How to add a checkbox column for an ajax source with sorting

As this took me a while to figure out, thought I would share it here for the next poor soul. This will let you add a checkbox column to a datatable, that will still allow sorting, when using an ajax source. I found that the "dom-checkbox" method will not sort correctly when an ajax source is specified. The 10 second summary is use a source with named entries (or add an extra 'column'), and add a hidden column of 1/0 that you actually sort on.

Here is a simple example. I have an ajax data source like:

aaData = [
  ["name": "TestUser", "isvalid": 0],
  ["name": "TestUser2", "isvalid": 1]
]

The table looks like

<table id="test-table">
  <thead><tr><th>Name</th><th>Valid</th><th>HiddenValid</th></tr></thead>
  <tbody></tbody>
</table>

The javascript that pulls it all together:

$(document).ready(function() {
  $("#test-table").dataTable({
    "aoColumns": [
      { "sTitle": "Name", "mData": "name" },
      { "sTitle": "Valid", "mData": "isvalid", "iDataSort": 2, "bSearchable": false, "mRender": render_checkbox },
      { "sTitle": "HiddenValid", "mData": "isvalid", "bVisible": false }
    ],
    "sAjaxSource": "REPLACE_WITH_YOUR_AJAX_SOURCE",
    "bProcessing": true
  });
});

function render_checkbox(data, type, full) { 
  var checked = "";
  if (data == true) { "checked='true' };
  return "<input " + checked + " type='checkbox' />";
}

Setting up the ajax source is up to you.