title: How to configure Kendo Dropdownlist to work with Grid popup editor template
body: <p>I've been struggling with the Kendo dropdownlist for 2 days now and just can't seem to get it configured correctly.  </p>
  
  <p>How do I get the Kendo Dropdownlist to show the current item of the @Model?  This is my code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@Html.TextBoxFor(model =&gt; model.ShortDescription, new { @class="wide200;" })
  
  @(Html.Kendo().DropDownList()
          .Name("importance")
          .HtmlAttributes(new { style = "width: 250px" })
          .DataTextField("Name")
          .DataValueField("ID")
          .DataSource(source =&gt; {
              source.Read(read =&gt;
              {
                  read.Action("GetImportanceList", "Home");
              })
              .ServerFiltering(true);
          })
          .SelectedIndex(0)
  )
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>And in my controller:   </p>
  
  <pre><code>public ActionResult GetImportanceList()
      {
          GenericRepository&lt;Importance&gt; _repository = new GenericRepository&lt;Importance&gt;(_context);
          IEnumerable&lt;ImportanceViewModel&gt; list = _repository.Get().ConvertToViewModelList();
          return Json(list, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
      }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Problem is with SelectedIndex(0) which is set to the first item.  How can I set it to whatever is in the model?  It's very simple to do for the textbox (first line in the code): model => model.ShortDescription.  But how does this work for the dropdownlist?</p>
  
  <p>I don't just want to set it upon the showing of the editor, but also want the grid to know what the new selection is after I click the Update button.</p>
  
  <p>Note that this is in a custom template for the grid popup editor.</p>