angularjs-table

A feature-rich and performant table component for AngularJS (v1.x) projects. Great for dashboards and large datasets. Live demo

NOTE: This project was renamed from angular-mesa, so many of the component names reflect that in the code.

I have started a port for Angular (v2+) here: https://github.com/andyperlitch/ng2-super-table.

Features

• column-specific filtering
• column sorting with stacked sorting (shift-click columns)
• column resizing
• column re-ordering
• localStorage state persistance
• pagination or infinite-scrolling
• server-side interaction support
• enable/disable columns

Installation

With npm:

npm install angularjs-table

With bower:

bower install angularjs-table

Getting Started

• Include ap-mesa.js and ap-mesa.css in your project.
• Add the apMesa module to your project's angular dependencies.
• Instantiate table instances with a <ap-mesa> tag:

<ap-mesa
    options="options"
    columns="columns"
    rows="rows"
    table-class="table"
    selected="array_of_selected">
</ap-mesa>

Running the Demo

Clone the repository and run the following:

$ npm install
$ bower install
$ grunt serve

Attributes

The ap-mesa tag can have the following attributes:

attribute	type	required	description
options	object	no	An object containing various options for the table. See Options Object below for details
columns	Array	yes	An array of column definition objects. See Column Definitions below.
rows	Array	yes	An array of data to be displayed. See the note on maintaining $$hashKeys in order to allow for more performant data updates
table-class	String	no	A string of classes to be attached to the actual <table> element that gets created
selected	Array	no	This should be provided when using the selector built-in format. See Row Selection.
track-by	String	yes	This string should be the unique key on data objects that ng-repeat should use to keep track of rows in the table
on-row-click	String	no	If provided, the contents of this attribute will be placed inside of an ng-click on each <tr>. Note that it will be evaluated in the row scope. See Row Scope & Cell Scope.
enabled-columns	any[]	no	If provided, represents the array of columns to display by their ids. See Enabling/Disabling Columns.

Options Object

The options object should be available on the parent scope of the <ap-mesa> element. It is optional (defaults are used) and has the following keys:

key	type	default	description
rowPadding	number	10	Number of pixels to pre-render before and after the viewport
sortClasses	Array	(see below)
storage	Object	undefined
storageHash	String	undefined	Non-sequential "version" hash used to identify and compare items in storage.
storageKey	String	undefined	Used as the key to store and retrieve items from storage, if it is specified.
initialSorts	Array	[]	Array of objects defining an initial sort order. Each object must have id and dir, can be "+" for ascending, "-" for descending.
loadingText	String	'loading'	String to show when data is loading
noRowsText	String	'no rows'	String to show when no rows are visible
loadingTemplateUrl	String	undefined	Path to template for td when loading
loadingPromise	Object	undefined	Promise object for table data loading. Used to resolve loading state when data is available.
loadingErrorTemplateUrl	String	undefined	Path to template for td when there is an error loading table data.
loadingErrorText	String	'error loading results'	String to show when loading fails
noRowsTemplateUrl	String	undefined	Path to template for td when there are no rows to show.
scrollDebounce	number	100	Wait time when debouncing the scroll event. Used when updating rows. Milliseconds.
bgSizeMultiplier	number	1	The background-size css attribute of the placeholder rows is set to bgSizeMultiplier * rowHeight.
defaultRowHeight	number	40	When there are no rows to calculate the height, this number is used as the fallback
bodyHeight	number	300	The pixel height for the body of the table. Note that unless fixedHeight is set to true, this will behave as a max-height.
fillHeight	boolean	false	If true, the table will fill the calculated height of the parent element. Note that this overrides bodyHeight. The table will listen for 'apMesa:resize' events from the rootScope to recalculate the height.
fixedHeight	boolean	false	If true, the table body will always have a height of bodyHeight, regardless of whether the rows fill up the vertical space.
onRegisterApi	function	{}	Provides a access to select table controller methods, including selectAll, deselectAll, isSelectedAll, setLoading, etc. See Table API.
getter	function	{}	Customize the way to get column value. If not specified, get columen value by row[column.key]
expandableTemplateUrl	String	undefined	A template reference to be used for the expandable row feature. See Expandable Rows.
expandableTemplate	String	undefined	A template string to be used for the expandable row feature. See Expandable Rows.
pagingStrategy	'PAGINATE' or 'SCROLL' or 'NONE'	'SCROLL'	Sets the paging strategy. See Paging Strategies.
rowsPerPage	number	10	The number of rows to show per page. Only applicable when pagingStrategy is PAGINATE
rowsPerPageChoices	number[]	[10, 25, 50, 100]	The choices for number of rows to show per page. Only applicable when pagingStrategy is PAGINATE
rowsPerPageMessage	string	'rows per page'	The label for the selection for number of rows to show per page.
showRowsPerPageCtrls	boolean	true	Whether or not to show the control for rows-per-page. Only applicable when pagingStrategy is PAGINATE
maxPageLinks	number	8	Number of page links to display when paginating.
getData	function	undefined	Specify a function which returns a promise of row data. See Server-side Interaction below.
showSortPriority	boolean	false	If true, will show a number indicating stacked sort priority of each column being sorted.
clearFilterOnColumnHide	boolean	true	If true, a column's filter state will be removed when that column is hidden.
clearSortOnColumnHide	boolean	true	If true, a column's sort state will be removed when that column is hidden.

