I'm using jqgrid in an ASPNET MVC4 project with WebApi (REST), Entity Framework 5 using Unit Of Work and Repository patterns. My problem is that I see the data flowing as json to the browser and I see three rows in the grid, but those rows are empty, and the data is not shown (three empty rows in the grid).

This is method to get the data in the WebApi controller:

public dynamic GetGridData(int rows, int page, string sidx, string sord)
{
    var pageSize = rows;
    var index = sidx;
    var order = sord;
    var categories = Uow.Categories.GetAll().OrderBy(t => (string.IsNullOrEmpty(index) ? "Id" : index) + " " + (order ?? "desc"));
    var pageIndex = Convert.ToInt32(page) - 1;
    var totalRecords = categories.Count();
    var totalPages = (int)Math.Ceiling((float) totalRecords / (float) pageSize);
    var categoriesPage = categories.Skip(pageIndex * pageSize).Take(pageSize).ToList();

    return new 
        {
            total = totalPages,
            page = page,
            records = totalRecords,
            rows = (from category in categoriesPage
                    select new
                        {
                            id = category.Id.ToString(),
                            cell = new string[]
                                {
                                    category.Id.ToString(),
                                    category.Name,
                                    category.Description
                                }
                        }).ToArray()
        };
}

This is the json received in the browser

{
    "total": 1,
    "page": 1,
    "records": 3,
    "rows": [{
        "id": "1",
        "cell": ["1", "Category 1", null]
    }, {
        "id": "3",
        "cell": ["3", "Category 3", "asAS"]
    }, {
        "id": "4",
        "cell": ["4", "Category 4", null]
    }]
}

This is the .js file with jqgrid

jQuery("#ajaxGrid").jqGrid({
    url: $("#ServiceUrl").val(),
    datatype: "json",
    jsonReader: { repeatitems: false, id: "Id" },
    colNames: ['Id', 'Name', 'Description'],
    colModel: [
        { name: 'id', editable: true, sortable: true, hidden: true, align: 'left' },
        { name: 'name', editable: true, sortable: true, hidden: false, align: 'left' },
        { name: 'description', editable: true, sortable: true, hidden: false, align: 'left' }
],
    mtype: 'GET',
    rowNum: 15,
    pager: '#ajaxGridPager',
    rowList: [10, 20, 50, 100],
    caption: 'List of Categories',
    imgpath: $("#ServiceImagesUrl").val(),
    altRows: true,
    shrinkToFit: true,
    viewrecords: true,
    autowidth: true,
    height: 'auto',
    error: function(x, e)
    {
        alert(x.readyState + " "+ x.status +" "+ e.msg);
    }
});

function updateDialog(action) {
    return {
        url: $("#ServiceUrl").val(),
        closeAfterAdd: true,
        closeAfterEdit: true,
        afterShowForm: function (formId) { },
        modal: true,
        onclickSubmit: function (params) {
            var list = $("#ajaxGrid");
            var selectedRow = list.getGridParam("selrow");
            params.url += "/" + list.getRowData(selectedRow).Id;
            params.mtype = action;
        },
        width: "300",
        ajaxEditOptions: { contentType: "application/json" },
        serializeEditData: function (data) {
            delete data.oper;
            return JSON.stringify(data);
        }
    };
}

jQuery("#ajaxGrid").jqGrid(
    'navGrid',
    '#ajaxGridPager',
     {
         add: true,
         edit: true,
         del: true,
         search: false,
         refresh: false
     },
     updateDialog('PUT'),
     updateDialog('POST'),
     updateDialog('DELETE')
);

BTW, If I want to return jqGridData instead the dynamic, How should I do it? Did is showing empty rows as well:

public class jqGridData<T> where T : class
{
    public int page { get; set; } 
    public int records { get; set; } 
    public IEnumerable<T> rows { get; set; } 
    public decimal total { get; set; } 
}

public jqGridData<Category> GetGridData(int rows, int page, string sidx, string sord)
        {
            var pageSize = rows;
            var index = sidx;
            var order = sord;
            var categories = Uow.Categories.GetAll().OrderBy(t => (string.IsNullOrEmpty(index) ? "Id" : index) + " " + (order ?? "desc"));
            var pageIndex = Convert.ToInt32(page) - 1;
            var totalRecords = categories.Count();
            var totalPages = (int)Math.Ceiling((float)totalRecords / (float)pageSize);
            var categoriesPage = categories.Skip(pageIndex * pageSize).Take(pageSize);

            return new jqGridData<Category>
            {
                page = page,
                records = totalRecords,
                total = totalPages,
                rows = categoriesPage
            };
        }