How to parse JSON received from Datatables ajax call?

Something like this:

$('#transactions').dataTable({    "ajax" : {        "url" : "/transactions",        "dataSrc" : function (json) {            // manipulate your data (json)            ...            // return the data that DataTables is to use to draw the table            return json.data;        }    }});

Docs: https://datatables.net/reference/option/ajax.dataSrc

Don't use the url feature of DataTable, make the Ajax call yourself

$.getJSON('/transactions', function(response) {  $('#transactions').dataTable({    processing: true,    data: response.data,    columns: [      { data: "car"},      { data: "card_number"},      { data: "invoice"},      { data: "status"}    ]  });  window.someGlobalOrWhatever = response.balance});

Since DataTables 1.10, you may use the ajax.json() function: https://datatables.net/reference/api/ajax.json()I have implemented it in the example code below.

$( document ).ready(function() {  $('#search-form').submit(function(e) {    e.preventDefault();    var table = $('#location-table').DataTable({      destroy: true,      ajax: "/locations.json",      columns: [        { "data": "code" },        { "data": "status" },        { "data": "name" },        { "data": "region" },        { "data": "address" },        { "data": "city" },        { "data": "state" },        { "data": "zip" },        { "data": "phone_number" },      ]    })  table.on( 'xhr', function () {    var json = table.ajax.json();    $('#totals').text(json.totals)  });  })});

NOTE for this to work you must initialize the datatable with $('#location-table').DataTable() and not $('#location-table').dataTable (the difference being the capitalized D)