RadComboBox not showing EmptyMessage

[Karl Rohrbach]

I must be doing something wrong.  I have a RadComboBox and it is showing the first item in the list bound to it vs. EmptyMessage.  Any help would be appreciated.  In the below example, I want the drop down to first display "Choose an Organization"  Instead, it is displaying the DataTextField (first item in data set).   Thanks in advance.

.ASCX Control

<strong>Organization:</strong><br />
<telerik:RadComboBox runat="server" ID="OrganizationList"
EmptyMessage="Choose an Organization" EnableLoadOnDemand="true"
HighlightTemplatedItems="true" Width="600px" BackColor="#FFFFCC"
DataTextField="Name" DataValueField="ContactId" OnItemsRequested="RadComboBox_LoadOrganizations">
        <ItemTemplate>
            <table style="width: 550px;">
                <tr>
                    <td><%# DataBinder.Eval(Container.DataItem, "Name") %></td>
                </tr>

            </table>
        </ItemTemplate>
</telerik:RadComboBox>

.ASCX.CS Code Behind

protected void RadComboBox_LoadOrganizations(object sender, RadComboBoxItemsRequestedEventArgs e)
{
    int userID;
    userID = Convert.ToInt32(Server.HtmlEncode(Request.QueryString["UID"]));
    OrgView.ContactLookup[] orglist = orgData.GetAssociatedContactsLookupList(userID);
    OrganizationList.DataSource = orglist;
    OrganizationList.DataBind();
}

[Simon]

Hello Karl Rohrbach,

Currently the empty message shows only if the RadComboBox is writable and in your case it is read-only. Luckily you can easily resolve this if you:

• Set the AllowCustomText property to true.
• Handle the client-side Load event in this way:

  function onLoad(sender) {
      var input = sender.get_inputDomElement();
      input.readOnly = "readonly";
      input.parentNode.parentNode.className = "rcbReadOnly";
  }

Best wishes,
Simon
the Telerik team

[Ian]

Hello,

I am also experiencing the same issue where I want to display an EmptyMessage but instead the first item is being selected.  when I run this I get an error that "Object doesn't support this property or method" which I suspect is coming from the .readOnly or attaching to the wrong Client-Side Load event.

Can you offer any advice with the code samples provided?

Thanks!

<telerik:RadComboBox ID="cboAccountLists" runat="server" Width="300px" AllowCustomText="true" EmptyMessage="Select List" HighlightTemplatedItems="true" DataValueField="Value" DataTextField="Text">
     <ItemTemplate>
          <asp:CheckBox runat="server" ID="chkDdAccountsLists" Checked="false" onclick="onAccountsListsCheckBoxClick(this)"/>
          <asp:Label runat="server" ID="lblDdAccountLists" AssociatedControlID="chkDdAccountsLists" Text='<%# Eval("Text") %>'></asp:Label>
     </ItemTemplate>
</telerik:RadComboBox>

function onLoad(sender) {

    var input = sender.get_inputDomElement();

    input.readOnly = "readonly";

    input.parentNode.parentNode.className = "rcbReadOnly";

}

[Simon]

Hi Ian,

You can attach the client-side Load event by setting the OnClientLoad property of the RadComboBox to the name of the handler function, e.g. OnClientLoad="onLoad".

I hope this helps.

Sincerely yours,
Simon
the Telerik team

[jojo]

I can implement your suggested solution, but when I do so, it appears to disable the entire combobox. Do you have a solution that allows us to set the text, not have it editable, but still actually use the combobox?

[Helen]

Hello Joanne,

What is the exact behavior you want to achieve?
The AllowCustomText property controls whether you can enter custom text or not.


Regards,
Helen
the Telerik team

[jojo]

Thanks for your reply Helen, but I'm not sure what other information you require.

My requirement is the same as described in the previous posts:

I have a combobox with checkboxes in the template. I wish to be able to display some text in this box e.g. Please select...
However, I don't want:
 - users to be able to type anything in here as it does not make any sense to do so.
 - Most importantly I do not want it to display the text of just the first selected checkbox, as this could be misleading to users.

Does that help clarify the issue?

[Ivana]

Hi Joanne,

The built-in CheckBox functionality provides the exact behavior that you need in your application. The following definition of RadComboBox shows the empty message and it does not allow typing in the input area:

<telerik:RadComboBox ID="RadComboBox1" runat="server" CheckBoxes="true" EmptyMessage="--Please make a selection--">
    <Items>
        <telerik:RadComboBoxItem Text="item1" />
        <telerik:RadComboBoxItem Text="item2" />
        <telerik:RadComboBoxItem Text="item3" />
    </Items>
</telerik:RadComboBox>

I hope this will help.

Regards,
Ivana
the Telerik team

[jojo]

This does not show textboxes or EmptyMessage in the version we are using (2010.2.826.35)

[Ivana]

Hello Joanne,

The following should act just like the EmptyMessage property of the RadComboBox in the latest version:

function pageLoad() {
    var combo = $find("RadComboBox1");
    combo.get_inputDomElement().value = "-- please make a selection --";
}

<telerik:RadComboBox ID="RadComboBox1" runat="server">
    <ItemTemplate>
        <input type="checkbox" runat="server"/>
    </ItemTemplate>
    <Items>
        <telerik:RadComboBoxItem Text="item1" />
        <telerik:RadComboBoxItem Text="item2" />
        <telerik:RadComboBoxItem Text="item3" />
    </Items>
</telerik:RadComboBox>

Regards,
Ivana
the Telerik team