I have been wrangling Chumper's datatable and struggled to get an element in the datatable to be a link to a route with the elements id. e.g. user/25/show. I finally did it this way:

->addColumn('companyname',function($model)
    {
       $link = "<a href = 'company/" . $model->id ."/show' >".$model->companyname."</a>";
return $link;

    })

sahamilton said:

I have been wrangling Chumper's datatable and struggled to get an element in the datatable to be a link to a route with the elements id. e.g. user/25/show. I finally did it this way:

->addColumn('companyname',function($model)
 {
   $link = "<a href = 'company/" . $model->id ."/show' >".$model->companyname."</a>";
   return $link;
   });

->addColumn('companyname', function($model) {
    return '<a href = "' . route('company.show', $model->id) .  '">' . $model->companyname.  '</a>';
});

Thanks Erik for that simplification.

Now I am trying to get the setUrl command to work.

I have created and tested a route to the api:

Route::get('api/location/{companyId}',array('as'=>'api/location', 'uses'=>'LocationsController@getDatatable'));

I know that works as I have entered the URL api/location/38 and receive the collection back.

and have the following in the blade template:

{{ Datatable::table()
->addColumn('Street','City','State','ZIP')       // these are the column headings to be shown
->setUrl(route('api/location/'.$data['company']->id))   // this is the route where data will be retrieved
->render() }}

However I get a Laravel error:

ErrorException
Route [api/location/38] not defined. (View: D:\xampp\htdocs\mapminer\app\views\companies\newshow.blade.php)

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong here. :-(

{{ Datatable::table()
    ->addColumn('Street', 'City', 'State', 'ZIP')
    ->setUrl( route('api/location', $data['company']->id) )   // You used a dot instead of a coma
    ->render() }}

For an explanation of the route helper click here.

Thanks so much Erik .. As always the devil is in the details! You saved me a few hours and countless hairs on my head (which is good as I don't have countless!).

You're welcome.

Well now I seem to find that if I make a column (e.g. add a link to the company name per above), this column now sorts (almost) by its id versus its name.

I added two columns both included in the orderColumns array. One column, company name is defined in showColumns the other is an add column of the company name with a route link added.

return Datatable::collection(Company::all())
	->showColumns('id','companyname')
	->addColumn('companynamelink',function($model)
    {
		return link_to('company/'.$model->id.'/show', $model->companyname, $attributes = array(), $secure = null);
    })
	

	->searchColumns('companyname')
	->orderColumns('id','companyname','companynamelink','types')
	->make();

The straight (unlinked) company name will sort as expected, however the linked company sorts by its id as follows: 1,10,11...2,20,21 ...3,30,31 i.e. not numerically but text / numerically!!

Is this a 'feature' or my misunderstanding?

Ok I have solved that issue. I added the ->setOrderStrip() to the datatable function

	->searchColumns('branchname','branchaddress')
	->orderColumns('branchname','city','state','region')
	->setOrderStrip()
	->make();

All appears well now.