In a new tutorial from NetTuts.com today they show you how to combine a CodeIgniter-based backend and a jQuery frontend to make a simple Ajax data grid of data pulled from a database.

In this lesson, we will create a CodeIgniter library that allows us to generate data grids automatically for managing any database table. I'll explain each step required to create this class; so you'll likely learn some new OOP techniques/concepts in the process! As a bonus, we'll proceed to write some jQuery code that will enable a user to update the data grid's content without having to wait for a page refresh.

The tutorial's broken up into a few different steps, each complete with descriptions and plenty of code ready for cut-and-paste:

• Build a Data Grid Generator Class (a helper in PHP)
• Testing the Datagrid Helper Class with a CodeIgniter Controller
• Implementing Ajax (jQuery to the Rescue!)
• Check All or Nothing!

You can also download the source for all of the scripts if you'd like to dive right into the code.