The options object is also the correct place to pass arbitrary data to table cell templates because it will be available as options in the table cell template scope. For example, if you want a click in a cell to call a function that is otherwise out of the scope of the table, you can do this:

scope.myTableOptions = {
    myFunction: function() { console.log('hello'); }
};
scope.myTableColumns = [
    {
        id: 'foo',
        key: 'foo',
        template: '<a href ng-click="options.myFunction()">{{ row.foo }}</a>'
    }
];

Loading

A common requirement for tables showing dynamically loaded data is to show loading feedback. There are several options pertaining to this: loading, loadingText, and loadingTemplateUrl. To disable loading text, a promise object from data loading can be provided, so that setLoading(false) can be attached to promise.then(). Optionally, onRegisterApi function can be specified, which provides direct access to setLoading and other table controller methods. This function specifies a single argument, which is the api object provided by the table. Example: onRegisterApi: function(api) { $scope.tableAPI = api; }.

No Visible Rows

Similar to loading state, there are two options for visual representation of when there are no rows: noRowsText and noRowsTemplateUrl.

sortClasses

Default Value: [ 'glyphicon glyphicon-sort', 'glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-up', 'glyphicon glyphicon-chevron-down' ] If a column has a sort function specified, the column header will contain a <span> element with a css class of sorting-icon. This sortClasses array contains three strings that will be appended to the <span> className, one for each state of a sorted column: [classes_for_no_sort, classes_for_ascending_sort, classes_for_descending_sort].

Storage

If defined, this requires the presence of storageKey. This object should follow a subset of the API for localStorage; specifically having the methods setItem, getItem, and removeItem. It will use storageKey as the key to set. The most common use-case for this is simply to pass localStorage to this option.

options decoration

An advantage of providing an options object is that apMesa decorates it with a few things for greater control. Below are the things apMesa adds.

options.scrollingPromise

When the user is scrolling, this property will be a promise that gets resolved when the user has stopped scrolling. If the user is not scrolling, this will have a value of null. This can be useful if the table has a lot of columns and you want to optimize performance by deferring updates to when the user stops scrolling.

Setting Default Options with apMesaProvider

A common use-case is to set default options for all tables in a given project. This can be achieved using the apMesa service provider. Add the following to a config block in your project:

angular
  .module('myApp')
  .config(function(apMesaProvider) {
    apMesaProvider.setDefaultOptions({
      sortClasses: ['glyphicon glyphicon-sort', 'glyphicon glyphicon-sort-by-attributes', 'glyphicon glyphicon-sort-by-attributes-alt'],
      defaultRowHeight: 45
    });
  });

Column Definitions

The columns should be an array of Column Definition Objects. The order in which they appear in this array dictates the order they will appear by default. Column Definition Objects have the following properties:

property key	type	required	default value	description
id	string	yes	undefined	Identifies the column.
key	string	yes	undefined	The field on each row that this column displays or uses in its format function.
label	string	no	id	The column heading text. If not present, the column id is used. See Column Header.
labelTemplate	string	no	undefined	If specified, used as html template in column header. See Column Header.
labelTemplateUrl	string	no	undefined	If specified, used as url to html template in column header. See Column Header.
sort	function or string	no	undefined	If specified, defines row sort function this column uses. See Row Sorting.
filter	function or string	no	undefined	If specified, defines row filter function this column uses. See Row Filtering.
filterPlaceholder	string	no	'filter'	If specified, defines the placeholder text for the filter input. See Row Filtering.
format	function or string	no	''	If specified, defines cell format function. See Cell Formatting.
width	string or number	no	'auto'	width of column, can include units, e.g. '30px'
lockWidth	boolean	no	false	If true, column will not be resizable.
ngFilter	string	no	undefined	Name of a registered filter to use on row[column.key]
template	string	no	undefined	A string template for the cell contents. Scope variables available: row, column, options, toggleRowExpand, refreshExpandedHeight, rowIsExpanded
templateUrl	string	no	undefined	A template url used with ng-include for cell contents
title	string	no	undefined	A tooltip for a column header.
selector	boolean	no	undefined	Marks the column as a "selector" column. See Row Selection.
classes	any	no	undefined	This value will get passed to the ng-class attribute of the <th> of the column. Useful for styling column headers.

