Make cell readonly in Kendo Grid if condition is met

Notes:

• this solution works for in-cell editing only (inline or popup editing
  require a different approach)
• the first approach can lead to unwanted visual effects (grid
  jumping) under certain circumstances; if you experience that, I
  recommend approach #2
• approach #2 may not work if you want to use the MVC wrappers (although it may be possible to extend Kendo.Mvc.UI.Fluent.GridEventBuilder); in that case, you’ll need to bind the edit handler in JS

Approach #1

Use the grid’s edit event and then do something like this:

$("#grid").kendoGrid({
    dataSource: dataSource,
    height: "300px",
    columns: columns,
    editable: true,
    edit: function (e) {
        var fieldName = e.container.find("input").attr("name");
        // alternative (if you don't have the name attribute in your editable):
        // var columnIndex = this.cellIndex(e.container);
        // var fieldName = this.thead.find("th").eq(columnIndex).data("field");

        if (!isEditable(fieldName, e.model)) {
            this.closeCell(); // prevent editing
        }
    }
});

/**
 * @returns {boolean} True if the column with the given field name is editable 
 */
function isEditable(fieldName, model)  {
    if (fieldName === "SomeForeignKeyID") {
        // condition for the field "SomeForeignKeyID" 
        // (default to true if defining property doesn't exist)
        return model.hasOwnProperty("IsFkEnabled") && model.IsFkEnabled;
    }
    // additional checks, e.g. to only allow editing unsaved rows:
    // if (!model.isNew()) { return false; }       

    return true; // default to editable
}

Demo here (updated for Q1 2014)

To use this via the MVC fluent syntax, simply give the anonymous edit function above a name (e.g. onEdit):

function onEdit(e) {
    var fieldName = e.container.find("input").attr("name");
    // alternative (if you don't have the name attribute in your editable):
    // var columnIndex = this.cellIndex(e.container);
    // var fieldName = this.thead.find("th").eq(columnIndex).data("field");

    if (!isEditable(fieldName, e.model)) {
        this.closeCell(); // prevent editing
    }
}

and reference it like this:

@(Html.Kendo().Grid()
    .Name("Grid")
    .Events(events => events.Edit("onEdit"))
)

The disadvantage to this is that the editor gets created first before the edit event is triggered, which can sometimes have undesirable visual effects.

Approach #2

Extend the grid by overriding its editCell method with a variation that triggers a beforeEdit event; for that to work with grid options, you’ll also need to override the init method:

var oEditCell = kendo.ui.Grid.fn.editCell;
var oInit = kendo.ui.Grid.fn.init;
kendo.ui.Grid = kendo.ui.Grid.extend({
    init: function () {
        oInit.apply(this, arguments);
        if (typeof this.options.beforeEdit === "function") {
            this.bind("beforeEdit", this.options.beforeEdit.bind(this));
        }
    },
    editCell: function (cell) {
        var that = this,
            cell = $(cell),
            column = that.columns[that.cellIndex(cell)],
            model = that._modelForContainer(cell),
            event = {
                container: cell,
                model: model,
                field: column.field
            };

        if (model && this.trigger("beforeEdit", event)) {
            // don't edit if prevented in beforeEdit
            if (event.isDefaultPrevented()) return;
        }

        oEditCell.call(this, cell);
    }
});
kendo.ui.plugin(kendo.ui.Grid);

then use it similar to #1:

$("#grid").kendoGrid({
    dataSource: dataSource,
    height: "300px",
    columns: columns,
    editable: true,
    beforeEdit: function(e) {
        var columnIndex = this.cellIndex(e.container);
        var fieldName = this.thead.find("th").eq(columnIndex).data("field");

        if (!isEditable(fieldName, e.model)) {
            e.preventDefault();
        }
    }
});

The difference of this approach is that the editor won’t get created (and focused) first. The beforeEdit method is using the same isEditable method from #1.
See a demo for this approach here.

If you want to use this approach with MVC wrappers but don’t want / can’t extend GridEventBuilder, you can still bind your event handler in JavaScript (place below the grid MVC initializer):

$(function() {
    var grid = $("#grid").data("kendoGrid");
    grid.bind("beforeEdit", onEdit.bind(grid));
});