Imagine I have some custom type:
public class CustomType
{
public override string ToString() {
return "Default";
}
}
Next, imagine I use an instance of this type in a Razor view:
#model CustomType
<span>The custom type is #Model</span>
Razor seems to use ToString to convert the value into text for the resulting HTML. However, I want to tell Razor that whenever it wants to format a CustomType, it should use some given custom formatting logic.
Is this possible? If so, how can I do it?
You could do it with an HtmlHelper
#Html.CustomFormattingLogic(Model)
public static class MyHtmlHelperExtensions
{
public static MvcHtmlString CustomFormattingLogic(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper,
CustomType model)
{
var customString = MethodToDoFormatting(model);
return MvcHtmlString.Create(customString);
}
}
...as another option, you could have an extension method do custom formatting:
public static class MyCustomTypeExtensions
{
public static string CustomFormattingLogic(this CustomType model)
{
var customString = MethodToDoFormatting(model);
return customString;
}
}
Related
I have different configurations all inheriting from a base configuration that are customized in forms. I want all of these to be handled by a single action result.
[HttpPost]
public IActionResult Register(AbstractBaseConfig config)
{
...do some logic...
return View("../Home/Index");
}
However, this is not possible because you cannot base in abstract classes as a parameter to an action result. Is there any work around for this so I don't need a seperate action result for each configuration? (I still want each configuration to be it's own class, I only need access to the base class methods in the action result logic).
Basically you can't, and the reason is that MVC will try to do new AbstractBaseConfig() as part of the Data Binding process (which parses the URL or the Form Post and puts the results in a concrete object). And by definition, doing new AbstractBaseConfig() is impossible for an abstract class.
It also makes sense for other reasons, I will explain why.
You seem to expect that MVC can determine the class from the parameters that are being passed in. That is not how it works, in fact the opposite is true: the Action Method has to specify the exact class, and then the Binder will instantiate that exact class and try to bind its properties.
Suppose you had this:
public abstract class Thing { public int ID { get;set; } }
public class NamedThing : Thing { public string Name { get;set; } }
public class OtherThing : Thing { public string Name { get;set; } }
and suppose it would be allowed to use:
public IActionResult Register(Thing thing)
then what would you expect to be in thing after Data Binding: a Thing object with only the ID set? Or one of the other object types, with Name set, but how would MVC ever be able to know which class you meant?
So for all these reasons, this is not possible.
You could have a base class inherit the abstract class and all your classes inherit from that base class whilst having that base class as your parameter
Take for example
public abstract class ABase
{
public void stuff()
{
var stuff = string.Empty;
stuff = "hello";
}
public virtual void otherstuff()
{
var stuff = string.Empty;
stuff = "hello";
}
}
public class Base : ABase
{
//empty
}
public class Derived : Base
{
public void mystuff()
{
this.stuff();
}
public override void otherstuff()
{
// Custom code
}
}
public ActionResult Register(Base config)
{
}
I have a ViewModel that has a complex object as one of its members. The complex object has 4 properties (all strings). I'm trying to create a re-usable partial view where I can pass in the complex object and have it generate the html with html helpers for its properties. That's all working great. However, when I submit the form, the model binder isn't mapping the values back to the ViewModel's member so I don't get anything back on the server side. How can I read the values a user types into the html helpers for the complex object.
ViewModel
public class MyViewModel
{
public string SomeProperty { get; set; }
public MyComplexModel ComplexModel { get; set; }
}
MyComplexModel
public class MyComplexModel
{
public int id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Address { get; set; }
....
}
Controller
public class MyController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
MyViewModel model = new MyViewModel();
model.ComplexModel = new MyComplexModel();
model.ComplexModel.id = 15;
return View(model);
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(MyViewModel model)
{
// model here never has my nested model populated in the partial view
return View(model);
}
}
View
#using(Html.BeginForm("Index", "MyController", FormMethod.Post))
{
....
#Html.Partial("MyPartialView", Model.ComplexModel)
}
Partial View
#model my.path.to.namespace.MyComplexModel
#Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Name)
...
how can I bind this data on form submission so that the parent model contains the data entered on the web form from the partial view?
thanks
EDIT: I've figured out that I need to prepend "ComplexModel." to all of my control's names in the partial view (textboxes) so that it maps to the nested object, but I can't pass the ViewModel type to the partial view to get that extra layer because it needs to be generic to accept several ViewModel types. I could just rewrite the name attribute with javascript, but that seems overly ghetto to me. How else can I do this?
EDIT 2: I can statically set the name attribute with new { Name="ComplexModel.Name" } so I think I'm in business unless someone has a better method?
