text

Returns the selected item text:

<select id="ddl" ></select>

<script type="text/javascript">

    $(function () {
        $("#ddl").shieldDropDown({
            dataSource: {
			    data: countries
		    },
            enabled: false,
		    textTemplate: "{name}",
		    valueTemplate: "{code}"
       });
    });

    $("#ddl").swidget().value(1) // select the item with value (in this case {code}) equals to 1
    
    $("#ddl").swidget().text(); // return array with one element - the selected item's text

</script>