Kendo Grid columnMenuInit and Filter Operator Restore Not Firing After Sort

[Isis]

Hi,

I’m using the Kendo UI Grid with column menu filters. My requirement:

• Let the user pick a filter operator (e.g., contains, equals).

• Don’t apply a filter if the value is empty.

• Keep the operator visible every time the 3-dot menu opens, even after sorting.

What I’ve tried:

1. columnMenuInit → Works first time, but doesn’t fire again for the same column.

2. Popup open inside columnMenuInit → Fires once, but after sorting the grid, it doesn’t trigger again.

3. Delegated jQuery click handler → Works reliably, but feels like a hack.

Minimal repro (MVC wrapper):

@(Html.Kendo().Grid<MyModel>()
    .Name("Invoices")
    .Columns(c => {
        c.Bound(x => x.InvoiceNumber);
        c.Bound(x => x.CustomerName);
    })
    .Sortable()
    .Filterable(f => f.Extra(false))
    .ColumnMenu(m => m.Filterable(true))
    .Events(e => e.ColumnMenuInit("onColumnMenuInit"))
)

<script>
function onColumnMenuInit(e) {
    var popup = e.container.data("kendoPopup");
    if (popup) {
        popup.bind("open", function () {
            var ddl = e.container.find("select[title='Operator']").data("kendoDropDownList");
            if (ddl) ddl.value("contains"); // operator only, no value
            e.container.find("input[type=text]").val("");
        });
    }
}
</script>

Issue:

• The operator shows correctly the first time.

• After sorting and reopening the menu, the operator reset logic does not run.

Questions:

• Is there an official event I can use to run logic every time the column menu opens?

• What’s the recommended way to restore operator state when no filter value is applied?

Thanks!