I use it this way - at least with checkboxes. I'll set the column with the Edit button to look like this:
columns.Command(command => {command.Edit().HtmlAttributes(new { id = "btnEdit_" + "${Id}" }); }).Width(100).Hidden(true);
And have it where clicking into the first column (I have an image with a hyperlink) uses an onclick function to programmatically click the Edit button, click the checkbox, then click the Update button. Probably more "old school", but I like knowing it is following the order I would be doing if I were updating it, myself.
I pass in the object ("this"), so I can get the row and checkbox when it appears, the new status as 0 or 1 (I have some code that uses it, not really necessary for this demo, though, so I'm leaving that part out of my function for simplicity), and the ID of that item:
columns.Bound(p => p.IsActive).Title("Active").Width(100).ClientTemplate("# if (IsActive == true ) {# <a href=javascript:void(0) id=btnActive_${Id} onclick=changeCheckbox(this, '0', ${Id}) class='k-button k-button-icontext k-grid-update'><img style='border:1px solid black' id=imgActive src=../../Images/active_1.png /></a> #} else {# <a href=javascript:void(0) id=btnActive_${Id} onclick=changeCheckbox(this, '1', ${Id}) class='k-button k-button-icontext k-grid-update'><img style='border:1px solid black' id=imgActive src=../../Images/active_0.png /></a> #}#");
function changeCheckbox(obj, status, id) {
var parentTr = obj.parentNode.parentNode;
$('[id="btnEdit_' + id + '"]').click();
parentTr.childNodes[5].childNodes[0].setAttribute("id", "btnUpdate_" + id); // my Update button is in the 6th column over
parentTr.childNodes[0].childNodes[0].setAttribute("id", "chkbox_" + id);
$('[id=chkbox_' + id + ']').click().trigger("change");
$('[id=chkbox_' + id + ']').blur();
var btnUpdate = $('[id="btnUpdate_' + id + '"]');
$('[id="btnUpdate_' + id + '"]').click();
}
Code above assumes, of course, the checkbox is in the first column. Otherwise, adjust the first childNodes[0]
on that chkbox setAttribute line to the column it sits in, minus one because it starts counting from zero.