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Adding Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC through Local Files

Updated on Nov 11, 2025

This article explains how to manually configure an ASP.NET MVC application to use the Telerik UI controls. You will learn how to add the required Kendo.Mvc.dll assembly, which provides the UI helpers for ASP.NET MVC, by using local files. The process also includes specifying the required namespaces and adding necessary client-side resources, such as a theme file and Kendo UI scripts, which are essential for proper control functionality and appearance.

The approach described in this tutorial is applicable to either new or existing projects. An alternative approach that automatically adds the namespaces and the Kendo.Mvc.dll assembly to the project is the Setup with Telerik NuGet.

Prerequisites

Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC requires the .NET Framework.
Visual Studio 2012 or later.

For Visual Studio 2017 or later, you must install the ASP.NET & web development workload. See Microsoft's Install Visual Studio workloads documentation for guidance.
Telerik account.

Creating the Application

If you already have an existing project and you want to add Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC to the application, skip this section and continue with installing a license key.

To create the application:

Open Visual Studio 2019 for Windows. In the toolbar, select File > New > Project.
Search for and select ASP.NET Web Application C# and click Next.
Set a name and location for the project and click Create.
Select the MVC template and click Create.

Installing a License Key

Starting with Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC 2025 Q1 release, you must activate the UI components by providing a license key file. Previous versions require a script key instead of a license key file.

To download and install your Telerik license key:

Go to the License Keys page in your Telerik account.
Click the Download License Key button.
Save the telerik-license.txt file to:
- (on Windows) %AppData%\Telerik\telerik-license.txt, for example, C:\Users\...\AppData\Roaming\Telerik\telerik-license.txt
- (on Mac or Linux) ~/.telerik/telerik-license.txt, for example, /Users/.../.telerik/telerik-license.txt

This will make the license key available to all Telerik .NET apps that you develop on your local machine.

The Telerik License Key article provides additional details on installing and updating your Telerik license key in different scenarios. Automatic license key maintenance is more effective and recommended in the long run.

Downloading and Referencing the Kendo.Mvc.dll Assembly

The Kendo.Mvc.dll assembly contains the UI for ASP.NET MVC HtmlHelpers. Follow the steps below to download and reference it in the project:

Log in to your Telerik account.
Download the installation file:
- If you are new to UI for ASP.NET MVC and have not purchased a license yet, you can Start a Free Trial by downloading and installing the UI for ASP.NET MVC components. Once the installation completes, your free trial will be activated and you can continue with the next step.
- If you have already purchased a license, continue with the next step.
Go to the Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC download page and download the telerik.ui.for.aspnetmvc.2025.4.1111.zip file.
Open the downloaded bundle and extract the Kendo.Mvc.dll from the \wrappers\aspnetmvc\Binaries\Mvc5\ folder to the bin folder of your project.
Right-click References in the Visual Studio Solution Explorer, browse to the bin folder, select the Kendo.Mvc.dll, and add it as reference to the project.

Adding the Kendo.Mvc.UI Namespace

Add the Kendo.Mvc.UI namespace to the ~/Views/Home/Index.cshtml view.

Razor

@using Kendo.Mvc.UI

Including the Client-Side Resources

To enable the Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC components, you must add several client-side dependencies to the application, like scripts and a theme file

Before adding a Telerik UI component, you must include the theme, the jQuery script, and the Kendo UI scripts:

Go to ~\Views\Shared\_Layout.cshtml and add the theme of your choice to the <head> of the document. Since ASP.NET Web Application template uses Bootstrap, you can use the Telerik UI Bootstrap theme to match it:

HTML

<head>
	...
	@Styles.Render("~/Content/css")
	@Scripts.Render("~/bundles/modernizr")

	@* Add the Telerik UI Bootstrap Main theme: *@
	<link href="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/themes/12.2.3/bootstrap/bootstrap-main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
	...
</head>

The ASP.NET Web Application template comes with a jQuery script reference at the end of _Layout.cshtml file. Locate the @Scripts.Render("~/bundles/jquery") line in the <body> of the document and move it to the <head>. Alterantively, use the jQuery script hosted on the jQuery CDN.

