jQuery DataTables Demo using ASP.NET Core MVC and Entity Framework

A simple and concise demonstration of the jQuery DataTables plugin within the ASP.NET Core MVC Framework using Entity Framework Core.

A basic¹ demonstration including sample data and the references one needs to build, demonstrate and integrate DataTables into your project.

• A ModelBinder to parse the application/x-www-form-urlencoded input from the DataTables AJAX request into the appropriate DataTablesRequest Class Model (data structure) and greatly simplify the interface between Controller (to which the AJAX requests route) and the BLL (Business Logic Layer).
• IQueryableExtensions converting the DataTables request for paging, sorting and filtering into generic LINQ-to-SQL operations for use by Entity Framework Core. As generics, these methods will function “right out of the box” with most database table models.

• Visual Studio 2017
• ASP.NET Core 1.1
• ASP.NET Core 2.0
• Entity Framework Core 1.1.5
• Entity Framework Core 2.0.3
• Bootstrap 3.3.7
• jQuery 2.2.0
• DataTables 1.10.16
• DataTables.net 2.1.1

When facing the need to use jQuery DataTables in a Core MVC project, this author found it challenging to find examples applicable to ASP.NET Core MVC 1.1 and 2.0 Framework and Entity Framework. Some examples were too out of date to compile or function in the current (1.1-2.0) MVC modeling. Others took the simple DataTables usage and morphed it into complex examples and projects that either failed to build or failed to function. Efforts were made to keep the code lean, the project and examples simple, while providing a basic¹ demonstration that can be built, observed and tested with minimal effort to the reader.

1 basic demonstration refers to the paging, sorting and filtering features of the DataTables plugin. ↩