Datatables class for Laravel 4

datatables.php

<?php

namespace Leads\Libraries;

class Datatables {

    public static function ajax($table, Array $columns)
    {
        /*
         * Script:    DataTables server-side script for PHP and MySQL
         * Copyright: 2010 - Allan Jardine
         * License:   GPL v2 or BSD (3-point)
         */
        
        /* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
         * Easy set variables
         */
        
        /* Array of database columns which should be read and sent back to DataTables. Use a space where
         * you want to insert a non-database field (for example a counter or static image)
         */
        $aColumns = $columns;
        
        /* Indexed column (used for fast and accurate table cardinality) */
        $sIndexColumn = "id";
        
        /* DB table to use */
        $sTable = $table;
        
        /* Database connection information */
        $gaSql['user']       = \Config::get('database.connections.mysql.username');
        $gaSql['password']   = \Config::get('database.connections.mysql.password');
        $gaSql['db']         = \Config::get('database.connections.mysql.database');
        $gaSql['server']     = \Config::get('database.connections.mysql.host');
        
        
        /* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
         * If you just want to use the basic configuration for DataTables with PHP server-side, there is
         * no need to edit below this line
         */
        
        /* 
         * MySQL connection
         */
        $gaSql['link'] =  @mysql_pconnect( $gaSql['server'], $gaSql['user'], $gaSql['password']  ) or
            die( 'Could not open connection to server' );
        
        mysql_select_db( $gaSql['db'], $gaSql['link'] ) or 
            die( 'Could not select database '. $gaSql['db'] );
        
        /* 
         * Paging
         */
        $sLimit = "";
        if ( isset( $_GET['iDisplayStart'] ) && $_GET['iDisplayLength'] != '-1' )
        {
            $sLimit = "LIMIT ".mysql_real_escape_string( $_GET['iDisplayStart'] ).", ".
                mysql_real_escape_string( $_GET['iDisplayLength'] );
        }
        
        /*
         * Ordering
         */
        if ( isset( $_GET['iSortCol_0'] ) )
        {
            $sOrder = "ORDER BY  ";
            for ( $i=0 ; $i<intval( $_GET['iSortingCols'] ) ; $i++ )
            {
                if ( $_GET[ 'bSortable_'.intval($_GET['iSortCol_'.$i]) ] == "true" )
                {
                    $sOrder .= $aColumns[ intval( $_GET['iSortCol_'.$i] ) ]."
                        ".mysql_real_escape_string( $_GET['sSortDir_'.$i] ) .", ";
                }
            }
            
            $sOrder = substr_replace( $sOrder, "", -2 );
            if ( $sOrder == "ORDER BY" )
            {
                $sOrder = "";
            }
        }
        
        /* 
         * Filtering
         * NOTE this does not match the built-in DataTables filtering which does it
         * word by word on any field. It's possible to do here, but concerned about efficiency
         * on very large tables, and MySQL's regex functionality is very limited
         */
        $sWhere = "";
        if ( $_GET['sSearch'] != "" )
        {
            $sWhere = "WHERE (";
            for ( $i=0 ; $i<count($aColumns) ; $i++ )
            {
                $sWhere .= $aColumns[$i]." LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string( $_GET['sSearch'] )."%' OR ";
            }
            $sWhere = substr_replace( $sWhere, "", -3 );
            $sWhere .= ')';
        }
        
        /* Individual column filtering */
        for ( $i=0 ; $i<count($aColumns) ; $i++ )
        {
            if ( $_GET['bSearchable_'.$i] == "true" && $_GET['sSearch_'.$i] != '' )
            {
                if ( $sWhere == "" )
                {
                    $sWhere = "WHERE ";
                }
                else
                {
                    $sWhere .= " AND ";
                }
                $sWhere .= $aColumns[$i]." LIKE '%".mysql_real_escape_string($_GET['sSearch_'.$i])."%' ";
            }
        }
        
        /*
         * SQL queries
         * Get data to display
         */
        $sQuery = "
            SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS ".str_replace(" , ", " ", implode(", ", $aColumns))."
            FROM   $sTable
            $sWhere
            $sOrder
            $sLimit
        ";
        $rResult = mysql_query( $sQuery, $gaSql['link'] ) or die(mysql_error());
        
        /* Data set length after filtering */
        $sQuery = "
            SELECT FOUND_ROWS()
        ";
        $rResultFilterTotal = mysql_query( $sQuery, $gaSql['link'] ) or die(mysql_error());
        $aResultFilterTotal = mysql_fetch_array($rResultFilterTotal);
        $iFilteredTotal = $aResultFilterTotal[0];
        
        /* Total data set length */
        $sQuery = "
            SELECT COUNT(".$sIndexColumn.")
            FROM   $sTable
        ";
        $rResultTotal = mysql_query( $sQuery, $gaSql['link'] ) or die(mysql_error());
        $aResultTotal = mysql_fetch_array($rResultTotal);
        $iTotal = $aResultTotal[0];
        
        /*
         * Output
         */
        $output = array(
            "sEcho" => intval($_GET['sEcho']),
            "iTotalRecords" => $iTotal,
            "iTotalDisplayRecords" => $iFilteredTotal,
            "aaData" => array()
        );

        try {
            while ( $aRow = mysql_fetch_array( $rResult ) ) {
                $row = array();
                for ( $i=0 ; $i<count($aColumns) ; $i++ ) {
                    $row[] = $aRow[ $aColumns[$i] ];
                }

                $sanitized_row = [];

                foreach ($row as $cell) {
                    $cell = iconv('UTF-8', 'UTF-8//IGNORE', $cell);
                    $sanitized_row[] = $cell;
                }

                $output['aaData'][] = $sanitized_row;
            }
        } catch (Exception $e) {
            echo 'Error: ';
            var_dump($row);
        }

        $json = json_encode($output);

        if (json_last_error()) {
            print "json last error: " . json_last_error() . "\n";
            print "json last error msg: " . json_last_error_msg() . "\n";
        }
        
        return $json;
    }
}