Dropdownlist + Select Item

[Lars]

Hi Everyone, 

 I have a question regarding the ASP.NET MVC Dropdownlist.

 I load my DDL with data from the controller like this. 

public JsonResult GetCountries()
{
    SelectList list = null;
    ServiceSession.CreateService<MemberService>((Service) =>
        {
            var country = Service.GetCountryCode​s();
            list = new SelectList(country, "Id", "Name", country.Where(e=>e.Name== "Danmark").First());
        });

    return Json(list, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

this result return a list of countries and add them to the DDL. 

@(Html.Kendo().DropDownListFor(m => m.CountryCode)
     .DataTextField("Text").DataValueField("Value").SelectedIndex(185).
     AutoBind(true).DataSource(dataSource => dataSource.Read(read =>
     { read.Action("GetCountries", "Member"); })))

Everything is fine, but how can I set the selectedIndex by the text and not the ID in the list?

I can't be sure that Denmark is always number 185. 
​

[Georgi Krustev]

Hello Lars,

In general, the DropDownList widget can select an item based on index or value. If you would like to select an item based on the text, then you will need to use the select method of the widget. Thus you can use a custom predicate and select the item that matches the custom condition:

@(Html.Kendo().DropDownListFor(m => m.CountryCode)
     .DataTextField("Text").DataValueField("Value").SelectedIndex(185).
     AutoBind(true).DataSource(dataSource => dataSource.Read(read =>
     { read.Action("GetCountries", "Member"); })))
<script>
  $(function() {
    var id = "@Html.IdFor(m => m.CountryCode)";
    var widget = $("#" + id).data("kendoDropDownList");
    var select = function() {
       widget.select([custom predicate here]);
    };

    if (!widget.dataSource.view().length) {
       widget.one("dataBound", function() { select(); }); //widget is not loaded yet
    } else {
       select();
    }
  });
</script>

Regards,
Georgi Krustev
Telerik