jQuery DataTables table width problem

Question

I have a problem controlling the width of a table using the jQuery DataTables plugin. The table is supposed to be 100% of the container width, but ends up being an arbitrary width, rather less than the container width.

Suggestions appreciated

The table declaration looks like this

<table id="querytableDatasets" class="display" cellspacing="0"
cellpadding="3"     width="100%">

And the javascript

jQuery('#tab-datasets').load('/cgi-bin/qryDatasets', '', function (){  
    jQuery('#querytableDatasets').dataTable({  
        "bPaginate": false,  
        "bInfo": false,  
        "bFilter": false  
    });  
});  `

Inspecting the HTML in Firebug, you see this (note the added style="width: 0px;")

<table id="querytableDatasets" class="display" cellspacing="0" 
cellpadding="3" width="100%" style="width: 0px;">

Looking in Firebug at the styles, the table.display style has been overridden. Can't see where this is coming from

element.style {  
  width:0;}    

-- dataTables.css (line 84
table.display { 
  margin:0 auto;  
  width:100%;  
}

Answer 1

Well, I'm not familiar with that plugin, but could you reset the style after adding the datatable? Something like

$("#querydatatablesets").css("width","100%")

after the .dataTable call?

Answer 2

Are you doing this in the ready event? $(document).ready(function() { ... });

The sizing is most likely going to be dependent on the document being fully loaded.

Answer 3

You'll want to tweak two variables when you initialize dataTables: bAutoWidth and aoColumns.sWidth

Assuming you have 4 columns with widths of 50px, 100, 120px and 30px you would do:

jQuery('#querytableDatasets').dataTable({  
        "bPaginate": false,  
        "bInfo": false,  
        "bFilter": false,
        "bAutoWidth": false,
        "aoColumns" : [
            { sWidth: '50px' },
            { sWidth: '100px' },
            { sWidth: '120px' },
            { sWidth: '30px' }
        ]  
    });

More information on the initialization of dataTables can be found at http://datatables.net/usage

Watch for interaction between this setting of widhts and the CSS you are applying. You might comment your existing CSS before trying this to see how close you get.

Answer 4

jQuery('#querytableDatasets').dataTable({
"bAutoWidth": false

});

Answer 5

Hi There. Just to say I've had exactly the same problem as you, although I was just apply JQuery to a normal table without any Ajax. For some reason Firefox doesn't expand the table out after revealing it. I fixed the problem by putting the table inside a DIV, and applying the effects to the DIV instead.