Support Strongly-Typed or Interface-Based Binding to Avoid Reflection for Improved Performance and AOT Compatibility

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Last Updated: 16 Jan 2026 21:12 by Nicholas

Nicholas

Created on: 09 Jan 2026 16:14

Category: UI for Blazor

Type: Feature Request

Support Strongly-Typed or Interface-Based Binding to Avoid Reflection for Improved Performance and AOT Compatibility

For example in DropDownList reflection is used for binding for TextField and ValueField.

As an additional option, I'd instead to be able to do DropDownList<FooBarModel> and then FooBarModel implements a Telerik interface IDropDownListItem (for example but use your naming conventions)

I agree you shouldn't remove the option of using TextField / ValueField but I'd like to see it as an option.

Doing the same thing in something like DataGrid I agree would be a ton more work and we'd likely require using source generation.

It seems that Microsoft / the industry is consistently recommending to phase out the use of reflection and have invested a bunch in making source generation much less of a pain and developer friendly.

2 comments

Nicholas

Posted on: 16 Jan 2026 21:12

I like how Robert suggested to do it in the linked article better then I explained, although he has different reasons for wanting it. Looking at Microsoft library https://www.fluentui-blazor.net/Select This is how they have implemented and it looks like they have done a lot of work at making their library aot friendly. The reasons stated by Telerik in the 2021 feedback article to not support Func<T, string> bindings appear to be either incorrect or are now incorrect. I strongly suggest to reconsider your stance.

The industry as a whole is moving away from using Reflection. It's important in order to take best advantage of AOT compiling

I would like to see:

In the short term add trim warnings for bindings / functions that do use reflection.
Start adding bindings / functions in all components that work without reflection.
Post general documentation on how to best utilize your library when compiling with AOT.

ADMIN

Dimo

Posted on: 16 Jan 2026 10:30

Hi Nicholas,

If I understand correctly, you would like to bind the DropDownList Value parameter to a complex object rather than something like int or string. Is this correct?

If yes, then we have already declined such requests in the past. If you are thinking about something different, please elaborate.

Regards,
Dimo
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