This example shows how to configure Telerik Grid for ASP.NET MVC to use custom binding. By default the Grid is using the built-in Linq expression engine. However in some cases you may want to perform the paging, sorting and filtering by yourself. This examples shows how.

The required steps are:

1. Configure the grid to use custom binding

   <%= Html.Telerik().Grid(Model)
           .Name("Grid")
           .EnableCustomBinding(true)
   %>
   

2. If using paging you need to set the Total specifying the total number of records the grid is going to display. This is required for the proper pager configuration.

   <%= Html.Telerik().Grid(Model)
           .Name("Grid")
           .EnableCustomBinding(true)
           .Pageable(paging => paging.Total((int)ViewData["total"]))
   %>
   

3. The action method which returns data for the grid accepts an argument of type GridCommand. The command object contains all required information to data bind the grid - current page, sorted columns and filter. The action method must be decorated with the GridAction attribute and its EnableCustomBinding property must be set to true.

   [GridAction(EnableCustomBinding = true)]
   public ActionResult _CustomBinding(GridCommand command)
   {
       IEnumerable<Order> data = GetData(command);
   
       var dataContext = new NorthwindDataContext();
       return View(new GridModel { Data = data, Total = dataContext.Orders.Count() });
   }
   

4. The GetData method from the previous step performs the actual paging and sorting based on the data in the command argument. Check the controller code for the implementation.