Is it possible to bind a collection of interfaces to Kendo Grid?

[nCubed]

Using asp.net MVC 3, is it possible to bind a collection of interfaces to a Kendo Grid instead of a concrete class? For example:

Controller

IEnumerable<IFoo> items = repo.GetFoo();

return View( items );

View

@model IEnumerable<IFoo>

 

@Html.Kendo().Grid(Model).Name("Grid").Columns(column =>

{

    column.Bound(c => c.Name).Title("Foo Name");

    column.Bound(c => c.Key).Title("Foo Key");

}).DataSource(dataSource => dataSource.Ajax().ServerOperation(false))

When binding directly to IEnumerable<IFoo>, the following exception is raised:

Exception Details: System.MissingMethodException: Cannot create an instance of an interface.

 

Source Error:

Line 7:  @Html.Kendo().Grid(Model).Name("Grid").Columns(column =>

Using the Kendo Grid, are we constrained to using concrete types for everything? Or is there a way to use an interfaces?

Thanks!

[Petur Subev]

Hi Kindler,

Unless your Grid is editable binding to a collection of interfaces should be possible.

Regards,
Petur Subev
the Telerik team

[phil]

Hello,

I'm having the same problem. I'm trying to bind a collection of interfaces to a grid, and am getting the same error as nCubed. The code is very similar to his, and the Grid is NOT editable. 

Here's the call stack:

[MissingMethodException: Cannot create an instance of an interface.]
   System.RuntimeTypeHandle.CreateInstance(RuntimeType type, Boolean publicOnly, Boolean noCheck, Boolean& canBeCached, RuntimeMethodHandleInternal& ctor, Boolean& bNeedSecurityCheck) +0
   System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceSlow(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark) +113
   System.RuntimeType.CreateInstanceDefaultCtor(Boolean publicOnly, Boolean skipCheckThis, Boolean fillCache, StackCrawlMark& stackMark) +232
   System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type, Boolean nonPublic) +83
   System.Activator.CreateInstance(Type type) +6
   Kendo.Mvc.UI.ModelDescriptor.CreateDataItem(Type modelType) +253
   Kendo.Mvc.UI.ModelDescriptor..ctor(Type modelType) +77
   Kendo.Mvc.UI.DataSource.ModelType(Type modelType) +70
   Kendo.Mvc.UI.Grid`1..ctor(ViewContext viewContext, IJavaScriptInitializer initializer, IUrlGenerator urlGenerator, IGridHtmlBuilderFactory htmlBuilderFactory) +1509
   Kendo.Mvc.UI.Fluent.WidgetFactory.Grid() +187

[nCubed]

Phil - we ended up changing our structure by using concrete types. One thing I didn't check, though, is verify if any of the properties on the interface are declared as interfaces themselves. If they are, then that is the likely culprit since there is no way to hydrate and rehydrate an interface between http requests.

FWIW: We are using ValueInjecter (similar, but easer than AutoMapper) to quickly map between the interface and a concrete type: http://valueinjecter.codeplex.com