diff --git a/packages/data-table-view/src/data-table-view.js b/packages/data-table-view/src/data-table-view.js
index d1e4a0bd7731180b6e12f5e58d7e861cd1854bbb..90cc41b96a3fb93e3d1d92eaf53b161f1cc53d77 100644
--- a/packages/data-table-view/src/data-table-view.js
+++ b/packages/data-table-view/src/data-table-view.js
@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import {html, LitElement} from 'lit-element';
 import {unsafeHTML} from 'lit-html/directives/unsafe-html.js';
 import JSONLD from 'vpu-common/jsonld';
 import commonUtils from 'vpu-common/utils';
-import {unsafeHTML} from 'lit-html/directives/unsafe-html.js';
 
 dt(window, $);
 resp(window, $);
@@ -64,21 +63,28 @@ class DataTableView extends LitElement {
 
         JSONLD.initialize(this.entryPointUrl, function (jsonld) {
             that.jsonld = jsonld;
-            that.apiUrl = that.jsonld.getApiUrlForIdentifier("http://schema.org/" + that.value);
-            that.table_columns = that.jsonld.entities[that.value]['hydra:supportedProperty'].map(obj => obj['hydra:title']);
+            try {
+                that.apiUrl = that.jsonld.getApiUrlForIdentifier("http://schema.org/" + that.value);
+                that.table_columns = that.jsonld.entities[that.value]['hydra:supportedProperty'].map(obj => obj['hydra:title']);
 
-            // display empty table
-            that.setup_columns();
-            let columns = [];
-            for (let i = 0; i < that.display_columns.length; ++i) {
-                columns[i] = {
-                    title: that.display_columns[i],
-                    visible: that.show_columns.indexOf(that.display_columns[i]) > -1
-                };
-            }
-            that.set_datatable(columns);
-            if (that.filter) {
-                that.loadWebPageElement();
+                // display empty table
+                that.setup_columns();
+                let columns = [];
+                for (let i = 0; i < that.display_columns.length; ++i) {
+                    columns[i] = {
+                        title: that.display_columns[i],
+                        visible: that.show_columns.indexOf(that.display_columns[i]) > -1
+                    };
+                }
+                that.set_datatable(columns);
+                if (that.filter) {
+                    that.loadWebPageElement();
+                }
+            } catch (e) {
+                that.table_columns = ['message from server'];
+                that.setup_columns();
+                that.set_datatable([{title: 'message from server', visible: true}]);
+                that.table.row.add(['<span style="color:red;background:lightgray;">' + e.toString() + '</span>']);
             }
         });
 
diff --git a/packages/data-table-view/src/demo.js b/packages/data-table-view/src/demo.js
index b2b501958a55fd35db77ddce660a4509fdb980cb..3dd99ae3b988c48d9c9daae1bb4ddc649e22b207 100644
--- a/packages/data-table-view/src/demo.js
+++ b/packages/data-table-view/src/demo.js
@@ -51,6 +51,11 @@ class DataTableViewDemo extends LitElement {
                     padding: 10px;
                     border: 1px solid green;
                 }
+                .box3 {
+                    margin: 10px;
+                    padding: 10px;
+                    border: 1px solid blue;
+                }
             </style>
             <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/bulma/0.7.5/css/bulma.min.css">
 
@@ -85,9 +90,10 @@ class DataTableViewDemo extends LitElement {
                     </div>
                 </div>
             </section>
+            <!--
             <section class="section">
                 <div class="content">
-                <h4>DataTable: no paging, no searching</h4>
+                    <h4>DataTable: no paging, no searching</h4>
                     <div class="box2">
                         <vpu-data-table-view
                             lang="${this.lang}"
@@ -101,6 +107,24 @@ class DataTableViewDemo extends LitElement {
                     </div>
                 </div>
             </section>
+            -->
+            <section class="section">
+                    <h4>DataTable: nonexistant Entity</h4>
+                    <div class="box3">
+                        <vpu-data-table-view
+                            lang="${this.lang}"
+                            value="nonExistantEntity"
+                            filter="*"
+                            whitelisted-columns="*"
+                            blacklisted-columns=""
+                            id="dt4"
+                            wait-until-all-loaded
+                            paging
+                            searching
+                        ></vpu-data-table-view>
+                    </div>
+                </div>
+            </section>
         `;
     }
 }