code: def getTableMetadata(self):
          coltypes = {}
          for (colname, column) in self.columns.iteritems():
              sortable = column.sortAttribute() is not None
              coltype = column.getType()
              if coltype is not None:
                  coltype = unicode(coltype, 'ascii')
              coltypes[colname] = (coltype, sortable)
          if self.currentSortColumn:
              csc = unicode(self.currentSortColumn.sortAttribute().attrname, 'ascii')
          else:
              csc = None
          return [self.columnNames, coltypes, self.requestCurrentSize(),
                  csc, self.isAscending]