OUTDATED SOLUTION
Ok I founnd a possible solution. I tested it out on my own system but it's actually quite simple.
You should be using a customRenderer
in your columns
option. Read up about this if you aren't already. The idea is that you're giving each cell its own renderer. In this custom function, you can do something like this:
var colsToHide = [3,4,6]; // hide the fourth, fifth, and seventh columns
function getCustomRenderer() {
return function(instance, td, row, col, prop, value, cellProperties) {
if (colsToHide.indexOf(col) > -1) {
td.hidden = true;
} else {
td.hidden = false;
}
}
}
What this renderer does is hide the cells that the var colsToHide
specify. All you do now is add a DOM element that lets the user pick which and so every time the table gets rendered (which happens basically after any change, or manually triggered need be), the cells in the columns specified will be hidden, keeping the data
array intact like you described. And when not in colsToHide
they are re-rendered so make sure you get that working as well.
Here I implemented it with very basic functionality. Just enter the index of a column into the input fields and watch the magic happen.
http://jsfiddle.net/zekedroid/LkLkd405/2/
Better Solution: handsontable: hide some columns without changing data array/object