Editor Templates

You can create an editing UI of a Telerik UI Grid for ASP.NET MVC by defining editor templates.

For runnable examples, refer to the demos on templates in the Grid.

Getting Started

The Telerik UI Grid for ASP.NET MVC relies on ASP.NET MVC editor templates to create an editing UI. If the Grid is configured for in-line or in-cell editing, it uses the Html.EditorForModel method to get the editor HTML for every property which is editable.

The configuration later in this article will be used to get the editor HTML for the OrderDate and ShipCountry properties.

    @(Html.Kendo().Grid<Order>()
        .Name("Grid")
        .Columns(columns =>
        {
            columns.Bound(o => o.OrderDate);
            columns.Bound(o => o.ShipCountry);
        })
        .Editable(editable => editable.Mode(GridEditMode.InLine))

The following example demonstrates the code that will be used to get the editor HTML for the OrderDate and ShipCountry properties.

    @(Html.EditorFor(o => o.OrderDate);
    @(Html.EditorFor(o => o.ShipCountry);

If the Grid is configured for popup editing, it will use the Html.EditorForModel to get the editor HTML for the whole model.

For more information on ASP.NET MVC editor templates, refer to this blog post series on ASP.NET MVC 2 templates. For a runnable example on using custom popup templates, refer to this demo.

Creating Custom Editors for Bound Properties

Your project may require you to create a custom editor for a specific property. For example, to show a DropDownList which contains all available values that a property can take. This is done by creating an editor template for the property.

Consider the following models which represent the Order and Employee entities from the Northwind database.

public class Order
{
    public int OrderID { get; set; }

    public string ShipCountry { get; set; }

    public Employee Employee { get; set; }
}

public class Employee
{
    public int EmployeeID { get; set; }

    public string EmployeeName { get; set; }
}

Create an editor template for the Employee property. The template will display a DropDownList editor with all available employees. Add a new partial view to the ~/Views/Shared/EditorTemplates folder—for example, EmployeeEditor.cshtml. In case the Editor Templates folder does not exist, you must add it manually.

Add the DropDownList to that partial view. Set the Name of the DropDownList to the name of the property which will be edited—"Employee" in this case.

    @(Html.Kendo().DropDownList()
        .Name("Employee") // The name of the component has to be the same as the name of the property.
        .DataValueField("EmployeeID") // The value of the drop-down is taken from the EmployeeID property.
        .DataTextField("EmployeeName") // The text of the items is taken from the EmployeeName property.
        .BindTo((System.Collections.IEnumerable)ViewData["employees"]) // A list of all employees which is populated in the controller.
    )

In the main view, bind a column of the Grid to the Employee property.

    .Editable(editable => editable.Mode(GridEditMode.InCell))
    .Columns(columns =>
    {
        columns.Bound(p => p.Employee).ClientTemplate("#=Employee.EmployeeName#").Sortable(false).Width(180);
    })

In the action method, which renders the view that contains the Grid, populate the ViewData with a list of all employees. Point the DefaultValue for the Employee field when adding a new item.

public ActionResult Index()
{
    List<Employee> employees = new List<Employee>();

    for (int i = 1; i < 6; i++)
    {
        Employee employee = new Employee
        {
            EmployeeID = i,
            EmployeeName = "EmployeeName " + i
        };
        employees.Add(employee);
    }

    ViewData["employees"] = employees;
    ViewData["defaultEmployee"] = employees[0];

    return View();
}

Decorate the Employee property with the UIHint attribute. It needs the name of the editor template ("EmployeeEditor") created in Step 3 without the extension ".cshtml".

public class Order
{
    public int OrderID { get; set; }

    public string ShipCountry { get; set; }

    [UIHint("EmployeeEditor")]
    public Employee Employee { get; set; }
}

If the Grid is configured for InLine editing, use the EditorTemplateName() method to set the name of the created custom editor template.

    .Editable(editable => editable.Mode(GridEditMode.InLine))
    .Columns(columns =>
    {
        columns.Bound(p => p.Employee).ClientTemplate("#=Employee.EmployeeName#").EditorTemplateName("EmployeeEditor").Sortable(false).Width(180);
    })

Specify default value for the column in the Model of the DataSource.

    .DataSource(dataSource => dataSource
        .Ajax()
        .Batch(true)
        .Model(model =>
        {
            model.Id(p => p.OrderID);
            model.Field(p => p.Employee).DefaultValue(
                ViewData["defaultEmployee"] as TelerikMvcApp31.Models.Employee);
        })
        .PageSize(20)
        .Create(c => c.Action("Create", "Grid"))
        .Read(read => read.Action("Orders_Read", "Grid"))
        .Update(u => u.Action("Update", "Grid"))
    )

Editor Templates

Getting Started

Creating Custom Editors for Bound Properties

See Also

Getting Started

Support Resources

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