: "Start date:", name: "start_date", type: "date" }, { label: "Salary:", name: "salary" } ] } ); $('#example').DataTable( { dom: "Tfrtip", ajax: "../php/staff.php", columns: [ { data: null, render: function ( data, type, row ) { // Combine the first and last names into a single table field return data.first_name+' '+data.last_name; } }, { data: "position" }, { data: "office" }, { data: "extn" }, { data: "start_date" }, { data: "salary", render: $.fn.dataTable.render.number( ',', '.', 0, '$' ) } ], tableTools: { sRowSelect: "os", aButtons: [ { sExtends: "editor_create", editor: editor }, { sExtends: "editor_edit", editor: editor }, { sExtends: "editor_remove", editor: editor } ] } } ); } );`

In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:

- ../../../../media/js/jquery.js
- ../../../../media/js/jquery.dataTables.js
- ../../../TableTools/js/dataTables.tableTools.js
- ../../js/dataTables.editor.js

The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

``

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

- ../../../../media/css/jquery.dataTables.css
- ../../../TableTools/css/dataTables.tableTools.css
- ../../css/dataTables.editor.css

This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.