Kendo MVC Grid, WebApi, and OData

[Robert]

Hello,



Last week, Microsoft put out an OData media formatter for WebApi, meaning that you should be able to both use built-in WebApi support for OData query methods, AND produce OData format output.



I have my feed, I have a Razor-produced MVC Grid on the page, and I have it making the request through .Read(read => read.Url(TheUrlToMyApi)). Now I just need to get it to understand OData. How do I go about settings the Transport, as there doesn't appear to be an option in the GridHelper.



Thanks!

[Atanas Korchev]

Hi Robert,

 Currently Kendo UI Complete for ASP.NET MVC does not support WebAPI controllers. You may cast your vote for the logged feature request here: http://feedback.kendoui.com/forums/127393-kendo-ui-feedback/suggestions/2667632-make-kendo-datasource-compatible-with-asp-net-mvc- 


 On a side note could you please give us some links about the OData media formatter? They would be of help when we decide to add WebAPI support.

Kind regards,
Atanas Korchev
the Telerik team

[Robert]

Yes, you can read about it here. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/alexj/archive/2012/08/15/odata-support-in-asp-net-web-api.aspx?CommentPosted=true



So does the MVC grid support using OData sources? Because I can get it to make the proper request to the WebApi controller, I just can't get it to parse the XML or ask for JSON.

[Atanas Korchev]

Hello Robert,

 No, the MVC grid cannot consume OData data sources. However the client-side only version does: http://demos.kendoui.com/web/grid/remote-data.html 

 Thank you for providing this link! We will have it in mind when we start implementing the WebAPI support.

Greetings,
Atanas Korchev
the Telerik team

[Vincent]

What does the MVC Grid consume then? How can you set the MVC Datasource type to "json" or "odata"?
The WebApi returns oData now (since 15th of August) but the Grid is not able to use it, please explain why.

[Atanas Korchev]

Hi,

 The Kendo Grid for ASP.NET MVC currently does not support WebAPI controllers. It ca be bound to an action method which returns json. You can find more info in our documentation: http://docs.kendoui.com/getting-started/using-kendo-with/aspnet-mvc/helpers/grid/ajax-binding 

Regards,
Atanas Korchev
the Telerik team

[Sean]

Are there any plans to add support for WebAPI controllers in the future?  It would be nice to be able to re-use my REST controllers for a kendo UI...

[Atanas Korchev]

Hi,

 WebAPI controllers are supported even now. Please check this blog post about the Kendo UI and WebAPI support: http://www.kendoui.com/blogs/teamblog/posts/12-11-29/the_facts_on_using_kendo_ui_with_asp_net_webapi.aspx

Regards,
Atanas Korchev
the Telerik team