Mvc Html.DropDownList on load replace some string - asp.net-mvc

I've have this Dropdown that is generated by my Enum
#Html.DropDownList("MyType",
EnumHelper.GetSelectList(typeof(C_Survey.Models.QuestionType)),
"Select My Type",
new { #class = "form-control N_Q_type" })
Enum:
public enum QuestionType {
Single_Choice,
Multiple_Choice,
Range
}
My question is, how can I replace the _ with a space ?

I don't know much details of GetSelectList method there, but I assumed it receives a System.Enum and returning a SelectList collection like this:
public static SelectList GetSelectList(this Enum enumeration)
{
var source = Enum.GetValues(enumeration);
// other stuff
...
return new SelectList(...);
}
There are 2 approaches to solve this issue:
First Approach (Using Custom Attribute)
This approach involves creating a custom attribute to define display name (set attribute target to field or others which fit to entire enum members):
public class DisplayNameAttribute : Attribute
{
public string DisplayName { get; protected set; }
public DisplayNameAttribute(string value)
{
this.DisplayName = value;
}
public string GetName()
{
return this.DisplayName;
}
}
Hence, the enum structure should be modified to this:
public enum QuestionType
{
[DisplayName("Single Choice")]
Single_Choice,
[DisplayName("Multiple Choice")]
Multiple_Choice,
[DisplayName("By Range")]
Range
}
Later, it is necessary to modify GetSelectList method to accept custom attribute created above which includes DisplayName property:
public static SelectList GetSelectList<T>(this T enumeration)
{
var source = Enum.GetValues(typeof(T));
var items = new Dictionary<Object, String>();
var displaytype = typeof(DisplayNameAttribute);
foreach (var value in source)
{
System.Reflection.FieldInfo field = value.GetType().GetField(value.ToString());
DisplayNameAttribute attr = (DisplayNameAttribute)field.GetCustomAttributes(displaytype, false).FirstOrDefault();
items.Add(value, attr != null ? attr.GetName() : value.ToString());
}
return new SelectList(items, "Key", "Value");
}
Second Approach (Using Direct Type Cast & Lambda)
Similar to first approach, GetSelectList method will return SelectList from an enum, however instead of using custom attribute this approach uses member names to build select list items as shown below (T is enum type parameter):
public static SelectList GetSelectList<T>(this T enumeration)
{
var source = Enum.GetValues(typeof(T)).Cast<T>().Select(x => new SelectListItem() {
Text = x.ToString(),
Value = x.ToString().Replace("_", " ")
});
return new SelectList(source);
}
Probably GetSelectList method contents in your side is slightly different, but the basics should be same with those approaches.
Similar issues:
How do I populate a dropdownlist with enum values?
Display enum in ComboBox with spaces
enum with space property for dropdownlist

