fix not all model properties getting rendered

- root problem is that the datatype select component
would fail if the data type is not a string
- the user had some properties defined as arrays:
eg: type: ["number"],
- added logic to try/catch the value setting and reset to
string if it errors out.
- also added updated properties iteration to update model
to make sure model properties get updated explicitly during
model save
This seems to be a leftover from the PR adding protractor. Not a big deal, just FYI.