title: Server Side processing with Datatables v1.10.0
body: <p>Hi I'm having some issues getting the server side processing functionality of data tables to work with SQL Server.</p>
  
  <p>I've got a test page that should display two columns from a database table(for now).</p>
  
  <p>HTML:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"&gt;
  
  &lt;html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"&gt;
  &lt;head&gt;
      &lt;title&gt;&lt;/title&gt;
      &lt;link rel="Stylesheet" type="text/css" href="DataTables-1.10.0/media/css/jquery.dataTables.min.css" /&gt;
  &lt;/head&gt;
  &lt;body&gt;
  &lt;table id="example" class="display" cellspacing="0" width="100%"&gt;
  &lt;thead&gt;
      &lt;tr&gt;
              &lt;th align="center"&gt;PK&lt;/th&gt;
              &lt;th align="center"&gt;Network&lt;/th&gt;               
      &lt;/tr&gt;
  &lt;/thead&gt;
  
  &lt;tfoot&gt;
      &lt;tr&gt;
              &lt;th align="center"&gt;PK&lt;/th&gt;
              &lt;th align="center"&gt;Network&lt;/th&gt;               
      &lt;/tr&gt;
  &lt;/tfoot&gt;
  &lt;/table&gt;
  &lt;/body&gt;
  &lt;script type="text/javascript" src="DataTables-1.10.0/media/js/jquery.js"&gt;&lt;/script&gt;
  &lt;script type="text/javascript" src="DataTables-1.10.0/media/js/jquery.dataTables.min.js"&gt;
  
  &lt;/script&gt;
  &lt;script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"&gt;
  $(document).ready(function () {
      $('#example').dataTable({
          "processing": true,
          "bServerSide": true,
          "ajax": "PHP/testGetArchive.php"
      });
  });
  &lt;/script&gt;
  
  &lt;/html&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'm using the example code found on the website Here for the server side functions:</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://next.datatables.net/examples/server_side/simple.html">http://next.datatables.net/examples/server_side/simple.html</a></p>
  
  <p>This is my version of the php page being called:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php
  
  /*
   * DataTables example server-side processing script.
   *
   * Please note that this script is intentionally extremely simply to show how
   * server-side processing can be implemented, and probably shouldn't be used as
   * the basis for a large complex system. It is suitable for simple use cases as
   * for learning.
   *
   * See http://datatables.net/usage/server-side for full details on the server-
   * side processing requirements of DataTables.
   *
   * @license MIT - http://datatables.net/license_mit
   */
  
  /* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
   * Easy set variables
   */
  
  // DB table to use
  $table = 'tblViews';
  
  // Table's primary key
  $primaryKey = 'PK';
  
  // Array of database columns which should be read and sent back to DataTables.
  // The `db` parameter represents the column name in the database, while the `dt`
  // parameter represents the DataTables column identifier. In this case simple
  // indexes
  $columns = array(
      array( 'db' =&gt; 'PK', 'dt' =&gt; 0 ),
      array( 'db' =&gt; 'Network',  'dt' =&gt; 1 )
  );
  
  // SQL server connection information
  $sql_details = array(
      'user' =&gt; '******',
      'pass' =&gt; '******',
      'db'   =&gt; '******db',
      'host' =&gt; '******\SQLEXPRESS'
  );
  
  
  /* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
   * If you just want to use the basic configuration for DataTables with PHP
   * server-side, there is no need to edit below this line.
   */
  
  require( 'ssp.class.php' );
  
  echo json_encode(
      SSP::simple( $_GET, $sql_details, $table, $primaryKey, $columns )
  );
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>This then calls the second example PHP found here:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://github.com/DataTables/DataTables/blob/master/examples/server_side/scripts/ssp.class.php">https://github.com/DataTables/DataTables/blob/master/examples/server_side/scripts/ssp.class.php</a></p>
  