Related

Fill in a DropDownListFor with the Display tag in ASP.NET MVC3

I'm trying to write a helper for my ASP.NET MVC3 website which will be able to return a new SelectList containing all the Description attribute tag of an Enum
For example, with the following enum :
public enum Test
{
[Display(Name = "Membre 1")]
Member1,
[Display(Name = "Membre 2")]
Member2
}
I would like to be able to fill a DropDownListFor with something like :
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.MyTest, MyHelper(Test))
(with MyTest is a Test variable).
and I expect my DropDownList contains :
Membre 1
Membre 2
I used to use this working helper :
public static string GetEnumDescription(this Enum value)
{
Type enumType = value.GetType();
var enumValue = Enum.GetName(enumType, value);
MemberInfo member = enumType.GetMember(enumValue)[0];
var attrs = member.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayAttribute), false);
var outString = ((DisplayAttribute)attrs[0]).Name;
if (((DisplayAttribute)attrs[0]).ResourceType != null)
{
outString = ((DisplayAttribute)attrs[0]).GetName();
}
return outString;
}
... but I can't get it work in a SelectList
How can I modify this to directly "incorporate" it directly in my #Html.DropDownListFor helper ?
I have seen some helper over the Internet, especially here or here, but no one works for me. Does anyone is able to share a short and elegant helper which returns all the Display attributes of the members of an Enum in order to put them in a DropDownListFor ?
The following is what I use. It's a slightly modified version of something I found online at one point. I'd give credit where credit is due, but I don't remember where I found it originally at this point:
public static SelectList ToSelectList(this Enum enumeration)
{
var list = (from Enum d in Enum.GetValues(enumeration.GetType())
select new { Value = Enum.GetName(enumeration.GetType(), d), Text = d.GetDescription() }).ToList();
var selectedValue = (int)Enum.Parse(enumeration.GetType(), Enum.GetName(enumeration.GetType(), enumeration));
return new SelectList(list, "Value", "Text");
}
public static string GetDescription(this Enum en)
{
Type type = en.GetType();
System.Reflection.MemberInfo[] memInfo = type.GetMember(en.ToString());
if (memInfo != null && memInfo.Length > 0)
{
object[] attrs = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.DisplayAttribute), false);
if (attrs != null && attrs.Length > 0)
return ((System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.DisplayAttribute)attrs[0]).GetName();
}
return en.ToString();
}
In your view, you'd use it:
#Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.MyEnumProperty, Model.MyEnumProperty.ToSelectList())
For implementing Enum type data, I think the easiest way is to use custom Enum helper and Templates. Below is how I implement them in my project.
1) Create Enum Helper
public static class EnumHelper
{
public static IEnumerable<SelectListItem> GetItems(this Type enumType, int? selectedValue)
{
if (!typeof (Enum).IsAssignableFrom(enumType))
{
throw new ArgumentException("Type must be an enum");
}
string[] names = Enum.GetNames(enumType);
IEnumerable<int> values = Enum.GetValues(enumType).Cast<int>();
IEnumerable<SelectListItem> items = names.Zip(values, (name, value) =>
new SelectListItem
{
Text = GetName(enumType, name),
Value = value.ToString(),
Selected = value == selectedValue
}
);
return items;
}
// Get Display Name
private static string GetName(Type enumType, string name)
{
string result = name;
DisplayAttribute attribute = enumType.GetField(name)
.GetCustomAttributes(false)
.OfType<DisplayAttribute>()
.FirstOrDefault();
if (attribute != null)
{
result = attribute.GetName();
}
return result;
}
public static string GetItemName(this Type enumType, int selectedValue)
{
if (!typeof (Enum).IsAssignableFrom(enumType))
{
throw new ArgumentException("Type must be an enum");
}
var itemName = GetName(enumType, Enum.GetNames(enumType)[selectedValue]);
return itemName;
}
}
2) Create folder call "DisplayTemplates" in Shared folder.
3) Create View inside "DisplayTemmplates". The view will look like below:
#using Demo.Web.Helper
#{
var itemName = typeof(Test).GetItemName((int)Model);
}
4) Create floder call "EditorTemplates" in Shared folder.
5) Create View inside "EditorTemplates". The view will look like below:
#using Demo.Web.Helper
#{
var items = typeof (Test).GetItems((int?)Model);
}
#Html.DropDownList("",items)
Here you have finished all of helper and templates, ready for use. When you want to implement Enum Type data, just use it like below:
Model
public class MyModel
{
public int Id { get; set; }
//
public Test Test { get; set; }
}
View
#Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Test)
or
#Html.EditorFor(m => m.Test)
Hope it helps.

Entity Framework Generate List<SelectListItem> of unique values from model

I have a model called Roles:
public string CodeRole { get; set; }
public string Organisation { get; set; }
public string LabelRole { get; set; }
CodeRole and LabelRole contain unique values, but the Organisation column contains about 12 categories. I want to generate a dropdown that allows the user to filter by Organisation.
As a result I want to construct a query using Entity Framework that returns some form of list/array/collection I can easily convert into a List<SelectListItem> with both text and value equal to the distinct Organisation values.
I assume the query would look something like this:
_context.Roles.GroupBy(r=> r.Organisation)
This returns an IGrouping<string,Roles> object, but I don't know how to use the IGrouping.
This would allow me to pass the List<SelectListItem> via a ViewBag to a dropdown list in the view.
Edit: Final Solution based of Alexander Manekovskiy response
List<Roles> orgs = (List<DimRoles>)_context.Roles.GroupBy(f => f.Organisation).Select(r => r.FirstOrDefault()).ToList();
List<SelectListItem> items = new List<SelectListItem>();
foreach (DimRoles r in orgs)
items.Add(new SelectListItem { Text = r.Organisation, Value = r.Organisation });
Yes, you are right about GroupBy, but then you will need to select only first values from groups:
_context.Roles.GroupBy(r=> r.Organisation).Select(r = r.First())
Another possible solution is to use Distinct extension method:
_context.Roles.Select(r=> r.Organisation).Distinct()
Then to get List<SelectListItem> you can use Select:
_context.Roles.GroupBy(r=> r.Organisation).Select(r =>
{
var organization = r.First();
return new SelectListItem() { Name = organization , Value = organization }
}).ToList();
But personally, I would prefer to have another extension method for converting IEnumerable<T> to List<SelectListItem>. This could be something like:
public static IEnumerable<SelectListItem> GetList<TEntity>(this IEnumerable<TEntity> collection, Expression<Func<TEntity, object>> keyExpression,
Expression<Func<TEntity, object>> valueExpression, object selectedValue = null)
{
var keyField = keyExpression.PropertyName();
var valueField = valueExpression.PropertyName();
return new SelectList(collection, keyField, valueField, selectedValue).ToList();
}
Then you can use it like this:
_context.Roles.Distinct(new OrganizationEqualityComparer()).GetList(o => o.Organization, o => o.Organization);
But in this case you will need to implement IEqualityComparer<Role> which is pretty simple:
class RoleOrganizationComparer : IEqualityComparer<Role>
{
public bool Equals(Role x, Role y)
{
if (Object.ReferenceEquals(x, y)) return true;
if (Object.ReferenceEquals(x, null) || Object.ReferenceEquals(y, null))
return false;
return x.Organization == y.Organization;
}
public int GetHashCode(Role role)
{
//Check whether the object is null
if (Object.ReferenceEquals(role, null)) return 0;
//Get hash code for the Name field if it is not null.
return role.Organization == null ? 0 : role.Organization.GetHashCode();
}
}

