Remote Data Binding
The Kendo UI Grid widget features a rapid templating engine and a built-in DataSource, which allow you to set up the widget very quickly and use it in your project.
The Procedure
To bind the Grid to remote data, provide the data source configuration. For the sake of demonstrating the approach, the examples in this article use the popular Flickr public feed.
Supply the Remote Endpoint
Kendo UI provides a powerful data binding framework that can be used inline with the Grid. To do that, define the dataSource of the widget and supply the remote endpoint.
Example
<div id="grid">
</div>
<script>
$(function() {
$("#grid").kendoGrid({
dataSource: {
transport: {
read: {
url: "https://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne",
data: {
tags: "nature",
format: "json"
},
dataType: "jsonp", // "jsonp" is required for cross-domain requests; use "json" for same-domain requests
jsonp: "jsoncallback",
}
},
schema: {
data: "items",
model: {
fields: {
published: {type: "date"}
}
}
}
},
height: 500,
scrollable: true,
selectable: true
});
});
</script>
Explanation of the previous example
- The
dataSourcecreates a new Kendo UI DataSource and assigns it as the data source for the Grid. - The
transportdefines the way you will communicate with the remote data source. - The
urlpoints the location of the data you want to bind the widget to. - The
datalists additional url parameters that need to be sent to the remote point. - The
dataTypeindicates the format of the response in which the data source is expected to be—JSONP in the example. JSONP is a way of returning JSON from a cross-browser request without getting blocked. It basically wraps the JSON response in a callback to intentionally mislead the browser. It is not recommended to do so unless you fully trust your data. - The
schemaindicates to the Grid what the schema of the response is. - The
datafunctions as the JSON element to repeat on—Kendo UI looks for this element to bind each row in the Grid to an item in this element. The server returns data as anitemsarray so the repeating item is"items". - The
modeldescribes the structure of the data. Using it, you can specify the data type of each field in the data for proper handling, as well as explicitly state which is the unique id field when needed.
Add the Data
The previous example renders a Grid with auto-generated columns—a column for each field in the data items. To display only the needed fields in the Grid widget, provide a columns list and specify which element of the items array in the server response has to be shown in each particular column.
The following example demonstrates how to specify the field attribute in the column array in such a way that the Grid displays the required data from the response. The columns also have a title property, which is used to provide more user-friendly header titles for the columns.
Example
<div id="grid">
</div>
<script>
$(function() {
$("#grid").kendoGrid({
dataSource: {
transport: {
read: {
url: "https://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne",
data: {
tags: "nature",
format: "json"
},
dataType: "jsonp", // "jsonp" is required for cross-domain requests; use "json" for same-domain requests
jsonp: "jsoncallback",
}
},
schema: {
data: "items",
model: {
fields: {
published: {type: "date"}
}
}
}
},
columns: [
{field: "title", title: "Title"},
{field: "published", title: "Published On"},
{field: "media", title: "Image"}
],
height: 500,
scrollable: true,
selectable: true
});
});
</script>
Handle Visualization
Instead of showing an image in Image column, the Grid renders the string output of a JavaScript object. Also, the date does not appear in a user-friendly format.
The following example demonstrates how to indicate to the Grid the way you want the widget to display the Image column by using an inline template for the image. The date is properly formatted using the column format option.
Example
<div id="grid">
</div>
<script>
$(function() {
$("#grid").kendoGrid({
dataSource: {
transport: {
read: {
url: "https://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne",
data: {
tags: "nature",
format: "json"
},
dataType: "jsonp", // "jsonp" is required for cross-domain requests; use "json" for same-domain requests
jsonp: "jsoncallback",
}
},
schema: {
data: "items",
model: {
fields: {
published: {type: "date"}
}
}
}
},
columns: [
{field: "title", title: "Title"},
{field: "published", title: "Published On", format: "{0: MMM dd yyyy HH:mm}"},
{field: "media", title: "Image", template: "<img height='100' src='#:data.media.m#' title='#: data.title#'/>"}
],
height: 500,
scrollable: true,
selectable: true
});
});
</script>
Set the Row Template
You may want to display more complex templates for the columns in the Grid—for example, multiple field values in a single column—while the content of the other columns may need to be iterated to generate the template output. In such scenarios, you can use rowTemplate to describe the structure of the entire row inside a single template.
The following example demonstrates how to fully customize the Grid by applying additional styles to it. Note that the number of td elements in the template matches the number of columns in the Grid definition.
Example
<div id="grid">
</div>
<script id="detailsTemplate" type="text/x-kendo-template">
<tr class="row">
<td>
<div><span class="strong">Title: </span># if ( title ) { #
#= title #
# } #
</div>
<div><span class="strong">Username: </span>
#= author #
</div>
<div><span class="strong">Published: </span>
#= kendo.toString(new Date(published), "MMM dd yyyy HH:mm") #
</div><div><span class="strong">Link: </span>
<a href='#= link #' target='_blank'>Open</a>
</div>
</td>
<td>
<div>
# $.each(tags.split(' '), function(index, data) { #
<span class="tag">
#= data #
</span>
</div>
# }); #
</div>
</td>
<td>
<div class="image">
<img src="#= media.m #" alt="#= author #" />
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</script>
<script>
$(function() {
$("#grid").kendoGrid({
dataSource: {
transport: {
read: {
url: "https://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne",
data: {
tags: "nature",
format: "json"
},
dataType: "jsonp", // "jsonp" is required for cross-domain requests; use "json" for same-domain requests
jsonp: "jsoncallback",
}
},
schema: {
data: "items",
model: {
fields: {
published: {type: "date"}
}
}
}
},
columns: [
{title: "Info"},
{title: "Tags"},
{title: "Image"}
],
rowTemplate: kendo.template($("#detailsTemplate").html()),
height: 500,
scrollable: true
});
});
</script>
<style>
.row {
margin-bottom: 20px;
border-bottom: thin solid black;
}
.image {
text-align: center;
}
.tag {
font-style: italic;
}
.tag:hover {
background-color: lightblue;
}
.strong {
font-weight: bold;
}
</style>
Important
The
htmlcode in the last example displays special script blocks which contain the templating syntax for the Kendo UI templates. The JavaScript that is used is also mixed with thehtmlcontent and the syntax of the templates is similar to the syntax that is applied in the creation of a PHP, Razor, or other server-side templating engine.