JQuery datatables.net implementation in CodeIgniter.
http://codeigniter.com/forums/viewthread/164729/ (the patch by zoko2902 is included)
$columns = array('id','name', 'description');
$joins = 'LEFT JOIN ...';
$search = 'description';
echo $this->datatables->generate('table',$columns,'id', $joins, $where, $search);