Using NoRecordsTemplate

Each GridTableView has a property NoRecordsTemplate. This property defines a template that will be displayed if there are no records in the assigned DataSource.

There are cases in which you may want to show an empty grid rather than this template. There is a boolean property EnableNoRecordsTemplate which defines whether GridTableView will use the defined NoRecordsTemplate or not.

The NoRecordsTemplate should be populated for each detail table (in case of hierarchical grids) in the DetailTableDataBind event.

You can control the visibility of thetable/NoRecordsTemplate controls by using corresponding Controls(0), Controls(1) of each GridTableView. This should happen after it was data-bound.

ASP.NET

<telerik:RadGrid RenderMode="Lightweight" ID="RadGrid1" runat="server">
  <MasterTableView>
    <NoRecordsTemplate>
      <div>
        There are no records to display</div>
    </NoRecordsTemplate>
  </MasterTableView>
</telerik:RadGrid>

Define NoRecordsTemplate programmatically

You need to design your custom class (holding the set of controls for the NoRecordsTemplate) which implements the ITemplate interface. Then you can assign an instance of this class to the NoRecordsTemplate of the corresponding GridTableView.

The example below shows how to embed MS Label in the NoRecordsTemplate of the MasterTableView at runtime:

C#

protected RadGrid RadGrid1;

public class MyNoRecordsTemplate : ITemplate
{
       Label NoRecordsLabel;
        public void System.Web.UI.ITemplate.InstantiateIn(System.Web.UI.Control container)
        {
            NoRecordsLabel = new Label();
            NoRecordsLabel.ID = "NoRecordsLabel";
            NoRecordsLabel.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Orange;
            NoRecordsLabel.BorderWidth = Unit.Pixel(1);
            NoRecordsLabel.BorderColor = System.Drawing.Color.Brown;
            NoRecordsLabel.Text = "No data to display";
            container.Controls.Add(NoRecordsLabel);
        }
}
protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
{
        base.OnInit(e);
        PopulateGrid1OnPageInit();
}
protected void PopulateGrid1OnPageInit()
{
        RadGrid RadGrid1 = new RadGrid();
        RadGrid1.ID = "RadGrid1";
        RadGrid1.MasterTableView.AutoGenerateColumns = false;
        RadGrid1.DataSource = new Object [0];
        RadGrid1.EnableAJAX = true;
        RadGrid1.MasterTableView.AllowPaging = true;
        RadGrid1.MasterTableView.NoRecordsTemplate = new MyNoRecordsTemplate();

        RadGrid1.PagerStyle.Mode = GridPagerMode.NumericPages;
        RadGrid1.AllowSorting = true;
      //runtime column definitions
}       

VB

Public Class NoRecordsTemplate
    Implements ITemplate

    Public Sub InstantiateIn(ByVal container As System.Web.UI.Control) Implements System.Web.UI.ITemplate.InstantiateIn
        Dim NoRecordsLabel As New Label()
        With NoRecordsLabel
            .ID = "NoRecordsLabel"
            .BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Orange
            .BorderWidth = Unit.Pixel(1)
            .BorderColor = System.Drawing.Color.Brown
            .Text = "No data to display"
        End With
        container.Controls.Add(NoRecordsLabel)
    End Sub
End Class

Protected Overloads Overrides Sub OnInit(ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.OnInit
    MyBase.OnInit(e)
    PopulateGrid1OnPageInit()
End Sub

Protected Sub PopulateGrid1OnPageInit()
    Dim RadGrid1 As New RadGrid()
    RadGrid1.ID = "RadGrid1"
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.AutoGenerateColumns = False
    RadGrid1.DataSource = New Object() {}
    RadGrid1.EnableAJAX = True
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.AllowPaging = True
    RadGrid1.MasterTableView.NoRecordsTemplate = New MyNoRecordsTemplate()
    RadGrid1.PagerStyle.Mode = GridPagerMode.NumericPages
    RadGrid1.AllowSorting = True
    'runtime column definitions
End Sub

Detailed information about how to create templates programmatically you can find in the MSDN: https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/vstechart.asp