HTML

<head>
	...
	<link href="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/themes/12.2.3/bootstrap/bootstrap-main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

	@* Add the jQuery script from the jQuery CDN: *@
	<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script>
</head>

Add the required Kendo UI script files in the <head> tag after the jQuery script reference:

HTML

<head>
	...
	<link href="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/themes/12.2.3/bootstrap/bootstrap-main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
	<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script>

	@* Add the Kendo UI scripts: *@
	<script src="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2025.4.1111/js/kendo.all.min.js"></script>
	<script src="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2025.4.1111/js/kendo.aspnetmvc.min.js"></script>
</head>

The installed Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC NuGet package and the required client-side assets must have identical versions.

Finally, add the bootstrap.min.js script available in ASP.NET Web Application template. The <head> tag must contain the following sylesheets and scripts:

HTML


	@Styles.Render("~/Content/css")
	@Scripts.Render("~/bundles/modernizr")
	<link href="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/themes/12.2.3/bootstrap/bootstrap-main.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
	<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.7.1.min.js"></script>
	<script src="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2025.4.1111/js/kendo.all.min.js"></script>
	<script src="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2025.4.1111/js/kendo.aspnetmvc.min.js"></script>
	
	@* Add the bootstrap.min.js script: *@
	<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/bootstrap.min.js")"></script>
</head>

Always observe the following rules when adding client-side resources to your project:

Register the Kendo UI script files (kendo.all.min.js and kendo.aspnetmvc.min.js) after the jquery.min.js script.

The jQuery script must be loaded only once. It must be placed only in the <head> tag of the _Layout.cshtml file. Ensure there are no duplicate jQuery references elsewhere in the _Layout file.

The Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC version and the version of the included Telerik UI theme must be mutually compatible. For more information, refer to the compatibility table.

The Kendo.Mvc.dll and the referenced Kendo UI scripts must have identical versions.

If you prefer to include the client-side resources from a local source instead of CDNs, refer to the Local Client-Side Resources article.

Adding a Telerik UI Component

To define a Grid component, follow the next steps:

Create a model in the Models folder of the application.

public class Product
{
    public int ProductID { get; set; }
    public string ProductName { get; set; }
    public Nullable<decimal> UnitPrice { get; set; }
    public bool Discontinued { get; set; }
}

Open the ~/Views/Home/Index.cshtml view and define a Telerik UI Grid HtmlHelper.

Razor

    <div class="text-center">
		<h2>Kendo UI Grid</h2>
		@(Html.Kendo().Grid<TelerikMvcApp1.Models.Product>()
			.Name("grid")
			.Columns(columns =>
			{
				columns.Bound(c => c.ProductID).Width(100);
				columns.Bound(c => c.ProductName).Width(300);
				columns.Bound(c => c.UnitPrice).Width(100);
				columns.Bound(c => c.Discontinued).Width(200);
			})
			.DataSource(dataSource => dataSource
				.Ajax()
				.Read(read => read.Action("Select", "Home"))
			)
		)
	</div>

Open the HomeController.cs and import the Kendo.Mvc.UI and the Kendo.Mvc.Extensions namespaces so that you can use Kendo.Mvc.UI.DataSourceRequest and the ToDataSourceResult() extension method in the next step.
C#
```
using Kendo.Mvc.Extensions;
using Kendo.Mvc.UI;
using TelerikMvcApp1.Models;
```

In the HomeController.cs, add a new Action method that returns the Grid data as JSON. The Grid makes Ajax requests to this Action method.

public ActionResult Select([DataSourceRequest]DataSourceRequest request)
{
    var data = Enumerable.Range(1, 10)
        .Select(index => new Product
        {
            ProductID = index,
            ProductName = "Product #" + index,
            UnitPrice = index * 10,
            Discontinued = false
        });

    return Json(data.ToDataSourceResult(request), JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

Building and Running the Application

Press CTRL+F5 to build and run the application. As a result, the following sample page is created.

UI for ASP.NET MVC Sample page

Adding Telerik UI for ASP.NET MVC through Local Files

Prerequisites

Creating the Application

Installing a License Key

Downloading and Referencing the Kendo.Mvc.dll Assembly

Adding the Kendo.Mvc.UI Namespace

Including the Client-Side Resources

Adding a Telerik UI Component

Building and Running the Application

Next Steps

See Also