You can use the Layout property to store the control's layout and to restore the layout later. For instance, you can save the control's Layout property to a file when the application is closing, and you can restore the control's layout when the application is loaded. The Layout property saves almost all of the control's properties that user can change at runtime ( like changing the column's position by drag and drop ). The Layout property does NOT save the control's data, so the Layout property should be called once you loaded the data from your database, xml or any other alternative. Once the data is loaded, you can call the Layout property to restore the View as it was saved. Before closing the application, you can call the Layout property and save the content to a file for reading next time the application is opened.

The Layout property saves/loads the following information:

• columns size and position
• current selection
• scrolling position and size
• sorting columns
• filtering options
• SearchColumnIndex property, indicates the column where the user can use the control's incremental searching.

These properties are serialized to a string and encoded in BASE64 format.

The following movies show how Layout works: 

• The Layout property is used to save and restore the control's view.

Generally, the Layout property can be used to save / load the control's layout ( or as it is displayed ). Thought, you can benefit of this property to sort the control using one or more columns as follows:

• multiplesort="";singlesort="", removes any previously sorting
• multiplesort="C3:1", sorts ascending the column with the index 3 ( and add it to the sort bar if visible )
• singlesort="C4:2", sorts descending the column with the index 4 ( it is not added to sort bar panel )
• multiplesort="C3:1";singlesort="C4:2", sorts ascending the column with the index 3 ( and add it to the sort bar if visible ), and sorts descending the column with the index 4. In other words, it re-sort the control by columns 3 and 4.
• multiplesort="C3:1 C5:2";singlesort="C4:2", sorts ascending the column with the index 3 ( and add it to the sort bar if visible ), sorts descending  the column with the index 5 ( and add it to the sort bar if visible ), and sorts descending the column with the index 4. In other words, it re-sort the control by columns 3, 5 and 4.

The format of the Layout in non-encoded form is like follows:

c0.filtertype=0
c0.position=0
c0.select=0
c0.visible=1
c0.width=96
....
columns=13
collapse="0-3 5-63 80-81 83"
filterprompt=""
focus=8
focuscolumnindex=0
hasfilter=1
hscroll=0
multiplesort="C12:1 C2:2"
searchcolumnindex=3
select="39 2 13 8"
selectcolumnindex=0
singlesort="C5:2"
vscroll=12
vscrolloffset=0