Overview

What is Krait?

Krait is a robust Laravel package that streamlines the generation of Ajax Dynamic DataTables. Developed as a combination of VueJS components and PHP functionalities, it automates the development of front-end and back-end resources via simple CLI commands. The package is capable of generating a comprehensive set of controllers, routes, Vue components, and table definitions with a single command:

php artisan krait:table MyAwesomeTable

All the Resource Linking happens behind the scenes for you and you should think about the data processing and representation only.

Features

Front-End Dynamic Tables

All front-end tables include the following features out of the box:

Resizable columns

All columns in the front-end are resizable by default. To make a column fixed, you should explicitly flag it as fixed in the Table Definition Class.

YourTable.php

<?php
    ...
    function initColumns() {
        $this->column(
            name: 'some_fixe_column',
            label: 'Some Fixed Column',
            fixed: true,
        )
    }
    ...

Visible Columns Selection

All columns are visible by default but the user can manually hide some of them using a dropdown.

Columns Reordering

The user can manually adjust the order of the table columns. The order will be saved in the database and reused.

AJAX Pagination Fetching

All table-related actions are Ajax-based so the end-user table operations are faster without the need of page reloading. The Items Per Page setting is adjustable via dropdown.

Columns Sorting

All columns in the front-end are sortable by default. To make a column not sortable, you should explicitly flag it as sortable: false in the Table Definition Class.

YourTable.php

<?php
    ...
    function initColumns() {
        $this->column(
            name: 'some_fixe_column',
            label: 'Some Fixed Column',
            sortable: false,
        )
    }
    ...

Per-user Preview Configurations

Krait saves all user preview preferences in the database. Whenever a user hides/resizes/reorders columns, the updates are saved and reused the next time that user opens the table.

When Should I Use Krait?

Two factors should be taken into account when answering this question:

• The package handles the creation of all resources and their linking out-of-the-box.
  • that helps you focus on the more important parts (defining processing data callbacks, fetching records, etc.)
  • that provides you with already-tested back-end functionality
• The front-end uses VueJS components so the data is represented in an async (Ajax) way.
  • as all filtering, sorting, and pagination processes use Ajax, the whole table gets faster
  • that helps you to develop more dynamic table content

The package is suitable for:

• Projects that serve massive datasets to the end-users
• Projects that contain complex tables
  • with more dynamic front-end elements
  • with complex callbacks for pre-processing the shown data