Cannot sort RadDropDownList within EditItemTemplate.

[Dale]

Hello, thanks for looking at my question.  I have a popup ​Add Record window, one of the fields to select is a RadDropDownList that is populated by the Department ID column from the database.   The items in the list are not sorted and I would like them sorted in order for the user to find he needed ID faster.

The RadDropDownList is within an EditItemTemplate  that is within a  GridTemplateColumn.

 

<telerik:GridTemplateColumn HeaderText="DepartmentID" ItemStyle-Width="240px">
<ItemTemplate>
<%#DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "DepartmentID")%>
</ItemTemplate>
<EditItemTemplate>
<telerik:RadDropDownList runat="server" ID="RadDropDownList1" DataTextField="DepartmentID"
DataValueField="DepartmentID" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" SelectedValue='<%#Bind("DepartmentID")%>'>
</telerik:RadDropDownList>
</EditItemTemplate>
</telerik:GridTemplateColumn>

 

I have tried AllowSorting, SortExpression on the RadDropDownList and they did not work.

What am I missing in my code?

 

Thank you, Dale

 

[Konstantin Dikov]

Hi Dale,

The RadDropDownList control does not have AllowSorting, nor SortExpression properties and sorting the items should be performed on the data source. In your scenario, since you are providing the data through the DataSourceID property, you could set the order in the Select command of your SqlDataSource control:

<telerik:RadDropDownList ID="RadDropDownList2" runat="server" Width="220px"
        DropDownHeight="200" DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" DataTextField="ContactName" DefaultMessage="Select Customer"
        DataValueField="CustomerID">
    </telerik:RadDropDownList>

<asp:SqlDataSource runat="server" ID="SqlDataSource1" ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:NorthwindConnectionString %>"
ProviderName="System.Data.SqlClient" SelectCommand="SELECT [CustomerID], [ContactName] FROM [Customers] ORDER By ContactName"></asp:SqlDataSource>

Another option is to handle the server-side OnDataBound event of the RadDropDownList and sort the Items collection:

protected void RadDropDownList2_DataBound(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    (sender as RadDropDownList).Items.Sort(x => x.Text);
}

Hope this helps.
 

Regards,
Konstantin Dikov
Telerik

[Dale]

Hi Konstantin, thank you for the reply.  I now have it working, I did it the way you suggested by the sql statement on the data source.  All that had to be done was to add the ORDER BY clause.

I asked the question as the RadGrid has a lot of features and I thought I not found one regarding my issue.

Thank you for your time.  Dale, 

 

[Dale]

Thanks, it is working now.