# DataTables example Form inputs

In order to perform paging, ordering, searching etc, DataTables can remove rows and cells from the document (i.e. those rows / cells which are not needed are not inserted into the document). This increases performance and compatibility, however, it means that submitting forms which span multiple pages requires a little bit of additional work to get the information that is not in the document any longer.

The `$()` method can be used to get nodes from the document regardless of paging, ordering etc. This example shows `$()` being used to get all `input` elements from the table. In the example a simple `alert()` is used to show the information from the form, but an Ajax call to the server with the form data could easily be performed.

If you are interested in a complete CRUD editing suit for DataTables have a look at the Editor extension which provides simple setup and complete integration with DataTables.

Name | Age | Position | Office
--- | --- | --- | ---
Tiger Nixon |  |  |
Garrett Winters |  |  |
Ashton Cox |  |  |
Cedric Kelly |  |  |
Airi Satou |  |  |
Brielle Williamson |  |  |
Herrod Chandler |  |  |
Rhona Davidson |  |  |
Colleen Hurst |  |  |
Sonya Frost |  |  |
Jena Gaines |  |  |
Quinn Flynn |  |  |
Charde Marshall |  |  |
Haley Kennedy |  |  |
Tatyana Fitzpatrick |  |  |
Michael Silva |  |  |
Paul Byrd |  |  |
Gloria Little |  |  |
Bradley Greer |  |  |
Dai Rios |  |  |
Jenette Caldwell |  |  |
Yuri Berry |  |  |
Caesar Vance |  |  |
Doris Wilder |  |  |
Angelica Ramos |  |  |
Gavin Joyce |  |  |
Jennifer Chang |  |  |
Brenden Wagner |  |  |
Fiona Green |  |  |
Shou Itou |  |  |
Michelle House |  |  |
Suki Burks |  |  |
Prescott Bartlett |  |  |
Gavin Cortez |  |  |
Martena Mccray |  |  |
Unity Butler |  |  |
Howard Hatfield |  |  |
Hope Fuentes |  |  |
Vivian Harrell |  |  |
Timothy Mooney |  |  |
Jackson Bradshaw |  |  |
Olivia Liang |  |  |
Bruno Nash |  |  |
Sakura Yamamoto |  |  |
Thor Walton |  |  |
Finn Camacho |  |  |
Serge Baldwin |  |  |
Zenaida Frank |  |  |
Zorita Serrano |  |  |
Jennifer Acosta |  |  |
Cara Stevens |  |  |
Hermione Butler |  |  |
Lael Greer |  |  |
Jonas Alexander |  |  |
Shad Decker |  |  |
Michael Bruce |  |  |
Donna Snider |  |  |
Name | Age | Position | Office

- Javascript
- HTML
- CSS
- Ajax
- Server-side script

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

`$(document).ready(function() { var table = $('#example').DataTable({ columnDefs: [{ orderable: false, targets: [1,2,3] }] }); $('button').click( function() { var data = table.$('input, select').serialize(); alert( "The following data would have been submitted to the server: \n\n"+ data.substr( 0, 120 )+'...' ); return false; } ); } );`

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

- https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.5.1.js
- ../../media/js/jquery.dataTables.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:

- ../../media/css/jquery.dataTables.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.