In this article I will explain with an example, how to use jQuery DataTables plugin in ASP.Net Core (.Net Core 8) MVC.
The data from the SQL Server Database will be populated using Entity Framework.
An HTML Table will be applied the jQuery DataTables plugin and then using a jQuery AJAX call the data will be fetched from the Controller and will be assigned to the jQuery DataTables plugin in ASP.Net Core (.Net Core 8) MVC.
 
 

Database

Here I am making use of Microsoft’s Northwind Database. You can download it from here.
Download and install Northwind Database
 
 

Model

The Model class consists of the following properties.
Note: In this article, only four Columns will be used and hence four properties are added to the class.
 
public class Customer
{
    public string? CustomerID { get;set; }
    public string? ContactName { get;set; }
    public string? City { get;set; }
    public string? Country { get;set; }
}
 
 

Database Context

Once the Entity Framework is configured and connected to the database table, the Database Context will look as shown below.
Note: For beginners in ASP.Net Core and Entity Framework, please refer my ASP.Net Core: Simple Entity Framework Tutorial with example. It covers all the information needed for connecting and configuring Entity Framework with ASP.Net Core.
 
using jQuery_DataTable_EF_Core_MVC.Models;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
 
namespace jQuery_DataTable_EF_Core_MVC
{
    public class DBCtx : DbContext
    {
        public DBCtx(DbContextOptions<DBCtx> options) : base(options)
        {
 
        }
        public DbSet<Customer> Customers { get; set; }
    }
}
 
 

Controller

The Controller consists of following Action methods.

Action method for handling GET operation

Inside this Action method, simply the View is returned.
 

Action method for handling jQuery AJAX operation

This Action method handles the call made from the jQuery AJAX function from the View.
The records are fetched from the Customers table using Entity Framework and converted to a Generic List.
Finally, the Generic List is returned to the View as JSON object.
public class HomeController : Controller
{
    private DBCtx Context { get; }
    public HomeController(DBCtx _context)
    {
        this.Context = _context;
    }
 
    public IActionResult Index()
    {
        return View();
    }
 
    [HttpPost]
    public IActionResult AjaxMethod()
    {
        List<Customer> customers = (from customer in this.Context.Customers
                                    select customer).ToList();
 
        return Json(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(customers));
    }
}
 
 

View

HTML Markup

The View consists of an HTML Table which will be populated using jQuery DataTables plugin.
The Header Row values are already been added to the Table.
Note: In order to use jQuery DataTables, it is required to add THEAD and TBODY Tags to the HTML Table.
 
Inside the jQuery document ready event handler, a jQuery AJAX call is made to the Controller’s Action method.
Inside the Success event handler, the HTML Table has been applied with jQuery DataTables plugin and the JSON data returned from the Controller’s Action method is assigned to the data property of the jQuery DataTables plugin.
The jQuery DataTables plugin has been assigned following properties:
bLengthChange – true
The Records per Page DropDownList will be shown if set to True and hidden if set to False. Default is True.
lengthMenu – Array values
The Text and Value for the Records per Page DropDownList. It is a multi-dimensional array. The first set is the Value parts while the second set is the Text parts.
bFilter – true
The Search Box will be displayed if set to True and hidden if set to False. Default is True.
bSort – true
The Sorting feature will be enabled if set to True and disabled if set to False. Default is True.
bPaginate – true
The Paging feature will be enabled if set to True and disabled if set to False. Default is True.
Columns – Array values
The names of the Columns to be displayed and mapped to the JSON data are specified.
@using jQuery_DataTable_EF_Core_MVC.Models
@{
    Layout = null;
}
 
<!DOCTYPE html>
 
<html>
<head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
    <title>Index</title>
</head>
<body>
    <div style="width: 500px">
        <table id="tblCustomers" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" border="1" style="border-collapse:collapse">
            <thead>
                <tr>
                    <th>Customer Id</th>
                    <th>Name</th>
                    <th>City</th>
                    <th>Country</th>
                </tr>
            </thead>
            <tbody></tbody>
        </table>
    </div>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.7.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="https://cdn.datatables.net/2.3.6/js/dataTables.min.js"></script>
    <link href="https://cdn.datatables.net/2.3.6/css/dataTables.dataTables.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <script type="text/javascript">
        $(function () {
            $.ajax({
                type: "POST",
                url: "/Home/AjaxMethod",
                data: '{}',
                contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                dataType: "json",
                success: OnSuccess,
                failure: function (response) {
                    alert(response);
                },
                error: function (response) {
                    alert(response);
                }
            });
        });
        function OnSuccess(response) {
            alert(JSON.stringify(response));
            $("#tblCustomers").DataTable(
                {
                    bLengthChange: true,
                    lengthMenu: [[5, 10, -1], [5, 10,"All"]],
                    bFilter: true,
                    bSort: true,
                    bPaginate: true,
                    data: response,
                    columns: [{'data': 'CustomerID' },
                              {'data': 'ContactName' },
                              {'data': 'City' },
                              {'data': 'Country' }]
 
                });
        };
    </script>
</body>
</html>
 
 

Screenshot

Using jQuery DataTables in ASP.Net Core
 
 

Downloads

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