Column Header

There are several ways to control what appears in the <th>. By default, each column <th> will have the value of the id field. If the label option is specified, apMesa will use that instead.

If labelTemplate or labelTemplateUrl is specified, it will replace the default text with the provided template. The scope of this template will include the column definition object as column and the options object as options.

Row Sorting

The rows of the table can be sortable based on a column by setting the sort attribute of a Column Definition Object to a function with the following signature:

/**
 * Defines sort function for ascending order.
 * @param {Object} rowA     First row being compared
 * @param {Object} rowB     Second row being compared
 * @return {Number}         Result of comparison.
 */
function MySortFunction(rowA, rowB) {
    // Assuming propertyKey is numeric,
    // this would work as a number sorter:
    return rowA.propertyKey - rowB.propertyKey;
}

The returned value should mirror how Array.prototype.sort works: If the returned value is negative, rowA will be placed above rowB in the ascending sort order. If it is negative, rowB will be placed above rowA in the ascending sort order. If it is zero, the two rows will be considered the same in terms of sorting precedence.

There are four built-in sort functions available which handle the most common use-cases: "string", "number", "stringFormatted", and "numberFormatted". To use these, simply set the sort attribute to one of these strings.

Sorting can be set by the user by clicking the headers of sortable columns, and can be stacked by holding shift and clicking. The initial sort order can be set using the initialSorts option in the Options Object, shown in the table above.

Row Filtering

If a filter function is set on a Column Definition Object, that column will contain an input field below the main column header where the user can type in a value and the rows will be filtered based on what they type and the behavior of the function. This function should have the following signature:

/**
 * Defines a filtering function
 * @param {String} term          The term entered by the user into the filter field.
 * @param {Mixed} value          The value of row[column.key]
 * @param {Mixed} computedValue  The value of column.format(row[column.key], row). Will be the same as `value` if there is no format function for the column.
 * @param {Object} row            The actual row of data
 * @return {Boolean}
 */
function MyFilterFunction(term, value, computedValue, row) {
    // Assuming row[column.key] is a string,
    // this would work as a simple matching filter:
    return value.indexOf(term) >= 0;
}

When there is a value provided by the user in the filter field, every row in the dataset is passed through this function. If the function returns true, the row will be included in the resulting rows that get displayed. Otherwise it is left out. To set placeholder text for the filter field, simply add a placeholder attribute directly to the filter function. To add a title/tooltip, add a title attribute, e.g.:

MyFilterFunction.placeholder = "enter text";
MyFilterFunction.title = "Perform a simple text search";

There are several common filter functions that are built-in. Use them by passing one of the following strings instead of a function:

string	description
like	Search by simple substring, eg. "foo" matches "foobar" but not "fobar". Use "!" to exclude and "=" to match exact text, e.g. "!bar" or "=baz".
likeFormatted	Same as "like", but looks at formatted cell value instead of raw.
number	Search by number, e.g. "123". Optionally use comparator expressions like ">=10" or "<1000". Use "~" for approx. int values, eg. "~3" will match "3.2".
numberFormatted	Same as number, but looks at formatted cell value instead of raw
date	Search by date. Enter a date string (RFC2822 or ISO 8601 date). You can also type "today", "yesterday", "> 2 days ago", "< 1 day 2 hours ago", etc.

Cell Formatting

You can format the result of row[key] by specifying a format function on the column definition object. For example, perhaps you want to add a dollar sign to a column which represents an amount of money:

var columns = [
    {
        key: 'price',
        format: function(price) {
            return '$' + price.toFixed(2);
        }
    }
];
var rows = [
    { price: 12 },
    { price: 14 }
];

Row Selection

There is a special type of column called a selector, which will render as a checkbox that, when clicked, will populate a selected array that is provided through an attribute of the ap-mesa element. The following is an example column definition for a selector (Usually this column appears first):

$scope.myColumns = [
    {
        id: 'selector',
        key: 'idKeyOfObjects',   // used to populate the selected array
        label: '',               // no label for checkbox column
        selector: true,
        width: '40px',           // Fixed width of 40px
        lockWidth: true,         // to keep it narrow
        selectObject: true       // Optional: by default, selecting a row puts the value of
                                 // row[idKeyOfObjects] into the selected array. If this option
                                 // is set to true, the entire object will be placed into the
                                 // selected array.
    }
]

Expandable Rows

To use the expandable rows feature, you will need to specify an expandableTemplate or expandableTemplateUrl and call toggleRowExpand() from a custom column template. For example, a column definition may look like:

$scope.tableOptions = {
    expandableTemplate: '<h3>Row Details:</h3> <pre>{{ row | json }}</pre>'
    // expandableTemplateUrl: 'path/to/panel-template.html'
};
$scope.tableColumns = [
    {
        id: 'foo',
        key: 'foo',
        template: '<a href="" ng-click="toggleRowExpand()">CLICK TO {{ rowIsExpanded ? 'COLLAPSE' : 'EXPAND' }}</a>'
    },
    ...
];

As shown above, there will also be a property on the row scope called rowIsExpanded which is a boolean indicating if the row's panel is expanded. It's also recommended to make the rowPadding option at least as large as the expected pixel height of the expanded panels.

