[Solved] How to avoid code duplication when creating a grid?

[Pavels]

Hi,

I've got a base class NamedObject and many classes that descend from it. I need to display objects of descendent classes in the grid, each descendant class has got its own specific set of "columns" (properties). Please can you advise how I can tell the Grid which class type to use to automatically generate the columns? If I just pass-in an IEnumerable<NamedObject> then the grid gives me columns of NamedObject, but I need to display columns of the actual type of the data that I'm passing into the grid. Is there a way to achieve this without duplicating the below code block for every descendant class type?

Thanks.

Pavels.

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Code Block:
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@{ Html.Telerik().Grid((IEnumerable<NamedObject>)ViewData["ModuleEntityObjects"])
       .Name("MainGrid")
       .HtmlAttributes(new { style = "float: left" })
       .Columns(columns => { columns.AutoGenerate(true); columns.Command(commands => { commands.Edit(); commands.Delete(); }); })
       .ToolBar(commands => commands.Insert())
       .DataKeys(keys => keys.Add(f => f.ID))
       .DataBinding(dataBinding => dataBinding.Ajax()
           .Select("SelectObject", ModuleSystemName)
           .Insert("InsertObject", ModuleSystemName)
           .Update("ModifyObject", ModuleSystemName)
           .Delete("DeleteObject", ModuleSystemName))
       .Sortable(sorting => sorting
           .OrderBy(order => order.Add(o => o.Name))
           .Enabled(true))
       .Filterable(filtering => filtering.Enabled(true))
       .Resizable(resizing => resizing.Columns(true))
       .Reorderable(reorder => reorder.Columns(true))
       .Render();
}

[Tony]

I haven't tries what you're working with, but in the worst case scenario, you can use the gridcolumoptions from the controller and pass that to the grid. At least you'd only have to do it in code once - save it to helper. It's not auto generated but at least only built once. You could also do a little reflection action and make a generic one.