Title: database driven table
Last modified: August 22, 2016

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# database driven table

 *  Resolved [jimcapron](https://wordpress.org/support/users/jimcapron/)
 * (@jimcapron)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-driven-table/)
 * I found TablePress after having tried quite a few table generating plugins, and
   I think it it is far superior to any I have found to date. However, I am still
   missing two functions that may or may not be available in this plugin.
 * 1. I would like to populate a table with data from a database. My primary objective
   is to use a form that would load data in the MySQL database on the back end. 
   TablePress would display the data without human intervention. Maybe jQuery could
   be used, but I am not a WP programmer or developer by trade. It would be useful
   to have a support document on this subject.
 * 2. I would like to include a document in a table cell, but I have not found this
   functionality either. Is there such a function available?
 * Maybe I am asking too much of WordPress to (a) open a form for data input, (b)
   save that form to an SQL database, (c) display the data from the SQL database
   in a table, and (d) allow the reader to download the data in a PDF document after
   it is compiled by WP or a plugin.
 * Any help in pointing me in the right direction would be truly appreciated.
 * Jim Capron
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/tablepress/)

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

 *  Plugin Author [Tobias Bäthge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobiasbg/)
 * (@tobiasbg)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-driven-table/#post-5529972)
 * Hi Jim,
 * thanks for your post, and sorry for the trouble.
 * 1. This is not possible with TablePress, unfortunately 🙁 The goal of TablePress
   is to offer an easy way for displaying tabular data, but it is not intended to
   be a database replacement system. Therefore, it’s not possible to connect the
   plugin to a mySQL database so that it loads the table data from that. Instead,
   it can only load its custom JSON format from the WordPress Custom Post Type that
   it creates.
    Therefore, it’s also not possible to use a form to submit data to
   a table. You will need to look into other solutions for that, sorry.
 * 2. Can you clarify what you mean with “include a document in a table cell”? Do
   you mean just a link to a file that is then downloaded? That is possible already,
   you could for example use the “Insert Link” dialog to insert that link. You would
   only need to know the URL of the file that shall be downloaded.
 * Regards,
    Tobias
 *  [dave8528](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dave8528/)
 * (@dave8528)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-driven-table/#post-5530098)
 * Hey Jim,
 * This is exactly what I’m looking for as well. Tables that its fields can be database
   driven.
 * Tobias, so we cannot place any PHP codes in the cells to pull data?
    Do you have
   any suggestions?
 * Cheers,
    Dave
 *  [dave8528](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dave8528/)
 * (@dave8528)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-driven-table/#post-5530102)
 * I just came across this plugin that may help those who are looking for similar
   solution:
    [http://datatables.net/](http://datatables.net/)
 * Hope it helps!
 *  Plugin Author [Tobias Bäthge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobiasbg/)
 * (@tobiasbg)
 * [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-driven-table/#post-5530132)
 * Hi,
 * thanks for your post, and sorry for the trouble.
 * You can place HTML code in table cells using an Extension, but that’s not really
   a good idea.
 * And yes, using DataTables directly (which is the JS library that TablePress uses
   for the sorting/searching functions) is probably the best approach here.
 * Regards,
    Tobias

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

The topic ‘database driven table’ is closed to new replies.

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 * 4 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [Tobias Bäthge](https://wordpress.org/support/users/tobiasbg/)
 * Last activity: [11 years, 6 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/database-driven-table/#post-5530132)
 * Status: resolved