Return html content via Ajax Laravel DataTable (using yajrabox package)

Question

I am using this package https://datatables.yajrabox.com/starter to implement ajax datatable in my laravel application.

In my controller class, I have the following method to return the data for the datatables like this:

function ajaxList()
{
    // Load users with users
    $users = User::with('group', 'organisation');

    // Finished
    return Datatables::eloquent($users)
        ->editColumn('is_admin', function(User $user) {
            return '<i class="fa fa-'. ($user->is_admin ? 'check' : 'times') .'" aria-hidden="true"></i>';
        })
        ->make(true);
}

On the view, I render the table and initiate the ajax request like this:

<table id="users-table" class="table table-hover table-bordered" cellspacing="0" width="100%">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>User ID</th>
            <th>Is Admin?</th>
            <th>First Name</th>
            <th>Last Name</th>
            <th>Created At</th>
            <th>Updated At</th>
            <th>Action</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
</table>
<script>
    $('#users-table').DataTable({
        processing: true,
        serverSide: true,
        ajax: '/users/ajaxList',
        columns: [
            {data: 'id', searchable: false },
            {data: 'is_admin', searchable: false },
            {data: 'first_name'},
            {data: 'last_name'},
            {data: 'created_at', searchable: false },
            {data: 'updated_at', searchable: false },
            {data: 'action', searchable: false, orderable: false }
        ]
    });
</script>

When this renders, the "is_admin" column appears to show the raw html rather than rendering the font awesome icon like this:

Any ideas how to fix this? I tried returning the column data like this also:

return '{!! <i class="fa fa-'. ($user->is_admin ? 'check' : 'times') .'" aria-hidden="true"></i> !!}';

This didn't help either.

Answer 1

Okay, the issue appears to be a undocumented breaking change in the new 7.x version of the library: https://github.com/yajra/laravel-datatables/issues/949

In my case, I've fixed it like this:

function ajaxList()
{
    // Load users with users
    $users = User::with('group', 'organisation');

    // Finished
    return Datatables::eloquent($users)
        ->editColumn('is_admin', function(User $user) {
            return '<i class="fa fa-'. ($user->is_admin ? 'check' : 'times') .'" aria-hidden="true"></i>';
        })
        ->rawColumns(['is_admin'])
        ->make(true);
}

Answer 2

Just put your column in below method

escapeColumns()

Example

return $dataTable->addIndexColumn()
            ->editColumn('active', function(SettingDropdownValue $model) {
                if($model->active === true){
                return '<span class="text-center"><img src="'.\URL::asset('/images/active.png').'" border="0" width="15" /></span>';
                } else {
                return '<img src="'.\URL::asset('/images/inactive.png').'" border="0" width="15" />';
                }
            })
            ->escapeColumns('active')
            ->addColumn('action', 'setting_dropdown_values.datatables_actions');

Answer 3

I'm working on a project right now and face the same problem and fix it using ->escapeColumns([])

$users = DB::table('users')->select('*');
    return datatables()->of($users)
        ->removeColumn('password')
        ->editColumn('created_at', function ($user) {
            return date('d-m-Y', strtotime($user->created_at));
        })
        ->editColumn('role_id', function ($user) {
            return Role::findOrFail( $user->role_id)->name;
        })
        ->editColumn('is_active', function ($user) {
            return ($user->is_active == 1) ? 'active' : 'suspended';
        })
        ->addColumn('actions', function ($user) {
            return '<a href="#edit-'.$user->id.'" class="btn btn-xs btn-primary"><i class="glyphicon glyphicon-edit"></i> Edit</a>';
        })
        ->escapeColumns([])
        ->make(true);

Source: yajra/laravel-datatables

Answer 4

Add another column labeled rawcolumn with the name you assign to the individual buttons as indicated below to fix the issue:

Route::get('user-data', function() {
    $model = App\User::query();

    return DataTables::eloquent($model)
                ->addColumn('link', '<a href="#">Html Column</a>')
                ->addColumn('action', 'path.to.view')
                ->rawColumns(['link', 'action'])
                ->toJson();
});

This rawColumns(['link', 'action']) is what does the magic. Your last statement might end with ->make(true), the rawColumn is what does the magic.