Client-Side JavaScript Pagination

Updated on August 30, 2019 to use the new ES syntax.
Updated on May 25, 2018 to hide Next and Previous links on first and last page.

Server-side pagination is needed when you have to display hundreds of records. You may fetch results from a database using an offset and loading a single page for each HTTP request.

A long time ago, I migrated from List.js to server-side pagination in order to scale a massive result set. For smaller ones – less than 1000 – and when the query is optimized, you can use client-side navigation (i.e. JavaScript pagination).

If your result set is small, it’s possible to fully load it. In my case, I have an HTML table (a div-based structure is also possible) which needs to be paginated.

Usage

To use this JavaScript pagination script, follow the steps below:

How to implement JavaScript pagination?

1. Add the JavaScript to your page footer (see full script below).
2. Add CSS to style the navigation bar (see an example below).
3. Define an ID on the table you want to scroll.
4. Place an empty DOM element where you want to display the navigation bar.
5. Initialise the pager.

That’s all.

If you have a huge table, it may be fully displayed before the JavaScript in the footer will be executed. To avoid this, you can set the table as hidden by default using CSS, and make it visible using JavaScript after the pager.showPage() call.

<table id="pager" class="wp-list-table widefat striped posts">
    <thead>
        <tr>
            <th>Column #1</th>
            <th>Column #2</th>
        </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
        <tr>
            <th>Info #1</th>
            <th>Info #2</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th>Info #1</th>
            <th>Info #2</th>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <th>Info #1</th>
            <th>Info #2</th>
        </tr>
    </tbody>
</table>

<div id="pageNavPosition" class="pager-nav"></div>

<script src="PagerJS.js" defer></script>
<script>
<script>
let pager = new Pager('pager', 3);

pager.init();
pager.showPageNav('pager', 'pageNavPosition');
pager.showPage(1);
</script>
</script>

PagerJS.js

/* eslint-env browser */
/* global document */

function Pager(tableName, itemsPerPage) {
    'use strict';

    this.tableName = tableName;
    this.itemsPerPage = itemsPerPage;
    this.currentPage = 1;
    this.pages = 0;
    this.inited = false;

    this.showRecords = function (from, to) {
        let rows = document.getElementById(tableName).rows;

        // i starts from 1 to skip table header row
        for (let i = 1; i < rows.length; i++) {
            if (i < from || i > to) {
                rows[i].style.display = 'none';
            } else {
                rows[i].style.display = '';
            }
        }
    };

    this.showPage = function (pageNumber) {
        if (!this.inited) {
            // Not initialized
            return;
        }

        let oldPageAnchor = document.getElementById('pg' + this.currentPage);
        oldPageAnchor.className = 'pg-normal';

        this.currentPage = pageNumber;
        let newPageAnchor = document.getElementById('pg' + this.currentPage);
        newPageAnchor.className = 'pg-selected';

        let from = (pageNumber - 1) * itemsPerPage + 1;
        let to = from + itemsPerPage - 1;
        this.showRecords(from, to);

        let pgNext = document.querySelector('.pg-next'),
            pgPrev = document.querySelector('.pg-prev');

        if (this.currentPage == this.pages) {
            pgNext.style.display = 'none';
        } else {
            pgNext.style.display = '';
        }

        if (this.currentPage === 1) {
            pgPrev.style.display = 'none';
        } else {
            pgPrev.style.display = '';
        }
    };

    this.prev = function () {
        if (this.currentPage > 1) {
            this.showPage(this.currentPage - 1);
        }
    };

    this.next = function () {
        if (this.currentPage < this.pages) {
            this.showPage(this.currentPage + 1);
        }
    };

    this.init = function () {
        let rows = document.getElementById(tableName).rows;
        let records = (rows.length - 1);

        this.pages = Math.ceil(records / itemsPerPage);
        this.inited = true;
    };

    this.showPageNav = function (pagerName, positionId) {
        if (!this.inited) {
            // Not initialized
            return;
        }

        let element = document.getElementById(positionId),
            pagerHtml = '<span onclick="' + pagerName + '.prev();" class="pg-normal pg-prev">«</span>';

        for (let page = 1; page <= this.pages; page++) {
            pagerHtml += '<span id="pg' + page + '" class="pg-normal pg-next" onclick="' + pagerName + '.showPage(' + page + ');">' + page + '</span>';
        }

        pagerHtml += '<span onclick="' + pagerName + '.next();" class="pg-normal">»</span>';

        element.innerHTML = pagerHtml;
    };
}

Sample CSS

.pager-nav {
    margin: 16px 0;
}
.pager-nav span {
    display: inline-block;
    padding: 4px 8px;
    margin: 1px;
    cursor: pointer;
    font-size: 14px;
    background-color: #FFFFFF;
    border: 1px solid #e1e1e1;
    border-radius: 3px;
    box-shadow: 0 1px 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.05);
}
.pager-nav span:hover,
.pager-nav .pg-selected {
    background-color: #f9f9f9;
    border: 1px solid #CCCCCC;
}

See a Codepen demo.

Find more JavaScript tutorials, code snippets and samples here or more jQuery tutorials, code snippets and samples here.

👋 Added by Ciprian on Tuesday, March 27, 2018 in JavaScript. Last modified on Wednesday, May 13, 2020.