# Editor example Row ID source specification

By default Editor will use the `tr` element's `id` attribute to identify the row to the server (more specifically this will typically contain the database's primary key to uniquely identity the row). While this default method can be very useful, particularly if you use the `DT_RowId` JSON option to set the id, you may wish to read the row's id from the JSON data source, rather than the DOM. This is easily done using the `idSrc` option.

The example below, with `idSrc` is set to `id` is suitable for cases where the data source objects look like: `{ "id": 2, "first_name": "Fiona", ...}`. Like other data source options the `idSrc` option can be given in dotted object notation to read nested objects.

Name | Position | Office | Extn. | Start date | Salary
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Name | Position | Office | Extn. | Start date | Salary

- 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/jsonId.php", "table": "#example", "idSrc": "id", "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": "datetime" }, { "label": "Salary:", "name": "salary" } ] } ); $('#example').DataTable( { dom: "Bfrtip", ajax: "../php/jsonId.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: $.fn.dataTable.render.number( ',', '.', 0, '$' ) } ], select: true, buttons: [ { extend: "create", editor: editor }, { extend: "edit", editor: editor }, { extend: "remove", editor: editor } ] } ); } );`

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

- //code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.4.js
- https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.16/js/jquery.dataTables.min.js
- https://cdn.datatables.net/buttons/1.5.0/js/dataTables.buttons.min.js
- https://cdn.datatables.net/select/1.2.4/js/dataTables.select.min.js
- ../../js/dataTables.editor.min.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:

- https://cdn.datatables.net/1.10.16/css/jquery.dataTables.min.css
- https://cdn.datatables.net/buttons/1.5.0/css/buttons.dataTables.min.css
- https://cdn.datatables.net/select/1.2.4/css/select.dataTables.min.css
- ../../css/editor.dataTables.min.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.