Importing/Exporting Grid Configuration

There are times when it is useful to be able to import or export the entire grid configuration to another file format:

Grids constructed on the server can be reconstructed after sorting or paging, so a different configuration can be quickly used as required
Grids can be constructed visually on the server and then loaded from an xml string
Grid configuration can even be stored in the database as xml and then loaded as required

These methods support doing that.

Method	Parameters	Returns	Description
jqGridExport	options		Exports the the current grid configuration to the desired format $("#mygrid").jqGridExport({exptype:"xmlstring"}); will export the current grid configuration as xml string $("#grid_id").jqGridExport({exptype:"jsonstring"}); will export the current grid configuration as json string. It is good idea first to play with this option before using jqGridImport.
jqGridImport	options		Reads the grid configuration according to the rules in options and constructs the grid. When constructing the grid for first time it is possible to pass data to it again with the configuration.

Method

Parameters

Returns

Description

jqGridExport

options

Exports the the current grid configuration to the desired format

    $("#mygrid").jqGridExport({exptype:"xmlstring"});

will export the current grid configuration as xml string

    $("#grid_id").jqGridExport({exptype:"jsonstring"});

will export the current grid configuration as json string.

It is good idea first to play with this option before using jqGridImport.

jqGridImport

options

Reads the grid configuration according to the rules in options and constructs the grid. When constructing the grid for first time it is possible to pass data to it again with the configuration.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
When using these methods the pager parameter should not be set as

pager: jQuery("#mypager"),

but as

pager : "#mypager"

pager : "mypager"

otherwise the import or export will not work.

Options

Option	Values	Description	Default
imptype	xml, json, xmlstring, jsonstring		"xml"
impstring		in case of xmlstring or jsonstring this should be set	""
impurl		valid url to the configuration when xml or json	""
mtype	"GET" or "POST"		""
impData	{}	additional data that can be passed to the url	empty array
xmlGrid	{}	describes from where to read the xml configuration and from where the data if any config : "roots>grid", data: "roots>rows"
jsonGrid	{}	describes from where to read the json configuration and from where the data if any config : "grid", data: "data"

If the data tag is empty, the grid automatically loads the data according to the url and datatype options of the grid.

Example

options :{
    imptype : "xml", // xml, json, xmlstring, jsonstring
    impstring: "", // in case of xmlstring or jsonstring this should be set
    impurl: "", // valid url to the configuration when xml or json
    mtype: "GET", // the type "GET" or "POST"
    impData : {}, // additional data that can be passed to the url
    xmlGrid :{ // describes from where to read the xml configuration and from where the data if any
    config : "roots>grid",
    data: "roots>rows"
  },
  jsonGrid :{ // describes from where to read the json configuration and from where the data if any
       config : "grid",
       data: "data"
    }
}

As a further example of what is needed, the distribution package contains two files: json_test.txt and xml_test.xml to show the different (xml and json) configurations.