  <p>Here is my Copy of it. The only Modification I performed was to remove the block of code that is required for the examples.</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?php
  
  /*
   * Helper functions for building a DataTables server-side processing SQL query
   *
   * The static functions in this class are just helper functions to help build
   * the SQL used in the DataTables demo server-side processing scripts. These
   * functions obviously do not represent all that can be done with server-side
   * processing, they are intentionally simple to show how it works. More complex
   * server-side processing operations will likely require a custom script.
   *
   * See http://datatables.net/usage/server-side for full details on the server-
   * side processing requirements of DataTables.
   *
   * @license MIT - http://datatables.net/license_mit
   */
  
  class SSP {
      /**
       * Create the data output array for the DataTables rows
       *
       *  @param  array $columns Column information array
       *  @param  array $data    Data from the SQL get
       *  @return array          Formatted data in a row based format
       */
      static function data_output ( $columns, $data )
      {
          $out = array();
  
          for ( $i=0, $ien=count($data) ; $i&lt;$ien ; $i++ ) {
              $row = array();
  
              for ( $j=0, $jen=count($columns) ; $j&lt;$jen ; $j++ ) {
                  $column = $columns[$j];
  
                  // Is there a formatter?
                  if ( isset( $column['formatter'] ) ) {
                      $row[ $column['dt'] ] = $column['formatter']( $data[$i][ $column['db'] ], $data[$i] );
                  }
                  else {
                      $row[ $column['dt'] ] = $data[$i][ $columns[$j]['db'] ];
                  }
              }
  
              $out[] = $row;
          }
  
          return $out;
      }
  
  
      /**
       * Paging
       *
       * Construct the LIMIT clause for server-side processing SQL query
       *
       *  @param  array $request Data sent to server by DataTables
       *  @param  array $columns Column information array
       *  @return string SQL limit clause
       */
      static function limit ( $request, $columns )
      {
          $limit = '';
  
          if ( isset($request['start']) &amp;&amp; $request['length'] != -1 ) {
              $limit = "LIMIT ".intval($request['start']).", ".intval($request['length']);
          }
  
          return $limit;
      }
  
  
      /**
       * Ordering
       *
       * Construct the ORDER BY clause for server-side processing SQL query
       *
       *  @param  array $request Data sent to server by DataTables
       *  @param  array $columns Column information array
       *  @return string SQL order by clause
       */
      static function order ( $request, $columns )
      {
          $order = '';
  
          if ( isset($request['order']) &amp;&amp; count($request['order']) ) {
              $orderBy = array();
              $dtColumns = SSP::pluck( $columns, 'dt' );
  
              for ( $i=0, $ien=count($request['order']) ; $i&lt;$ien ; $i++ ) {
                  // Convert the column index into the column data property
                  $columnIdx = intval($request['order'][$i]['column']);
                  $requestColumn = $request['columns'][$columnIdx];
  
                  $columnIdx = array_search( $requestColumn['data'], $dtColumns );
                  $column = $columns[ $columnIdx ];
  
                  if ( $requestColumn['orderable'] == 'true' ) {
                      $dir = $request['order'][$i]['dir'] === 'asc' ?
                          'ASC' :
                          'DESC';
  
                      $orderBy[] = '`'.$column['db'].'` '.$dir;
                  }
              }
  
              $order = 'ORDER BY '.implode(', ', $orderBy);
          }
  
          return $order;
      }
  
  
      /**
       * Searching / Filtering
       *
       * Construct the WHERE clause for server-side processing SQL query.
       *
       * NOTE this does not match the built-in DataTables filtering which does it
       * word by word on any field. It's possible to do here performance on large
       * databases would be very poor
       *
       *  @param  array $request Data sent to server by DataTables
       *  @param  array $columns Column information array
       *  @param  array $bindings Array of values for PDO bindings, used in the
       *    sql_exec() function
       *  @return string SQL where clause
       */
      static function filter ( $request, $columns, &amp;$bindings )
      {
          $globalSearch = array();
          $columnSearch = array();
          $dtColumns = SSP::pluck( $columns, 'dt' );
  
