How do you open a kendo drop down popup on page load? - kendo-dropdown

Question

I have several uses for kendo drop-downs in my application (DDL, ComboBox, etc.).
I want them to open up on page load, but Kendo's documentation doesn't indicate that is possible.
I am using the MVC server variables.
This is my view coding:
<script id="itemTemplate" type="text/x-kendo-template">
# var index=FullName.indexOf(" *****");
if (index > 0)
{
#
<span style="font-weight:bold;">
#: FullName.substring(0, index)#
</span>
#
} else {
#
<span style="font-weight:normal;">
#: FullName#
</span>
#
}
#
</script>
<table class="form-horizontal table-condensed" style="width:100%;">
<tr style="height:400px;">
<td style="width:40%;vertical-align:top;">
<h4 style="width:100%;text-align:center;">Available Members</h4>
<h4 style="width:100%;text-align:center;font-size:smaller;">Current Cancer Center Members are highlighted in Bold.</h4>
#(Html.Kendo()
.MultiSelect()
.Name("AvailableWGMembers")
.DataTextField("FullName")
.DataValueField("id")
.ItemTemplateId("itemTemplate")
.TagTemplateId("itemTemplate")
.BindTo((System.Collections.IEnumerable)ViewBag.AvailableWGMembers)
.AutoBind(true)
.Placeholder("Click here to select one or more members to add, ...")
.AutoClose(false)
.HtmlAttributes(new { style = "width:100%;", #class = "Roles" })
.Events(events => { events.Change("doRoles");})
.Value(new int[0])
.Height(650)
)
</td>
<td style="width:20%;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;">
<input id="btnAdd" type="submit" value="Select" class="btn btn-default" disabled="disabled" />
</td>
<td style="width:40%;vertical-align:top;">
<h4 style="width:100%;text-align:center;">#Model.WGTitle</h4>
<h4 style="width:100%;text-align:center;font-size:smaller;">Current Cancer Center Members are highlighted in Bold.</h4>
#(Html.Kendo()
.MultiSelect()
.Name("ExistingWGMembers")
.AutoBind(false)
.DataTextField("FullName")
.DataValueField("id")
.ItemTemplateId("itemTemplate")
.TagTemplateId("itemTemplate")
.BindTo((System.Collections.IEnumerable)ViewBag.ExistingWGMembers)
.Placeholder("Click here to select one or more members to remove, ...")
.AutoClose(true)
.HtmlAttributes(new { style = "width:100%;", #class = "UnusedRoles" })
.Events(events => { events.Change("doRoles"); })
.Value(new int[0])
.Height(650)
)
</td>
</tr>
</table>
I want the lists to both be open when the page loads, and I want to be able to use unobstrusive jQuery or javascript to control it if I have to.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Answer 1

It took a little digging, but I finally figured out the answer. It was actually pretty simple.
The following should be added to the unobstrusive javascript code file:
function openPopup(e)
{
if (e.sender.list[0].childNodes['1'].childNodes['0'].childElementCount > 0) {
e.sender.popup.open();
}
}
You add the following code to your event listing:
.Events(events => { ...; events.DataBound("openPopup"); })
This can be done with any of the lists that have popups like Kendo DropDownList or ComboBox or MultiSelect.
I would check for the list length to make sure the list has members so you don't get an ugly empty list shown, but otherwise the result is actually pretty simple.

Answer 2

This answer is dependent upon the code example at: http://demos.telerik.com/aspnet-mvc/window/index
I took that example from the Index.cshtml version of their example and simply replaced the Content value of the # with your table template from the original question:
#(Html.Kendo().Window()
.Name("window")
.Title("Your modal popup with dropdown menus")
.Content(#<text>
<table class="form-horizontal table-condensed" style="width:100%;">
<tr style="height:400px;">
<td style="width:40%;vertical-align:top;">
<h4 style="width:100%;text-align:center;">Available Members</h4>
<h4 style="width:100%;text-align:center;font-size:smaller;">Current Cancer Center Members are highlighted in Bold.</h4>
#(Html.Kendo()
.MultiSelect()
.Name("AvailableWGMembers")
.DataTextField("FullName")
.DataValueField("id")
.ItemTemplateId("itemTemplate")
.TagTemplateId("itemTemplate")
.BindTo((System.Collections.IEnumerable)ViewBag.AvailableWGMembers)
.AutoBind(true)
.Placeholder("Click here to select one or more members to add, ...")
.AutoClose(false)
.HtmlAttributes(new { style = "width:100%;", #class = "Roles" })
.Events(events => { events.Change("doRoles");})
.Value(new int[0])
.Height(650)
)
</td>
<td style="width:20%;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;">
<input id="btnAdd" type="submit" value="Select" class="btn btn-default" disabled="disabled" />
</td>
<td style="width:40%;vertical-align:top;">
<h4 style="width:100%;text-align:center;">#Model.WGTitle</h4>
<h4 style="width:100%;text-align:center;font-size:smaller;">Current Cancer Center Members are highlighted in Bold.</h4>
#(Html.Kendo()
.MultiSelect()
.Name("ExistingWGMembers")
.AutoBind(false)
.DataTextField("FullName")
.DataValueField("id")
.ItemTemplateId("itemTemplate")
.TagTemplateId("itemTemplate")
.BindTo((System.Collections.IEnumerable)ViewBag.ExistingWGMembers)
.Placeholder("Click here to select one or more members to remove, ...")
.AutoClose(true)
.HtmlAttributes(new { style = "width:100%;", #class = "UnusedRoles" })
.Events(events => { events.Change("doRoles"); })
.Value(new int[0])
.Height(650)
)
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</text>)
.Draggable()
.Resizable()
.Width(600)
.Actions(actions => actions.Pin().Minimize().Maximize().Close())
.Events(ev => ev.Close("onClose"))
)
I hope this helps!