The use is case i want to handle sorting on the client side and pagination on the server side as the volume of records can be soo large i dont want to load all records at once. currently the ui displays so the json below contains them and also the meta-data . page --current page, total - total pages and records- total number of records.
i checked with the jqgrid i dont see why this is not working.
the ui is not displaying any records when data is set as data:ret and in localReader i specify root as data.
the ui displays record when i specify data as data:ret.data but the pager(pagination next prev display doesnt work).
my json data is like this:
  var ret={"data":[{"id":"1","firstName":"John","lastName":"Doe"},     
           {"id":"2","firstName":"John","lastName":"Burns"},
           {"id":"3","firstName":"John","lastName":"Newman"},
           {"id":"4","firstName":"Mike","lastName":"Vargas"},               
           {"id":"5","firstName":"David","lastName":"Taylor"}],
   "page":1,"total":3,"records":24}
my jquery is like below:
       grid.jqGrid({
            datatype: "local",
            data: ret,
           // root:"oldcontacts",
            colNames:['ID', 'First Name','Last Name'],
            colModel:[
                {name:'id',index:'id', key: true, width:70, sorttype:"int"},
                {name:'firstName',index:'firstName', width:90},
                {name:'lastName',index:'lastName', width:100}
            ],
            localReader : {
               root :"data",
               page: "page",
               total: "total",
               records :"records"
            },
            search:true,
            pager:'#pager',
            //jsonReader: {cell:""},
            rowNum: 10,
            rowList: [5, 10, 20, 50],
            loadonce:false,
            sortname: 'id',
            sortorder: 'asc',
            viewrecords: true,
            sortable:false,
            cmTemplate: {sortable:true},//change to false if want
            multiselect:true,
            multiboxonly: false,
            height: "100%",
            caption: "Multiple search with local data",
            onSelectAll:function(aRowids,isSelected){
            // this is not used in this sample.. as I removed the check all button
              var i, count, id;
              for (i = 0, count = aRowids.length; i < count; i++) {
                   id = aRowids[i];
                   if(isSelected)
                     {mysel.pushObject(id);}
                     else
                    { mysel.removeObject(id);}
              }
              that.set('selection',mysel);
            },
            gridComplete: function(){
                          },              
            onSelectRow: function (id,isSelected,e) {
            //now lets tell jqgrid not to change to yellow on simple click
                Ember.$('#'+id).attr("aria-selected","false");// override default selection
                Ember.$('#'+id).removeClass("ui-state-highlight");// override default selection
                if (e.ctrlKey){
                if (isSelected){
                   mysel.pushObject(id);
                   Ember.$('#'+id).css('background','red');
                  }
                  else
                  {
                   Ember.$('#'+id).css('background','white');
                   mysel.removeObject(id);
                  }
                 that.set('selection',mysel);
                 }
        },
        });