[irahul]

> If you can push all your data to the front-end all at once, yes. DataTables makes this pretty straightforward.

Paginagtion(ajax or page reload takes care of it). I use slickgrid https://github.com/mleibman/SlickGrid; pagination is straight forward, filtering takes some work. But do the hook once, and wrap the table in jquery-ui css framework's ui-widget, and you have a good looking, working table.

> but that's just a way of saying "DataTables doesn't itself solve this problem".

slickgrid is sortable, but filtering needs work. In fact, "slickgrid doesn't do everything" is part of its philosophy.

I have come to opposite conclusion that of author's. Having an excel sheet replacement in your repertoire is important, especially when you are replacing enterprisy stuff.