Generic Kendo MVC Grid Used with Different Models - asp.net-mvc

Question

I am trying to use a Kendo Grid generically as a partial view. Kendo requires either a type defined or a datatable to instantiate the grid in a razor view
#(Html.Kendo().Grid<object>() or #(Html.Kendo().Grid(dataTable)
My issue is i want to use the Grid for whatever object, not a specific one.
#(Html.Kendo().Grid<object>()
.Name(Model.MetricName)
.Resizable(resizing => resizing.Columns(true))
.Reorderable(reorder => reorder.Columns(true))
.Sortable(sorting => sorting.Enabled(true))
.Pageable(pager => pager.PageSizes(new int[] { 10, 15, 20, 50 }))
.ColumnMenu()
.DataSource(dataSource => dataSource
.Ajax()
.Read(read => read.Action(Model.MetricName, "AdHocReport", new { metricId = Model.MetricId }))
)
)
by using Object i am able to dynamically load the data returned from the ajax .read method. However the issue is with dates. They are returned in JSON format.
Ive tried this method and I still get JSON string representation of the date
Kendo ASP.NET MVC helper Grid generic class
Is there a way to define the type of grid from a string representation of the type? So lets say i have a string property on the viewModel that is the type of the grid. How can i say Grid ?
ive tried using reflection to instantiate the type but i get the infamous "you are using a variable like a type"
This is driving me nuts... any and all help would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

So i found the way to make this work and bind correctly and as mentioned above my mrmashal it has to do with using dataTables.
#(Html.Kendo().Grid(Model.GridTable)
here is the viewModel property
public DataTable GridTable { get; set; }
To make this dynamic i use reflection to define the dataTable based upon the properties of a the class i want to populate the grid with
Type elementType = Type.GetType(className, true);
var properties = elementType.GetProperties();
DataTable dataTable = new DataTable();
foreach (PropertyInfo info in properties)
{
dataTable.Columns.Add(new DataColumn(info.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(info.PropertyType) ?? info.PropertyType));
}
viewModel.GridTable = dataTable;
However, the key is making sure that the data returned from the AJAX read was a dataTable, not an IEnumerable type.
DataTable dataTable = ToDataTable<AssetLocationHistoryMetricData>(metricData);
var result = dataTable.ToDataSourceResult(request);
and this is what i used to convert the List to a dataTable
public static DataTable ToDataTable<T>(IEnumerable<T> items)
{
DataTable dataTable = new DataTable(typeof(T).Name);
//Get all the properties
PropertyInfo[] Props = typeof(T).GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
foreach (PropertyInfo prop in Props)
{
//Setting column names as Property names
dataTable.Columns.Add(prop.Name);
}
foreach (T item in items)
{
var values = new object[Props.Length];
for (int i = 0; i < Props.Length; i++)
{
//inserting property values to datatable rows
values[i] = Props[i].GetValue(item, null);
}
dataTable.Rows.Add(values);
}
//put a breakpoint here and check datatable
return dataTable;
}