Grid with column bound to null complex property

[Nick]

With this data:
var fails = 
[
  { id: 0, name: 'zero', complex: { name: 'complex 0' } },
  { id: 1, name: 'one', complex: null }
];

And these columns:
var columns = 
[ 
  { title: "id", field: "id" },
  { title: "name", field: "name" },
  { title: "complex", field: "complex.name" }
];

This throws an exception and fails to render any data:
$("#fails").kendoGrid({
  dataSource: fails,
  columns: columns
});

JSBin demo here: http://jsbin.com/omuviw/3/edit

[Marcin Butlak]

Why should it not throw an error when you are trying to display object property complex.name when complex is null?

[Nick]

Perhaps it is my job to make sure my data is ok, but I was hoping to fall into the Pit Of Success.

What could I possibly mean when I ask the grid to display the name property of a null reference?

I certainly don't want the grid to throw a hissy fit ( and a js exception ) and refuse to render any of the data.

Ideally, I would like the grid to treat the expression as a null value.
Other components I have used do this and it works well.

[Marcin Butlak]

I think that the data should be strict bound to field/property names, because it is easier to debug. The point of using a widget is to ease some tasks not to mask an important error.

[Nick]

In my use case, null property objects are not an error - they are part of the domain model.

I just want to throw an object graph at the grid and have it displayed with all the goodness: themeing, paging, filtering, grouping, sorting...

My data comes from Entity Framework and contains foreign key property objects that may be null.
I don't want to use View Models for basic CRUD pages - they shouldn't be required and just add complexity.

[Marcin Butlak]

I understand that but you must remember that you are working here with client <-> server/local data configuration. The client knows that it will recieve some data structure it doesn't know how to handle it. There is always some logic involved... I think that MVVC or MVC clearly defines which goes where. And too much magic is always bad from my point of view. I think that putting some simple logic statements in field data to handle the null values isn't a bad approach. Another way would be to define the model source but I don't know how complex the model source in kendoui is.

[Cody]

I agree with Nick on this. A simple solution for your customers would be to have the grid not fail. If we want to handle the binding problem we can using a manner you suggest.

 I got around it by doing this in the requestEnd event.

requestEnd: function (e) {
    var response = e.response;
    $.each(response, function (index, value) {
        if (value.Magazine == null) {
            value.Magazine = {Id:"",Name:""}
        }
    });
}