You should write your own server side code to work the search.

Download the demo and see how this is done.

Regards

Tony

My javascript code:

 $(document).ready(function(){
        var url = "AjaxClient.php?OP=Get";
        var type = "json";
        jQuery("#list2").jqGrid({
            url:url,
            datatype: type,
            colNames:['ID','NOME COMERCIAL','NOME SOCIAL','PESSOA DE CONTACTO'],
            colModel:[
                {name:'clt_Id',index:'clt_Id',key:true, width:55},
                {name:'clt_CommercialName',index:'clt_CommercialName', width:255},
                {name:'clt_SocialName',index:'clt_SocialName', width:255},
                {name:'clt_ContactPerson',index:'clt_ContactPerson', width:255}],
            rowNum:250,
            pager: '#pager2',
            sortname: 'clt_Id',
            viewrecords: true,
            sortorder: "asc",
            caption:"Clients",
            multikey: "ctrlKey",
            width:850,
            height: 600,
            editurl:"AjaxClient.php?OP=Edit"

        }).navGrid('#pager2', {search:true, edit: false, add:false, del:false, searchtext:"Search"});
         
    });