Parse Test

HTML

<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://cdn.kendostatic.com/2012.2.913/styles/kendo.common.min.css">
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://cdn.kendostatic.com/2012.2.913/styles/kendo.metro.min.css">
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.8.2/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script src="http://cdn.kendostatic.com/2012.2.913/js/kendo.all.min.js"></script>
<div id='container'>
    <div data-role='grid' data-bind='source:ds' data-columns='["id","value","ParsedField"]'></div> 
    <button data-bind='click:updateData'>Switch Data</button>        
</div>

JavaScript

var viewModel = new kendo.observable({
    ds: new kendo.data.DataSource({
        data: [{
            id: 1,
            value: 1}],
        schema: {
            parse: function(data) {
                $.map(data, function(item) {
                    item.ParsedField = item.id + item.value;
                });
                return data;
            }
        }
    }),
    updateData: function(e) {
        e.preventDefault();
        console.warn('setting');

        //set the data using the parse that is already defined
        viewModel.ds.data(
            viewModel.ds.options.schema.parse() //just in case thenew data is null
        );
    }
});

kendo.bind($('#container'), viewModel);