Templates Overview

Templates allow you to embed any context inside a RadDropDownListItem. For example:

• HTML markup

• ASP.NET server controls

• other third-party controls (other Telerik RadControls for ASP.NET Ajax for example)

Example

Shows how to use templates to create the following RadDropDownList:

An section is added to the RadDropDownList declaration. The image in the template and the text that appears in the template is taken from the RadDropDownListItem using <%# DataBinder.Eval %> statements.

<telerik:RadDropDownList RenderMode="Lightweight" ID="RadDropDownList1"
     runat="server">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <table >
        <tr>
            <td>
                <img src='Images/<%# DataBinder.Eval(Container, "Attributes['ImagePath']") %>' alt="" />
            </td>
            <td>
                <%# DataBinder.Eval(Container, "Text") %>
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
    </ItemTemplate>
    <Items>
        <telerik:DropDownListItem ImagePath="additionOperation.png" Text="Sign for Adding" />
        <telerik:DropDownListItem ImagePath="substractOperation.png" Text="Sign for Substracting" />
        <telerik:DropDownListItem ImagePath="multiplyOperation.png" Text="Sign for Multiplying" />
        <telerik:DropDownListItem ImagePath="divideOperation.png" Text="Sign for Dividing" />
    </Items>
</telerik:RadDropDownList>

Before the template can use the RadDropDownList item's properties to bind the elements in the template, the application needs to explicitly bind the items by calling DataBind method of RadDropDownListItem objects.

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < RadDropDownList1.Items.Count; i++)
    {
        RadDropDownList1.Items[i].DataBind();
    }
}

Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Me.Load

    Dim i As Integer = 0

    While i < RadDropDownList1.Items.Count
        RadDropDownList1.Items(i).DataBind()
        i = i + 1
    End While

End Sub