You can pass the prefix to the partial using
#Html.Partial("MyPartialView", Model.ComplexModel,
new ViewDataDictionary { TemplateInfo = new TemplateInfo { HtmlFieldPrefix = "ComplexModel" }})
which will perpend the prefix to you controls name attribute so that <input name="Name" ../> will become <input name="ComplexModel.Name" ../> and correctly bind to typeof MyViewModel on post back
Edit
To make it a little easier, you can encapsulate this in a html helper
public static MvcHtmlString PartialFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> helper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression, string partialViewName)
{
string name = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);
object model = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, helper.ViewData).Model;
var viewData = new ViewDataDictionary(helper.ViewData)
{
TemplateInfo = new System.Web.Mvc.TemplateInfo
{
HtmlFieldPrefix = string.IsNullOrEmpty(helper.ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix) ?
name : $"{helper.ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix}.{name}"
}
};
return helper.Partial(partialViewName, model, viewData);
}
and use it as
#Html.PartialFor(m => m.ComplexModel, "MyPartialView")
If you use tag helpers, the partial tag helper accepts a for attribute, which does what you expect.
<partial name="MyPartialView" for="ComplexModel" />
Using the for attribute, rather than the typical model attribute, will cause all of the form fields within the partial to be named with the ComplexModel. prefix.
You can try passing the ViewModel to the partial.
#model my.path.to.namespace.MyViewModel
#Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.ComplexModel.Name)
Edit
You can create a base model and push the complex model in there and pass the based model to the partial.
public class MyViewModel :BaseModel
{
public string SomeProperty { get; set; }
}
public class MyViewModel2 :BaseModel
{
public string SomeProperty2 { get; set; }
}
public class BaseModel
{
public MyComplexModel ComplexModel { get; set; }
}
public class MyComplexModel
{
public int id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
...
}
Then your partial will be like below :
#model my.path.to.namespace.BaseModel
#Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.ComplexModel.Name)
If this is not an acceptable solution, you may have to think in terms of overriding the model binder. You can read about that here.
I came across the same situation and with the help of such informative posts changed my partial code to have prefix on generated in input elements generated by partial view
I have used Html.partial helper giving partialview name and object of ModelType and an instance of ViewDataDictionary object with Html Field Prefix to constructor of Html.partial.
This results in GET request of "xyz url" of "Main view" and rendering partial view inside it with input elements generated with prefix e.g. earlier Name="Title" now becomes Name="MySubType.Title" in respective HTML element and same for rest of the form input elements.
The problem occurred when POST request is made to "xyz url", expecting the Form which is filled in gets saved in to my database. But the MVC Modelbinder didn't bind my POSTed model data with form values filled in and also ModelState is also lost. The model in viewdata was also coming to null.
Finally I tried to update model data in Posted form using TryUppdateModel method which takes model instance and html prefix which was passed earlier to partial view,and can see now model is bound with values and model state is also present.
Please let me know if this approach is fine or bit diversified!
I want to change my session proviced to statically typed - I just hate typing strings because of many many errors I do.
What technology am I using? ASP.NET MVC via EXT.NET MVC
I was trying to do that using web.config but the problem is that after add session state to it visual is not going to compile my code because of that session should be using strings as keys.
I want to use session by enums such as :
public enum SessionEnum{Model}
public class Bar{
void foo(){
Session[SessionEnum.Model] = "blah";
}
}
I am aware that I can create wrapper converting enums to strings but it's not very satisfying solution for me.
public class StorageWrapper{
public object this[SessionEnum enum]{ get{return Session[enum.toString()]}; //+set
}
What I did was create static object for base class for all of my controllers and then I was able to use it across them but after closing and opening the page again I wasn't able to get values from it. I guess I should serialize them somehow but I have no idea how.
Is there any way to do that?
EDIT
My session now looks like this :
[Serializable]
public abstract class DataWrapper<T> : HttpSessionStateBase
{
Dictionary<T, object> Dictionary { get; set; } = new Dictionary<T, object>();
public object this[T a]
{
get
{
try
{
return Dictionary[a];
}
catch
{
return null;
}
}
set { Dictionary[a] = value; }
}
}
[Serializable]
public class SessionWrapper : DataWrapper<SessionNames>
{}
public enum SessionNames { Model, Login, LastOpenedFile }
It's very simple.
Create a UserSession object which does everything you want (holds your values as enum etc), instantiate it, then put it in the session.
var US = new UserSession();
US.stuff = somestuff;
Session["UserSess"] = US
Then you can just always use Session["UserSess"].stuff;
Mmmm, wouldn't you use static const string instead of an enum?
using System.Web;
public static class SessionEnum
{
public static const string Model = "_Session_Model";
public static const string Login = "_Session_Login";
public static const string LastOpenedFile = "_Session_LastOpenedFile ";
}
class test
{
void test()
{
Session[SessionEnum.Model] = "blah";
}
}
If my model have
[DisplayName("First Name")]
public string firstName { get; set; }
Then I can print it in the View with LabelFor
#Html.LabelFor(model => model.acc_first)
It will then render as
<label for="firstName">First Name</label>
But how can I "raw" read the property (FirstName) attributes in the View?
