DataTables has the ability to read data from virtually any JSON data source that can be obtained by Ajax. This can be done, in its most simple form, by setting the ajax option to the address of the JSON data source.

At times you will wish to be able to create a table from dynamic information passed directly to DataTables, rather than having it read from the document. This is achieved using the data option in the initialization object, passing in an array of data to be used (like all other DataTables handled data, this can be arrays or objects using the columns.data option).

Server-side processing is enabled by setting the serverSide option to true and providing an Ajax data source through the ajax option.