          if ( isset($request['search']) &amp;&amp; $request['search']['value'] != '' ) {
              $str = $request['search']['value'];
  
              for ( $i=0, $ien=count($request['columns']) ; $i&lt;$ien ; $i++ ) {
                  $requestColumn = $request['columns'][$i];
                  $columnIdx = array_search( $requestColumn['data'], $dtColumns );
                  $column = $columns[ $columnIdx ];
  
                  if ( $requestColumn['searchable'] == 'true' ) {
                      $binding = SSP::bind( $bindings, '%'.$str.'%', PDO::PARAM_STR );
                      $globalSearch[] = "`".$column['db']."` LIKE ".$binding;
                  }
              }
          }
  
          // Individual column filtering
          for ( $i=0, $ien=count($request['columns']) ; $i&lt;$ien ; $i++ ) {
              $requestColumn = $request['columns'][$i];
              $columnIdx = array_search( $requestColumn['data'], $dtColumns );
              $column = $columns[ $columnIdx ];
  
              $str = $requestColumn['search']['value'];
  
              if ( $requestColumn['searchable'] == 'true' &amp;&amp;
               $str != '' ) {
                  $binding = SSP::bind( $bindings, '%'.$str.'%', PDO::PARAM_STR );
                  $columnSearch[] = "`".$column['db']."` LIKE ".$binding;
              }
          }
  
          // Combine the filters into a single string
          $where = '';
  
          if ( count( $globalSearch ) ) {
              $where = '('.implode(' OR ', $globalSearch).')';
          }
  
          if ( count( $columnSearch ) ) {
              $where = $where === '' ?
                  implode(' AND ', $columnSearch) :
                  $where .' AND '. implode(' AND ', $columnSearch);
          }
  
          if ( $where !== '' ) {
              $where = 'WHERE '.$where;
          }
  
          return $where;
      }
  
  
      /**
       * Perform the SQL queries needed for an server-side processing requested,
       * utilising the helper functions of this class, limit(), order() and
       * filter() among others. The returned array is ready to be encoded as JSON
       * in response to an SSP request, or can be modified if needed before
       * sending back to the client.
       *
       *  @param  array $request Data sent to server by DataTables
       *  @param  array $sql_details SQL connection details - see sql_connect()
       *  @param  string $table SQL table to query
       *  @param  string $primaryKey Primary key of the table
       *  @param  array $columns Column information array
       *  @return array          Server-side processing response array
       */
      static function simple ( $request, $sql_details, $table, $primaryKey, $columns )
      {
          $bindings = array();
          $db = SSP::sql_connect( $sql_details );
  
          // Build the SQL query string from the request
          $limit = SSP::limit( $request, $columns );
          $order = SSP::order( $request, $columns );
          $where = SSP::filter( $request, $columns, $bindings );
  
          // Main query to actually get the data
          $data = SSP::sql_exec( $db, $bindings,
              "SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS `".implode("`, `", SSP::pluck($columns, 'db'))."`
               FROM `$table`
               $where
               $order
               $limit"
          );
  
          // Data set length after filtering
          $resFilterLength = SSP::sql_exec( $db,
              "SELECT FOUND_ROWS()"
          );
          $recordsFiltered = $resFilterLength[0][0];
  
          // Total data set length
          $resTotalLength = SSP::sql_exec( $db,
              "SELECT COUNT(`{$primaryKey}`)
               FROM   `$table`"
          );
          $recordsTotal = $resTotalLength[0][0];
  
  
          /*
           * Output
           */
          return array(
              "draw"            =&gt; intval( $request['draw'] ),
              "recordsTotal"    =&gt; intval( $recordsTotal ),
              "recordsFiltered" =&gt; intval( $recordsFiltered ),
              "data"            =&gt; SSP::data_output( $columns, $data )
          );
      }
  
