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Render Modes

This article demonstrates the usage and the advantages, brought you by the RenderModes of the RadComboBox.

Overview

As from Q1 2013, RadComboBox introduces the new RenderMode property, which accepts four values :

  • Classic - this is the default value of the RenderMode property . It preserves the original rendering of the control - tables and nested elements are used to create layout.

  • Lightweight - with this render mode, the control yields completely different markup making maximum use of CSS 3 and semantic html. This means that we no longer use table element for the input part and have dropped the image gradients in favor of CSS gradients. As for the skins, the main goal of using the Lightweight render mode is that image gradients could be easily replaced by CSS gradients. Thus, the amount of data that the client browser should request is sensibly decreased. This enhancement favors especially the mobile experience.

  • Native- this render mode corresponds to the old Simple mode. In other words, it renders the combo as a simple native html select. When the Native render mode is set, you could not make use of any skinning.

  • Auto - this mode makes each control choose the appropriate rendering mode according to the used browser - Classic or Lightweight. This functionality was added in Q3 2013.

The "RenderingMode" property of the RadComboBox is now obsoleted.

Setting Render Mode

There are two ways to set the RenderMode for the RadComboBox:

  • When the RenderMode property is set in the markup you can type in a string, when set in the code-behind it takes a member of the Telerik.Web.UI.RenderMode enum. For example:
<telerik:RadComboBox RenderMode="Lightweight" runat="server" ID="RadComboBox1"></telerik:RadComboBox>
  • A global setting in the web.config file that will affect the entire application, unless a concrete value is specified for RadComboBox instance:

    • Change render mode for all RadComboBoxes in your application
    • Change render mode for all controls in your application

Change render mode for all RadComboBoxes:

<appSettings>
    <add key="Telerik.Web.UI.ComboBox.RenderMode" value="lightweight" />
</appSettings>

Change render mode for all controls:

<appSettings>
    <add key="Telerik.Web.UI.RenderMode" value="lightweight" />
</appSettings>

See Also

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