DateOnly field not being populated from form .NET6 EF6 Razor Pages No MVC - entity-framework-6

Question

For some reason the dates that I enter in the date-type inputs of the form are not getting into the database. Instead, after all the different methods I researched and tried, to no avail, the dates default to 01/01/01, which I understand to be the defualt min value yes? And in the postgres database, the date fields show "-infinity". I can use pgadmin query tool to update the dates successfully, but when I try to create or edit a record from the form, the above occurs.
When I get to the ModelState.IsValid line in the debugger, it is showing the data I entered correctly in the other fields, but the date fields are showing 01/01/01.
I have been through the docs and other forum posts but none of the fixes I attempted worked.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Here is the model
public class ToDo
{
[Key]
public int Id { get; set; }
public DateOnly CreateDate { get; set; }
[Required]
public string Name { get; set; }
[Required]
public string Description { get; set; }
public DateOnly DueDate { get; set; }
public bool Complete { get; set; }
}
... the post
public async Task<IActionResult> OnPost()
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
var errors = ModelState.SelectMany(x => x.Value.Errors.Select(z => z.Exception));
}
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
await _db.Todo.AddAsync(Todo);
await _db.SaveChangesAsync();
TempData["success"] = "ToDo created successfully.";
return RedirectToPage("Index");
}
return Page();
}
... and the form
<form method="post">
<input hidden asp-for="Todo.Id" />
<div class="p-3 mt-4">
<div class="row pb-2">
<h2 class="text-primary pl-3">Create ToDo</h2>
<hr />
</div>
<div asp-validation-summary="All"></div>
<div class="mb-3">
<label asp-for="#Model.Todo.CreateDate"></label>
<input asp-for="#Model.Todo.CreateDate" class="form-control" type="date"/>
<span asp-validation-for="Todo.CreateDate" class="text-danger"></span>
</div>
<div class="mb-3">
<label asp-for="#Model.Todo.Name"></label>
<input asp-for="#Model.Todo.Name" class="form-control" />
<span asp-validation-for="Todo.Name" class="text-danger"></span>
</div>
<div class="mb-3">
<label asp-for="#Model.Todo.Description"></label>
<input asp-for="#Model.Todo.Description" class="form-control" />
<span asp-validation-for="Todo.Description" class="text-danger"></span>
</div>
<div class="mb-3">
<label asp-for="#Model.Todo.DueDate"></label>
<input asp-for="#Model.Todo.DueDate" class="form-control" type="date"/>
<span asp-validation-for="Todo.DueDate" class="text-danger"></span>
</div>
<div class="form-check m-4">
<input asp-for="#Model.Todo.Complete" class="form-check-input" type="checkbox"/>
<label class="form-check-label ms-3" asp-for="#Model.Todo.Complete">
Complete
</label>
</div>
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-outline-primary rounded-pill" style="width:150px;">Update</button>
<a asp-page="Index" class="btn btn-outline-secondary rounded-pill text-white" style="width:150px;">Back To List</a>
</div>
</form>

Answer 1

Thanks Mike that did the trick, here's what I did.
I applied your first solution,
[DataType(DataType.Date)]
public DateTime CreateDate { get; set;}
but I got this error:
"Cannot write DateTime with Kind=Local to PostgreSQL type 'timestamp
with time zone', only UTC is supported"
So I applied the following fix from this thread:
.NET6 and DateTime problem. Cannot write DateTime with Kind=UTC to PostgreSQL type 'timestamp without time zone'
Here's what I did.
I created an "Extensions" folder in my project and within that I created a "UtcDateAnnotation.cs" file and pasted the following.
namespace ToDoRazorNoMvcPostgres.Extensions
{
public static class UtcDateAnnotation
{
private const string IsUtcAnnotation = "IsUtc";
private static readonly ValueConverter<DateTime, DateTime> UtcConverter = new ValueConverter<DateTime, DateTime>(convertTo => DateTime.SpecifyKind(convertTo, DateTimeKind.Utc), convertFrom => convertFrom);
public static PropertyBuilder<TProperty> IsUtc<TProperty>(this PropertyBuilder<TProperty> builder, bool isUtc = true) => builder.HasAnnotation(IsUtcAnnotation, isUtc);
public static bool IsUtc(this IMutableProperty property)
{
if (property != null && property.PropertyInfo != null)
{
var attribute = property.PropertyInfo.GetCustomAttribute<IsUtcAttribute>();
if (attribute is not null && attribute.IsUtc)
{
return true;
}
return ((bool?)property.FindAnnotation(IsUtcAnnotation)?.Value) ?? true;
}
return true;
}
/// <summary>
/// Make sure this is called after configuring all your entities.
/// </summary>
public static void ApplyUtcDateTimeConverter(this ModelBuilder builder)
{
foreach (var entityType in builder.Model.GetEntityTypes())
{
foreach (var property in entityType.GetProperties())
{
if (!property.IsUtc())
{
continue;
}
if (property.ClrType == typeof(DateTime) ||
property.ClrType == typeof(DateTime?))
{
property.SetValueConverter(UtcConverter);
}
}
}
}
}
public class IsUtcAttribute : Attribute
{
public IsUtcAttribute(bool isUtc = true) => this.IsUtc = isUtc;
public bool IsUtc { get; }
}
}
I corrected all the errors by adding the appropriate using statements etc.
Then I added the following in my DbContext file right after the public DbSet statement
protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder builder)
{
builder.ApplyUtcDateTimeConverter();//Put before seed data and after model creation
}
That did the trick, but it still showed the time as well, I just wanted to display the date.
I tried the below but it didn't work.
[DataType(DataType.Date)]`
[DisplayFormat(DataFormatString = "{0:dd/MM/yyyy}", ApplyFormatInEditMode = true)]
public DateTime CreateDate { get; set; }
Instead I added this to the view:
<td>#Convert.ToString(string.Format("{0:MM/dd/yyyy}", obj.CreateDate))</td>
That did the trick. Thanks again for the help!

Answer 2

You are using the new DateOnly type. The ASP.NET Core model binder does not support binding to DateOnly at the moment (https://github.com/dotnet/aspnetcore/issues/34591). Until .NET 7, you can use a DateTime type and data annotations to control the input type that gets rendered (https://www.learnrazorpages.com/razor-pages/forms/dates-and-times):
[DataType(DataType.Date)]
public DateTime CreateDate { get; set; }
Alternatively, you can extract the value from Request.Form yourself and assign it to the relevant property:
if(DateTime.TryParse(Request.Form["Todo.CreateDate"].ToString(), out var created))
{
Todo.CreateDate = DateOnly.FromDateTime(created);
}
else
{
ModelState.AddModelError("Todo.CreateDate", "A created date must be a date");
}