Let me show you what I've done, in case it can help anyone else.

Sorting seems to be a little funky, but hey, it suits my purposes. Nice grid btw. I've used Rico's grid and Dojo's Grid, but this is the easiest implementation so far.

PHP code:

foreach($xml->NewDataSet->Table as $unit){
            $data[] = array('TenantID'=>$unit->TenantID,
                        'Name'=>$unit->sFName." ".$unit->sLName,
                        'Address'=>$unit->sAddr1."<br />".$unit->sCity.", ".$unit->sRegion."&nbsp; ".$unit->sPostalCode,
                        'sPhone' =>$unit->sPhone,
                        'sEmail' =>$unit->sEmail);
           
        }
       
        $sort['direction'] = $_GET['sord']=='desc' ? 'SORT_DESC' : 'SORT_ASC';
        $sort['field']       = $_GET['sidx'] ? $_GET['sidx'] : 'TenantID';
        $sort['sorttype'] = $_GET['sidx']=='TenantID'?'SORT_NUMERIC':'SORT_STRING';
     
   
  
            /**
            * @desc Build columns using the values, for sorting in php
            */
            $sort_arr = array();
        foreach($data AS $uniqid => $row){
            foreach($row AS $key=>$value){
                $sort_arr[$key][$uniqid] = $value;
            }
        }
        //print_r($data);
        if($sort['direction']){
            array_multisort($sort_arr[$sort['field']], constant($sort['direction']),constant($sort['sorttype']), $data);
        }
        //print_r($data);
        echo "<rows>";
        foreach($data as $key=>$value){
            echo '<row id="'.$value['TenantID'].'">';
                echo '<cell>'.$value['TenantID'].'</cell>';
                echo '<cell>'.$value['Name'].'</cell>';
                echo '<cell><![CDATA['.$value['Address'].']]></cell>';
                echo '<cell>'.$value['sPhone'].'</cell>';
                echo '<cell>'.$value['sEmail'].'</cell>';
            echo '</row>';
        }
        echo "</rows>";

1. Yes, server side

2 When you use local xml file then

set

...

datatype: 'xml',

loadonce: true,

...

Set in colModel the appropriate sorttype properies - ie. int,number,string,date and etc. See docs

Regards

Tony

I would use dojo grid for that.

1. I would like to combine say the first and last names and the address, city, state, zipcodes.  My question was, should I do that on the backend, or is there a way to do it through the javascript.

2. Sorting does not work like this is written. How can I get it to sort?

Here's what the javascript looks like:

jQuery("#list1").jqGrid({
                    url:'method.php?method=TenantList',
                    datatype: "xml",
                    width: 500,
                    height:500,
                    colNames:['Tenant ID','Last Name', 'Address', 'Phone','Email'],
                    colModel:[
                        {name:'TenantID',index:'TenantID', width:55, sorttype:'int'},
                        {name:'sLName',index:'sLName', width:90},
                        {name:'sAddr1',index:'sAddr1', width:100},
                        {name:'sPhone',index:'sPhone', width:80},
                        {name:'sEmail',index:'sEmail', width:80}],
                    rowNum:10,
                    rowList:[10,20,30],
                    imgpath: 'js/jqGrid/themes/basic/images',
                    sortname: 'diffgr:id',
                    viewrecords: true,
                    sortorder: "desc",
                    xmlReader: { root : "NewDataSet", row: "Table", repeatitems: false, id: "TenantID" },
                    caption:"Tenant List"
            });

XML (with data removed since it is live data):

<diffgr:diffgram>
−
<NewDataSet>
−
<Table diffgr:id="Table1" msdata:rowOrder="0">
<SiteID></SiteID>
<TenantID></TenantID>
<sLocationCode></sLocationCode>
<sFName></sFName>
<sMI/>
<sLName></sLName>
<sCompany/>
<sAddr1></sAddr1>
<sAddr2/>
<sCity></sCity>
<sRegion></sRegion>
<sPostalCode></sPostalCode>
<sPhone></sPhone>
<sEmail/>
<sMobile/>
<sLicense>002108524</sLicense>
</Table>

</NewDataSet>
</diffgr:diffgram>

1.Could you please post the code and how xml looks like.

2.Multicolumn sorting is not suported. Instead of this you can put

in index property something like index: 'firstname lastname'

Regards

Tony

I'm using the xmlmap to pull into the grid.

The issue I'm having is attempting to sort the various columns.

It won't sort at all, even using sorttype.

Should I pass the xml into an xmlstr? This would seem kind of cumbersome.

On another note, I would like to combine columns, such as putting first name and last name together.

Should I manipulate the xml file on the backend to do this in PHP, or is there another way through the js of the jqGrid?

Thanks