Adding empty string to RadComboBox

Question

I have a webpage that has a Telerik RadComboBox on the page. One of the properties of this ComboBox is EmptyMessage, which fills the combobox with a message when an item is not selected. I am binding my combobox to a datasource at runtime and for some reason, it wipes this EmptyMessage away. Is there a way to keep my data items in tact and have the empty message there too? And default it to the empty message?

Answer 1

Seems like the accepted answer on Telerik says that you use client side script to prevent the text editing.

Telerik forum page

<telerik:Radcombobox ID="RadComboBox1" runat="server" AllowCustomText="True" EmptyMessage="-please select one-">    
<Items>     
    <telerik:RadComboBoxItem runat="server" Text="Item1"></telerik:RadComboBoxItem>     
    <telerik:RadComboBoxItem runat="server" Text="Item2"></telerik:RadComboBoxItem>     
</Items>    

<script type="text/javascript"> 
function pageLoad() 
{ 
   var combo = $find("<%= RadComboBox1.ClientID %>"); 
   var input = combo.get_inputDomElement(); 
   input.onkeydown = onKeyDownHandler; 
} 
function onKeyDownHandler(e) 
{ 
  if (!e) 
  e = window.event;        
  e.returnValue = false; 
  if (e.preventDefault) 
  { 
    e.preventDefault(); 
  } 
} 
</script> 

Answer 2

RadComboBox1.Items.Insert(0, New RadComboBoxItem("Select a continent"))

This will add "Select a continent" as the first item in the combobox.

Answer 3

just put this

 ComboBox.Text = String.Empty

Answer 4

In design time set EmptyMessage property.

<telerik:RadComboBox ID="ddlCategory" EmptyMessage="-Select-" runat="server" Width="120px" DropDownWidth="100px" AllowCustomText="true">
</telerik:RadComboBox>    

In run time following code works for me.

ddlCategory.Text = "";
ddlCategory.ClearSelection();

Answer 5

Is 'AppendDataBoundItems' set to true?

Answer 6

Another option is to add the item to the combobox right after binding, and then setting it as selected.

Answer 7

I found the answer. For anyone curious or someone ever needs to do a similar things, you need to set the AllowCustomText property to True. This fixed my issue.