React Grid: Row Models

The grid can be configured with different strategies for loading row data into the grid, which are encapsulated into different Row Models. Changing which Row Model the grid is using means changing the strategy the grid is using for loading rows.

The grid comes with four row models:

1. Client-Side
2. Server-Side
3. Infinite
4. Viewport

The Client-Side Row Model deals with client-side data. The Server-Side, Infinite and Viewport Row Models deal with server-side data. The following is a summary of each:

• Client-Side

  This is the default. The grid will load all of the data into the grid in one go. The grid can then perform filtering, sorting, grouping, pivoting and aggregation all in memory.

  Go to Client-Side Row Model

• Infinite

  This will present the data to the user and load more data as the user scrolls down. Use this if you want to display a large, flat (not grouped) list of data.

  Go to Infinite Row Model

• Server-Side

  The Server-Side Row Model builds on the Infinite Row Model. In addition to lazy-loading the data as the user scrolls down, it also allows lazy-loading of grouped data with server-side grouping and aggregation. Advanced users will use Server-Side Row Model to do ad-hoc slice and dice of data with server-side aggregations.

  Go to Server-Side Row Model

• Viewport

  The grid will inform the server exactly what data it is displaying (first and last row) and the server will provide data for exactly those rows only. Use this if you want the server to know exactly what the user is viewing, useful for updates in very large live datastreams where the server only sends updates to clients viewing the impacted rows.

  Go to Viewport Row Model

Which row model you use is set as a grid property rowModelType. Set it to one of 'clientSide', 'infinite', 'viewport', or 'serverSide'. The default is 'clientSide'.

When to Use

Which row model you use will depend on your application. Here are some quick rules of thumb:

• If using AG Grid Community, use Client-Side Row Model if you want to load all your data into the browser, or Infinite Row Model if you want to load it in blocks.
• If using AG Grid Enterprise, use Client-Side Row Model if you want to load all your data into the browser, or Server-Side Row Model if you want to load it in blocks. Server-Side Row Model is Infinite Row Model plus more. So if you are an AG Grid Enterprise customer, you should prefer Server-Side Row Model over Infinite Row Model.
• Don't use Viewport Row Model unless you understand what its advantages are and when you need them. We find many of our users use Viewport Row Model when they don't need to and end up with more complicated applications as a result.

Here are more detailed rules of thumb.

• If you are not sure, use default Client-Side. The grid can handle massive amounts of data (100k+ rows). The grid will only render what's visible on the screen (40 rows approximately, depending on your screen size) even if you have thousands of rows returned from your server. You will not kill the grid with too much data - rather your browser will run out of memory before the grid gets into problems. So if you are unsure, go with Client-Side Row Model first and only change if you need to. With Client-Side, you get sorting, filtering, grouping, pivoting and aggregation all done for you by the grid. All of the examples in the documentation use the Client-Side model unless specified otherwise.
• If you do not want to shift all the data from your server to your client, as the amount of data is too large to shift over the network or to extract from the underlying datasource, then use either Infinite, Server-Side or Viewport. Each one takes data from the server in different ways.
• Use Infinite or Server-Side to bring back a list of data one block at a time from the server. As the user scrolls, the grid will ask for more rows. Server-Side has more features than Infinite and will allow row grouping, aggregation, lazy-loading of groups and slice and dice of data.
• Use Viewport if you want the server to know exactly what the user is looking at. This is best when you have a large amount of changing data and want to push updates to the client when the server-side data changes. Knowing exactly what the user is looking at means you only have to push updates to the relevant users. All the row models can receive updates but only the Viewport row model provides the server with the information of the rows the users currently sees on screen without scrolling.

Row Model Comparisons

Below is a quick feature comparison of all the grid's features across all four row models.