Kendo UI DropDownListFor Set SelectedValue - kendo-ui

Question

I'm working with Kendo UI on an MVC application. We have a grid and when the user opens the row for editing we have a dropDownList that holds company names. I'm trying to get the DDL to default to the company name that's pertinent to the row.
Here's the column code:
columns.Bound(e => e.company_business_name).Width(220).Title("Company")
.EditorTemplateName("CompanyName");
and here's the editorTemplate code:
#model string
#(Html.Kendo().DropDownListFor(m => m)
.DataTextField("Text")
.DataValueField("Value")
.BindTo((System.Collections.IEnumerable)ViewData["Companies"])
)
and the method that fills the DDL:
private void PopulateCompanies()
{
var companyList = new List<SelectListItem>();
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(Session["Companies"] as string))
{
companyList = (List<SelectListItem>)Session["Companies"];
}
else
{
companyList = new DataAccess().GetCompanies(CurrentSettings.getUser().userId);
CacheCompanies(companyList);
}
ViewData["Companies"] = companyList;
}
EDIT:
Updated the code. The DDL still populates but I'm still not getting the selected value when I click "edit" on the grid row. Feel like I'm close here, help!

Answer 1

The problem is that your Editor Template's model is your entire model, not the company_business_name property (Very bad name for a property, by the way. You need to follow the standard naming conventions).
You don't even need to fill the drop down list.
Your Editor Template should be something like this:
#model string
#(Html.Kendo().DropDownListFor(m => m)
.DataTextField("Text")
.DataValueField("Value")
.DataSource(x =>
x.Read(read => read.Action("GetCompanies", "AddEntry"))
)
)