# DataTables example POST data

By default, the Ajax request that DataTables makes to obtain server-side processing data is an HTTP GET request. However, there are times when you might wish to use POST. This is very easily done by using the `type` option of the `ajax` initialisation option.

When given as an object, the `ajax` option maps directly onto the jQuery ajax options (i.e. any option that can be used in jQuery's Ajax function can also be used in DataTable's `ajax` option).

The example below shows `ajax` being used with the `type` option set to `POST` to make a POST request.

First name | Last name | Position | Office | Start date | Salary
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
First name | Last name | Position | Office | Start date | Salary

- Javascript
- HTML
- CSS
- Ajax
- Server-side script

The Javascript shown below is used to initialise the table shown in this example:

`$(document).ready(function () { $('#example').DataTable({ processing: true, serverSide: true, ajax: { url: 'scripts/post.php', type: 'POST', }, columns: [ { data: 'first_name' }, { data: 'last_name' }, { data: 'position' }, { data: 'office' }, { data: 'start_date' }, { data: 'salary' }, ], }); });`

In addition to the above code, the following Javascript library files are loaded for use in this example:

- https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.5.1.js
- ../../media/js/jquery.dataTables.js

The HTML shown below is the raw HTML table element, before it has been enhanced by DataTables:

This example uses a little bit of additional CSS beyond what is loaded from the library files (below), in order to correctly display the table. The additional CSS used is shown below:

``

The following CSS library files are loaded for use in this example to provide the styling of the table:

- ../../media/css/jquery.dataTables.css

This table loads data by Ajax. The latest data that has been loaded is shown below. This data will update automatically as any additional data is loaded.

The script used to perform the server-side processing for this table is shown below. Please note that this is just an example script using PHP. Server-side processing scripts can be written in any language, using the protocol described in the DataTables documentation.