How to target specific columns with DT's SearchPanes extension - r

Question

I want to implement DT's SearchPanes extension while explicitly including/excluding specific fields but am not sure how to accomplish it. I want all of the fields to show, but only select fields to be included in the SearchPanes interface.
In the reproducible example below (which is essentially from the documentation), how would I select just island, sex, and year for inclusion in SearchPanes?
I've tried different settings with searchPanes and the targets arguments, but I do not understand how to use these and I don't yet follow the JS documentation very well. Any guidance on how these work and how to select columns for inclusion would be much appreciated.
library(DT)
library(palmerpenguins)
datatable(
penguins,
options = list(dom = 'Pfrtip', columnDefs = list(list(
searchPanes = list(show = FALSE), targets = 1:4
))),
extensions = c('Select', 'SearchPanes'),
selection = 'none'
)

Answer 1

There may be a better way but this works:
datatable(
penguins,
options = list(
dom = 'Pfrtip',
columnDefs = list(
list(
searchPanes = list(show = FALSE), targets = c(1, 3:6)
),
list(
searchPanes = list(show = TRUE), targets = c(2, 7:9)
)
)
),
extensions = c('Select', 'SearchPanes'),
selection = 'none'
)
The searchPanes argument show can be set to TRUE or FALSE and the state is directed to specific target columns defined in the targets argument.
On one line, I set show=FALSE and defined all of the columns that I did not want showing. Then on the following line, I set showTRUE and defined the columns that I want showing. I found that if I set a column to show=FALSE and in the next line set it to show=TRUE it remains unshown.
The DataTables JS library documentation was helpful, but took a bit to understand. The section on columns.searchPanes.show contained the answer. Each searchPanes statement has some arguments and a set of targets. As follows:
$(document).ready(function() {
$('#example').DataTable({
dom: 'Plfrtip',
columnDefs: [
{
searchPanes: {
show: true
},
targets: [0]
},
{
searchPanes: {
show: false
},
targets: [2]
}
]
});
});