  
      /**
       * Connect to the database
       *
       * @param  array $sql_details SQL server connection details array, with the
       *   properties:
       *     * host - host name
       *     * db   - database name
       *     * user - user name
       *     * pass - user password
       * @return resource Database connection handle
       */
      static function sql_connect ( $sql_details )
      {
          try {
              $db = @new PDO(
                  "mysql:host={$sql_details['host']};dbname={$sql_details['db']}",
                  $sql_details['user'],
                  $sql_details['pass'],
                  array( PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE =&gt; PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION )
              );
          }
          catch (PDOException $e) {
              SSP::fatal(
                  "An error occurred while connecting to the database. ".
                  "The error reported by the server was: ".$e-&gt;getMessage()
              );
          }
  
          return $db;
      }
  
  
      /**
       * Execute an SQL query on the database
       *
       * @param  resource $db  Database handler
       * @param  array    $bindings Array of PDO binding values from bind() to be
       *   used for safely escaping strings. Note that this can be given as the
       *   SQL query string if no bindings are required.
       * @param  string   $sql SQL query to execute.
       * @return array         Result from the query (all rows)
       */
      static function sql_exec ( $db, $bindings, $sql=null )
      {
          // Argument shifting
          if ( $sql === null ) {
              $sql = $bindings;
          }
  
          $stmt = $db-&gt;prepare( $sql );
          //echo $sql;
  
          // Bind parameters
          if ( is_array( $bindings ) ) {
              for ( $i=0, $ien=count($bindings) ; $i&lt;$ien ; $i++ ) {
                  $binding = $bindings[$i];
                  $stmt-&gt;bindValue( $binding['key'], $binding['val'], $binding['type'] );
              }
          }
  
          // Execute
          try {
              $stmt-&gt;execute();
          }
          catch (PDOException $e) {
              SSP::fatal( "An SQL error occurred: ".$e-&gt;getMessage() );
          }
  
          // Return all
          return $stmt-&gt;fetchAll();
      }
  
  
      /* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
       * Internal methods
       */
  
      /**
       * Throw a fatal error.
       *
       * This writes out an error message in a JSON string which DataTables will
       * see and show to the user in the browser.
       *
       * @param  string $msg Message to send to the client
       */
      static function fatal ( $msg )
      {
          echo json_encode( array( 
              "error" =&gt; $msg
          ) );
  
          exit(0);
      }
  
      /**
       * Create a PDO binding key which can be used for escaping variables safely
       * when executing a query with sql_exec()
       *
       * @param  array &amp;$a    Array of bindings
       * @param  *      $val  Value to bind
       * @param  int    $type PDO field type
       * @return string       Bound key to be used in the SQL where this parameter
       *   would be used.
       */
      static function bind ( &amp;$a, $val, $type )
      {
          $key = ':binding_'.count( $a );
  
          $a[] = array(
              'key' =&gt; $key,
              'val' =&gt; $val,
              'type' =&gt; $type
          );
  
          return $key;
      }
  
  
      /**
       * Pull a particular property from each assoc. array in a numeric array, 
       * returning and array of the property values from each item.
       *
       *  @param  array  $a    Array to get data from
       *  @param  string $prop Property to read
       *  @return array        Array of property values
       */
      static function pluck ( $a, $prop )
      {
          $out = array();
  
          for ( $i=0, $len=count($a) ; $i&lt;$len ; $i++ ) {
              $out[] = $a[$i][$prop];
          }
  
          return $out;
      }
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I keep getting an error saying that the code cannot find the driver though I've got the sqlserv and pdo_sqlsrv Drivers installed din my php environment. Is there something wrong on the code that's causing this error? Are my drivers incorrect? Any help with this would be appreciated. I've got upwards of 65,000 rows of data to process and to send that all to the client in one go will be impossible. </p>