Display a message within the Kendo grid when it's empty

Good news- this option is available now:

https://docs.telerik.com/kendo-ui/api/javascript/ui/grid/configuration/norecords#noRecords

you can set message via kendo template:

noRecords: {    template: "No data available on current page. Current page is: #=this.dataSource.page()#"}

or via message option:

noRecords: true,messages: {    noRecords: "There is no data on current page"}

default text is "No records available." when set noRecords: true only

You may use CSS: DEMO

tbody:empty:before {    content:'NO DATA';}

with litlle style :

tbody:empty:before {    content:'NO DATA';    display:table-cell;    padding:0.5em;}

I use the following when defining the grid:

$('#grid').kendoGrid({    dataSource: employeeDataSource,    dataBound: function () {        DisplayNoResultsFound($('#grid'));},

The javascript function 'DisplayNoResultsFound' is defines as follows:

function DisplayNoResultsFound(grid) {    // Get the number of Columns in the grid    var dataSource = grid.data("kendoGrid").dataSource;    var colCount = grid.find('.k-grid-header colgroup > col').length;    // If there are no results place an indicator row    if (dataSource._view.length == 0) {        grid.find('.k-grid-content tbody')            .append('<tr class="kendo-data-row"><td colspan="' + colCount + '" style="text-align:center"><b>No Results Found!</b></td></tr>');    }    // Get visible row count    var rowCount = grid.find('.k-grid-content tbody tr').length;    // If the row count is less that the page size add in the number of missing rows    if (rowCount < dataSource._take) {        var addRows = dataSource._take - rowCount;        for (var i = 0; i < addRows; i++) {            grid.find('.k-grid-content tbody').append('<tr class="kendo-data-row"><td> </td></tr>');        }    }}

A running demo can be found here