If for example, I want to send the value to a function on the View page
#Html.DisplayNameFor(x => x.acc_first)
To access the attributes you'll need a custom Html helper. Since the attributes aren't really part of the property or model you need to go in a round about way to access them.
public static IHtmlString DisplayName<TModel, TValue>(
this HtmlHelper<TModel> html,
Expression<Func<TModel, TValue>> expression) {
var metadata = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression<TModel, TValue>(expression, html.ViewData);
return new HtmlString(metadata.DisplayName);
}
For additional attributes that aren't part of the DataAnnotations you can do the following:
Create a custom attribute
public class TooltipAttribute : Attribute, IMetadataAware {
public TooltipAttribute(string tooltip) {
this.Tooltip = tooltip;
}
public string Tooltip { get; set; }
public void OnMetadataCreated(ModelMetadata metadata) {
metadata.AdditionalValues["Tooltip"] = this.Tooltip;
}
}
The magic happens in the OnMetadataCreated implementation. Here we can populate the AdditionalValues with anything we need for our particular Attribute. In this case we’re adding a Tooltip key. Your name should be unique as other attributes or providers may add their own keys with the same name It is important to remember that attributes are not always read in the same order. So your tooltip attribute may be called first, last or somewhere in the middle. This is an important distinction as it may cause undesired effects.
Then create a custom Attribute helper
public static IHtmlString TooltipFor<TModel, TValue>(
this HtmlHelper<TModel> html,
Expression<Func<TModel, TValue>> expression) {
var metadata = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression<TModel, TValue>(expression, html.ViewData);
if (metadata.AdditionalValues.ContainsKey("Tooltip"))
return new HtmlString((string)metadata.AdditionalValues["Tooltip"]);
return new HtmlString("");
}
You can access the value of the attribute Display(Name="...") in 4 steps:
var type = typeof(YourNamespace.Models.YourModelName);
var memInfo = type.GetMember("firstName"); // your member
var attributes = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.DisplayAttribute), false);
var displayname = ((System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.DisplayAttribute)attributes[0]).Name;
Then displayname will have the value First Name in your context.
Building on Darren Oster's answer:
#Html.DisplayNameFor(x => x.acc_first)
Here's a link to the documentation for this: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.mvc.html.displaynameextensions.displaynamefor(v=vs.118).aspx
You could use this in your view code like this:
#{
var foo = Html.DisplayNameFor(x => x.acc_first);
// call function
DoStuff(foo);
}
you should simply use
[Display(Name = "First Name")]
public string name{ get; set; }
<label asp-for="firstName">First Name</label>
you must change for to asp-for
[Display(Name ="First Name")]
#Html.DisplayFor(model => model.acc_first)
should work for you. If not, try just
#Model.acc_first
Either one should work fine.
#(This.Model.acc_first)
Should work
so in javascript you can use it like
function callme(val)
{
//some ajax call with
#(This.Model.acc_first)
}
I am trying to create a custom attribute in mvc to use it's parameters in a view as breadCrumb.
well, this is the code of the attribute
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.All, AllowMultiple = true)]
public class BreadCrumbAttribute : Attribute {
public BreadCrumbAttribute(string title, string parent, string url) {
this._title = title;
this._parent = parent;
this._url = url;
}
#region named parameters properties
private string _title;
public string Title {
get { return _title; }
}
private string _url;
public string Url {
get { return _url; }
}
private string _parent;
public string Parent {
get { return _parent; }
}
#endregion
#region positional parameters properties
public string Comments { get; set; }
#endregion
}
this is the call of the attribute
[BreadCrumbAttribute("tile", "parent name", "url")]
public ActionResult Index() {
//code goes here
}
this is a way of how I'd like to get the values. (this is a partial view)
System.Reflection.MemberInfo inf = typeof(ProductsController);
object[] attributes;
attributes = inf.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(BreadCrumbAttribute), false);
foreach (Object attribute in attributes) {
var bca = (BreadCrumbAttribute)attribute;
Response.Write(string.Format("{0}><a href={1}>{2}</a>", bca.Parent, bca.Url, bca.Title));
}
Unfortunately, the attribute didn't get call with the way I implement it. Although, If I add the attribute in Class instead of an Action method it worked.
How could I make it work?
Thanks
The problem is that you are using reflection to get the attributes for the class, so naturally it does not include attributes defined on the action method.
To get those, you should define an ActionFilterAttribute, and in the OnActionExecuting or OnActionExecuted method, you can use filterContext.ActionDescriptor.GetCustomAttributes() method (MSDN description here).
Note that with this solution, you will likely have two different types of attributes: The first one is the one you wrote, to define the breadcrumbs. The second is the one that looks at the attributes on the executing action and builds up the breadcrumb (and presumably adds it to the ViewModel or sticks it in HttpContext.Items or something).