For a complete example, please check out /app/scripts/controllers/expandable.js.

If the content of the panel is dynamic and changes height, there is a method in the row scope called refreshExpandedHeight which should be called when the height has changed.

Paging Strategies

You can specify the paging strategy as 'PAGINATE', 'SCROLL', or 'NONE'.

SCROLL (default)

The default paging strategy is a scrollable table body with height defined by the tableHeight, fillHeight, and fixedHeight options.

PAGINATE

This strategy will render the table as pages instead of an endlessly scrolling tbody. The tableHeight, fillHeight, and fixedHeight options will NOT be honored

Server-side Interaction

You have the option to specify a getData function on your table options object which will enable server-side interaction. It must implement the following function signature (see inline explanation):

function getData (offset, limit, activeFilters, activeSorts) {
    
    // offset and limit are numbers, indicating the subset of the total
    // result set, given the filter and sort states
 
    // activeFilters is an array of objects, each containing the string that the user has entered into the
    // filter text input, as well as the corresponding column definition object, e.g.:
 
    // [
    //     { value: 'im typing', column: [COLUMN DEF OBJECT] },
    //     { value: 'me too thanks', column: [COLUMN DEF OBJECT] },
    // ]
 
    // Note that columns whose filter inputs are empty will not show up here.
 
    // activeSorts is an array of objects similar to activeFilters, except that instead of `value` field 
    // there is a `direction` field that will either be 'ASC' or 'DESC'. Note that the order of this
    // array reflects the order that the user chose to sort columns on (stacked sorting).
 
 
 
    // This function should return a promise that resolves with an object that looks like this:
    // {
    //   total: [NUMBER OF TOTAL ROWS BEFORE LIMIT],
    //   rows: [ARRAY OF ROWS FOR GIVEN OFFSET, LIMIT, SORT, FILTERS]
    // }
}

Note that when getData is specified, angular-mesa only checks the filter and sort fields in the column definition objects for "truthiness".It does not perform any sort of sorting and filtering itself; that is left up to the server to do.

Also note that the angular-mesa.d.ts typescript definition file has a more formal signature for this function that may help if you are familiar with TS.

Row Scope & Cell Scope

Each row (<tr>) is inside of an ng-repeat, and so it is given its own scope (not isolate). It inherits properties from the table's main isolate scope plus it is endowed with several properties that are important to know about when using the on-row-click attribute, the template option on Column Definition objects, and the expandableTemplateUrl option on the main table options. Here is a breakdown (note that a more formal definition can be found in the .d.ts file in this directory):

Property	Type	Description
toggleRowExpand	Function	A function that toggles whether or not a row is expanded. Only applicable when expandableTemplateUrl is used.
rowIsExpanded	boolean	A variable indicating whether a row is currently expanded.
refreshExpandedHeight	Function	A function which, when called, updates the height of the expanded panel as it is known by the table component. This should be called when the content of an expanded panel has caused the panel to change its height.
row	any	This is the actual row of data which pertains to this table row.
options	object (ITableOptions)	The table options object.

Each cell (<td>) inherits all of the above properties, and in addition has column which is a pointer to the corresponding column definition object.

Enable/Disable Columns

You can dynamically enable/disable columns on the fly by using the enabled-columns input on the <ap-mesa> tag.

For example, say your js looks like this:

$scope.columns = [
  { id: 'a', key: 'key1' },
  { id: 'b', key: 'key2' },
  { id: 'c', key: 'key3' },
  { id: 'd', key: 'key4' }
];
$scope.enabledColumns = ['b', 'd', 'c'];

And your html looks like this:

<ap-mesa
columns="columns"
enabled-columns="enabledColumns"
rows="rows"
options="options"
></ap-mesa>

You can update the value of enabledColumns from the outside to manipulate the currently-showing set of columns. As with normal two-way bound inputs, this value will update as sorting is changed via drag-and-drop by the user.

Table API

When a table is instantiated, it creates an API object with several methods that allow you to programmatically control parts of the table.

There are two ways to access the API. One is to use the onRegisterApi option, e.g.:

var tableApi;
$scope.tableOptions = {
    // other options
    onRegisterApi: function(api) {
        tableApi = api;
    }
}

The other way is to use the optional binding on the element itself, e.g.:

<ap-mesa
columns="vm.columns"
rows="vm.rows"
api="vm.api">
</ap-mesa>

Browser Support

IE 9+ Firefox 4+ Safari 5+ Chrome 5+