Few Questions

[Christopher Blickley]

1. It seems like this control is a much better replacement for the Asp.Net DropDownList than RadComboBox for lightweight use.  I was wondering if there will ever be methods on the items collection like FindByValue and FindByText like the standard asp.net control has?  I can easily find items using Linq on the Items collection, but thought it would be a built-in method.  RadComboBox has these methods, and although RadDropDown is lighter, these seem essential.

2.  Will there every be functionality that provides for auto-width on the drop down?  Since the asp.net listbox does this by default and the RadComboBox has this, it might be a nice addition.

I realize this is supposed to be a very lightweight control, but it seems to me these are pretty basic things...

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Bozhidar]

Hello Christopher,

Thank you for the feedback.

We will include the "findItemByText/Value" client methods by next weeks internal build, which means that they will also be available in the upcoming ServicePack. 

We also plan to implement the AutoWidth functionality for the next release, however it may not be ready in time for the ServicePack.

I've also updated your telerik points for the feedback.
 
Kind regards,
Bozhidar
the Telerik team

[Bill O'Neil]

How about server side?  Am I missing something or is the expected DropDownList method of FindByValue missing from the server side?

Example:

DropDownListControl.Items.FindByValue("value")

Does that exist?  How is one expected to find a desired item?

(Although it seems that setting the SelectedValue is well behaved - and doesn't care if the value exists or not.)

Bill

[Christopher Blickley]

Good point, server side was actually what I was looking for. 

I also noticed something else on the client side.  When I add items to the control, if I don't specifically supply the "Value" of the item, the value is blank on the client side when getting the selected item.

I may be wrong, but I also thought that in a regular DropDownList, if you don't supply the Value property of the item, the value is "assumed" from the text property. 

So in this case below, I only specified the text property.  On the client, Value of the selected item will be blank, so I have to first check the value and if it is not there, grab the text property.

That may have been intentional in the API, but it caught me off guard.

<telerik:RadDropDownList runat="server" ID="lstEmplType" Skin="Windows7">
<Items>
    <telerik:DropDownListItem Text="2010"  Selected="true" />
    <telerik:DropDownListItem Text="2011"  />
    <telerik:DropDownListItem Text="2012"  />
    <telerik:DropDownListItem Text="2013"  />
</Items>
</telerik:RadDropDownList>

[Bozhidar]

Hi Christopher,

Please excuse me for the misunderstanding. The DropDownList already has the client versions of these methods, and what I meant was that we will include the server side equivalents. In fact they are already included in our latest internal build.

As for the Value property, this is a design decision that we took when creating the control.
 
All the best,
Bozhidar
the Telerik team

[Christopher Blickley]

Thanks.  No misunderstanding, the server methods (which I know have in the internal build) is exactly what we needed.  I was clarifying because I think the other user's comment may have thought I was referring to the client side.

The latest build looks great, thanks!