how to get data

I feel like I'm missing something when it comes to getting data from the grid. It seems as though calling getCellData() or getCellText() should return a two dimensional array with the grid data, but It always returns a zero length array. Is the only way to get table data to loop through the rows and columns myself?

Yes, thats correct. getCellData() and getCellText() methods always return a single value (not array or function). However you can call setCellData() and setCellText() in a variety of ways, including single value without row/col arguments (i.e. default for the grid), single value with just column argument (default for the column), value with both col/row args, a function or a two-dimensional array.