Django-rest-framework-datatables is a third party app that provides seamless integration between Django Rest Framework and Datatables (https://datatables.net). Install django-rest-framework-datatables, call your API with "?format=datatables" and it will return a JSON structure that is fully compatible with what Datatables expects. It handles searching, filtering, ordering and most usecases you can imagine with Datatables.
The great benefit of django-rest-framework-datatables is that you don’t have to create a different API, your API still work exactly the same unless you specify the datatables format on your request.