title: Default item in telerik radcombobox
body: <p>I am using a</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;telerik:RadComboBox&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>in a web forms page.</p>
  
  <p>The definition is:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;telerik:RadComboBox runat="server" ID="productList" EmptyMessage="Choose a product" /&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It is populated with data retrieved using EF:</p>
  
  <pre><code>this.productList.DataTextField = "ProductName";
  this.productList.DataValueField = "ProductId";
  this.productList.DataSource = Service.GetActiveProductList();
  this.productList.DataBind();
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want the drop down to "select" the current product, I do so like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>this.productList.SelectedIndex = this.productList.FindItemIndexByValue(this.ProductID);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I want the user to be able to "clear" the selected product, so that no product is the selected item in the drop down.</p>
  
  <p>What I am experiencing is, when I successfully set the SelectedIndex, the EmptyMessage text does not appear in the list (I get it, the list is not empty), but if let's say this.ProductID does not exist in the list, then the EmptyMessage does appear, but it disappears as soon as I select an item.</p>
  
  <p>In short, I want to</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>Set the SelectedIndex to the value of this.ProductID</li>
  <li>have a "Choose a product" option always in the drop down</li>
  </ul>