Table of Contents

It is quit easy for developers to make some columns frozen/locked within jqGrid. The locked columns do not scroll out of view when users moving horizontally across the grid. This is quite useful when you dealing with wide table with some fields should be visible permanently.

Setup and limitations

Setup

First you will need to setup which columns will be frozen/locked.This is done in colModel setting the property frozen:true. Below is a correct setup: 

...
jQuery("#grid").jqGrid({
...
   colNames: ['Date', 'Client', 'Amount', 'Tax', 'Total', 'Closed', 'Shipped via', 'Notes'],
   colModel: [
         {name: 'name', index: 'name', width: 70, frozen:true },
         {name: 'invdate', index: 'invdate', width: 80, align: 'center', sorttype: 'date',
            formatter: 'date', formatoptions: {newformat: 'd-M-Y'}, datefmt: 'd-M-Y', frozen:true},
         {name: 'name', index: 'name', width: 70 },
         {name: 'amount', index: 'amount', width: 75, formatter: 'number', sorttype: 'number', align: 'right'},
         {name: 'tax', index: 'tax', width: 75, formatter: 'number', sorttype: 'number', align: 'right'},
         {name: 'total', index: 'total', width: 75, formatter: 'number', sorttype: 'number', align: 'right'},
         {name: 'closed', index: 'closed', width: 75, align: 'center', formatter: 'checkbox',
            edittype: 'checkbox', editoptions: {value: 'Yes:No', defaultValue: 'Yes'}},
         {name: 'ship_via', index: 'ship_via', width: 100, align: 'center', formatter: 'select',
            edittype: 'select', editoptions: {value: 'FE:FedEx;TN:TNT;IN:Intim', defaultValue: 'Intime'}},
         {name: 'note', index: 'note', width: 70, sortable: false}
    ],
    rowNum: 10,
    rowList: [5, 10, 20],
 ...
});

After this you will need to call the method which is responsible to do this: 

jQuery("#grid").jqGrid('setFrozenColumns');

Note that the frozen property should be set one after other. If there is a missing frozen property in the sequence then the last position which meet this criteria will be used.

The below code will lock only the first column instead that you have set the third field to be frozen: 

..
jQuery("#grid").jqGrid({
...
   colNames: ['Date', 'Client', 'Amount', 'Tax', 'Total', 'Closed', 'Shipped via', 'Notes'],
   colModel: [
         {name: 'name', index: 'name', width: 70, frozen:true },
         {name: 'invdate', index: 'invdate', width: 80, align: 'center', sorttype: 'date',
            formatter: 'date', formatoptions: {newformat: 'd-M-Y'}, datefmt: 'd-M-Y'},
         {name: 'name', index: 'name', width: 70, frozen:true},
         {name: 'amount', index: 'amount', width: 75, formatter: 'number', sorttype: 'number', align: 'right'},
         {name: 'tax', index: 'tax', width: 75, formatter: 'number', sorttype: 'number', align: 'right'},
         {name: 'total', index: 'total', width: 75, formatter: 'number', sorttype: 'number', align: 'right'},
         {name: 'closed', index: 'closed', width: 75, align: 'center', formatter: 'checkbox',
            edittype: 'checkbox', editoptions: {value: 'Yes:No', defaultValue: 'Yes'}},
         {name: 'ship_via', index: 'ship_via', width: 100, align: 'center', formatter: 'select',
            edittype: 'select', editoptions: {value: 'FE:FedEx;TN:TNT;IN:Intim', defaultValue: 'Intime'}},
         {name: 'note', index: 'note', width: 70, sortable: false}
    ],
    rowNum: 10,
    rowList: [5, 10, 20],
 ...
});
jQuery("#grid").jqGrid('setFrozenColumns');

Destroy

It is possible to destroy the frozenColumns in the grid using the method destroyFrozenColumns. This method restores the grid configuration before calling the setupFrozenColums 

jQuery("#grid").jqGrid('destroyFrozenColumns');

Dynamic setup

It is possible to change the frozen columns dynamically. In this case it is needed to call first destroyFrozenColumns method setup new frozen proerties and call again setFrozenColumns.

Below example tell how to do this, making the invdate column frozen: 

jQuery("#mybutton").click(function(){
   jQuery("#grid")
   .jqGrid('destroyFrozenColumns');
   .jqGrid('setColProp','invdate', {frozen:true});
   .jqGrid('setFrozenColumns');
   .trigger('reloadGrid', [{current:true}]);
});
Currently in order to refresh the frozen column(s) we need to call trigger('reloadGrid'). Later this will be changed with more easy way.

Limitations

The following limitations tell you when frozen columns can not be set-up