# Editor example Custom form layout / templates

Editor's default form layout is simple and works well for basic forms. However, for more complex forms, where you want to group data and lay the form out to make the best use of space, the simple linear layout doesn't work very well. To allow complex, custom, layouts Editor has the option of using templates through its `template` option.

In this example a simple form is shown with mixed full column and two column layout inside grouping field sets. The template is defined in the HTML and a selector given to the `template` option so Editor can make use of it.

HTML5 custom tags are used to indicate where Editor should place each field in the form - specifically `<editor-field/>` with an attribute of `name` which defines the name of the field (`fields.name`).

Flex box is used for the layout in this example, although any custom HTML can be used and injected into Editor, including tabs, accordion and other advanced layout options.

Name
Office
HR info

Name | Position | Office | Extn. | Start date | Salary
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Name | Position | Office | Extn. | Start date | Salary

- JavaScript
- HTML
- CSS
- Ajax
- Server-side script

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

`var editor = new DataTable.Editor({ ajax: '../php/staff.php', fields: [ { label: 'First name:', name: 'first_name' }, { label: 'Last name:', name: 'last_name' }, { label: 'Position:', name: 'position' }, { label: 'Office:', name: 'office' }, { label: 'Extension:', name: 'extn' }, { label: 'Start date:', name: 'start_date', type: 'datetime' }, { label: 'Salary:', name: 'salary' } ], table: '#example', template: '#customForm' }); $('#example').DataTable({ ajax: '../php/staff.php', columns: [ { data: null, render: function (data, type, row) { // Combine the first and last names into a single table field return data.first_name + ' ' + data.last_name; } }, { data: 'position' }, { data: 'office' }, { data: 'extn' }, { data: 'start_date' }, { data: 'salary', render: DataTable.render.number(null, null, 0, '$') } ], layout: { topStart: { buttons: [ { extend: 'create', editor: editor }, { extend: 'edit', editor: editor }, { extend: 'remove', editor: editor } ] } }, select: true });`

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

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:

`#customForm { display: flex; flex-flow: row wrap; } #customForm fieldset { flex: 1; border: 1px solid #aaa; margin: 0.5em; } #customForm fieldset legend { padding: 5px 20px; border: 1px solid #aaa; font-weight: bold; } #customForm fieldset.name { flex: 2 100%; } #customForm fieldset.name legend { background: #bfffbf; } #customForm fieldset.office legend { background: #ffffbf; } #customForm fieldset.hr legend { background: #ffbfbf; } #customForm div.DTE_Field { padding: 5px; }`

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

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.