Cascading

The cascading ComboBox is a series of two or more ComboBox components in which each ComboBox is filtered according to the selected options in the previous ComboBox.

Basic Configuration

The child ComboBox cascades from the parent one if the CascadeFrom option is defined. The CascadeFrom option has to point to the parent ID.

    @(Html.Kendo().ComboBox()
          .Name("categories")
          // options removed for clarity
    )

    @(Html.Kendo().ComboBox()
          .Name("products")
          // options removed for clarity
          .DataSource(source => {
              source.Read(read =>
              {
                  read.Action("GetCascadeProducts", "ComboBox")
                      .Data("filterProducts");
              })
              .ServerFiltering(true);
          })
          .Enable(false)
          .AutoBind(false)
          .CascadeFrom("categories")
    )

    function filterProducts() {
        return {
            categories: $("#categories").val(),
            productFilter: $("#products").data("kendoComboBox").input.val()
        };
    }

    public JsonResult GetCascadeProducts(int? categories, string productFilter)
    {
        using (var northwind = GetContext())
        {
            var products = northwind.Products.AsQueryable();

            if (categories != null)
            {
                products = products.Where(p => p.CategoryID == categories);
            }

            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(productFilter))
            {
                products = products.Where(p => p.ProductName.Contains(productFilter));
            }

            return Json(products.Select(p => new { ProductID = p.ProductID, ProductName = p.ProductName }).ToList());
        }
    }

For a runnable example, refer to the demo on cascading comboboxes.

Cascading on Custom Parent Input

To allow custom input in the ComboBox, set the CascadeOnCustomValue of the parent ComboBox in a cascading scenario to true. As a result, cascading will be triggered upon custom input in the parent component. When CascadeOnCustomValue is set to its default false configuration, the child will not cascade and will be disabled upon setting custom input in the parent ComboBox. Cascading on custom values works only when CascadeFromParentField is not set for the child component or points to the DataValueField of the parent.

When the custom parent input is enabled, the child ComboBox takes the following actions during initialization:

1. Checks if the cascadeFrom property is set. If not, cascading is disabled.
2. Tries to find the parent ComboBox object. If the result is null, then the functionality is omitted.
3. Listens to any changes of the parent value.
4. If the parent does not have a value, the child is disabled. If the parent has a value, the child is enabled and filters its data accordingly. The filter options are similar to the ones demonstrated in the following example.

• The cascading functionality works only when you define the cascadeFrom property and initialize the parent ComboBox.
• The filter operator is always "eq". To filter the data, the child ComboBox uses the dataValueField option of the parent ComboBox.

The following example shows how to implement the cascading functionality of the ComboBox based on custom parent input.

    @(Html.Kendo().ComboBox()
          .Name("categories")
          .CascadeOnCustomValue(true)
          // options removed for clarity
    )

    @(Html.Kendo().ComboBox()
          .Name("products")
          // options removed for clarity
          .DataSource(source => {
              source.Read(read =>
              {
                  read.Action("GetCascadeProducts", "ComboBox")
                      .Data("filterProducts");
              })
              .ServerFiltering(true);
          })
          .Enable(false)
          .AutoBind(false)
          .CascadeFrom("categories")
    )

See Also

• Cascading ComboBoxes HtmlHelper for ASP.NET MVC (Demo)
• Server-Side API