MVC: Access display name attribute in the controller

Is it possible to access the display name of a parameter in the controller? for example, say I defined a parameter as
public class Class1
{
[DisplayName("First Name")]
public string firstname { get; set; }
}
I now want to be able to access the display name of firstname in my controller. Something like
string name = Model.Class1.firstName.getDisplayName();
Is there a method like getDisplayName() that I can use to get the display name?
First off, you need to get a MemberInfo object that represents that property. You will need to do some form of reflection:
MemberInfo property = typeof(Class1).GetProperty("Name");
(I'm using "old-style" reflection, but you can also use an expression tree if you have access to the type at compile-time)
Then you can fetch the attribute and obtain the value of the DisplayName property:
var attribute = property.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayNameAttribute), true)
.Cast<DisplayNameAttribute>().Single();
string displayName = attribute.DisplayName;
Found the answer at this link. I created an Html helper class, added its namespace to my view web.config and used it in my controller. All described in the link
Display name for Enum is like this
Here is example
public enum Technology
{
[Display(Name = "AspNet Technology")]
AspNet,
[Display(Name = "Java Technology")]
Java,
[Display(Name = "PHP Technology")]
PHP,
}
and method like this
public static string GetDisplayName(this Enum value)
{
var type = value.GetType();
var members = type.GetMember(value.ToString());
if (members.Length == 0) throw new ArgumentException(String.Format("error '{0}' not found in type '{1}'", value, type.Name));
var member = members[0];
var attributes = member.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayAttribute), false);
if (attributes.Length == 0) throw new ArgumentException(String.Format("'{0}.{1}' doesn't have DisplayAttribute", type.Name, value));
var attribute = (DisplayAttribute)attributes[0];
return attribute.GetName();
}
And your controller like this
public ActionResult Index()
{
string DisplayName = Technology.AspNet.GetDisplayName();
return View();
}
for class property follow this step
public static string GetDisplayName2<TSource, TProperty> (Expression<Func<TSource, TProperty>> expression)
{
var attribute = Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(((MemberExpression)expression.Body).Member, typeof(DisplayAttribute)) as DisplayAttribute;
return attribute.GetName();
}
and call this method in your controller like this
// Class1 is your classname and firstname is your property of class
string localizedName = Testing.GetDisplayName2<Class1, string>(i => i.firstname);

How to create an ActionLink with Properties for the View Model

I have a ViewModel with a Filter property that has many properties that I use to filter my data
Example:
class MyViewModel : IHasFilter
{
public MyData[] Data { get; set; }
public FilterViewModel Filter { get; set; }
}
class FilterViewModel
{
public String MessageFilter { get; set; }
//etc.
}
This works fine when using my View. I can set the properties of Model.Filter and they are passed to the Controller. What I am trying to do now, is create an ActionLink that has a query string that works with the above format.
The query string generated by my View from above looks like this:
http://localhost:51050/?Filter.MessageFilter=Stuff&Filter.OtherProp=MoreStuff
I need to generate an ActionLink in a different View for each row in a grid that goes to the View above.
I have tried:
Html.ActionLink(
item.Message,
"Index",
"Home",
new { Filter = new { MessageFilter = item.Message, }, },
null);
I also tried setting the routeValues argument to:
new MyViewModel { Filter = new FilterViewModel { MessageFilter = item.Message, }, },
But these do not generate the query string like the above one.
Interesting question (+1). I'm assuming that the purpose is to use the default model binder to bind the querystring parameters to to your Action parameters.
Out of the box I do not believe that the ActionLink method will do this for you (of course there is nothing stopping you from rolling your own). Looking in reflector we can see that when the object is added to the RouteValueDictionary, only key value pairs are added. This is the code that adds the key value pairs and as you can see there is no traversing the object properties.
foreach (PropertyDescriptor descriptor in TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(values))
{
object obj2 = descriptor.GetValue(values);
this.Add(descriptor.Name, obj2);
}
So for your object
var values = new { Filter = new Filter { MessageFilter = item.Message } }
the key being added is Filter and the value is your Filter object which will evaluate to the the fully qualified name of your object type.
The result of this is Filter=Youre.Namespace.Filter.
Edit possible solution depending on your exact needs
Extension Method does the work
Note that it uses the static framework methods ExpressionHelper and ModelMetadata (which are also used by the existing helpers) to determine the appropriate names that the default model binder will understand and value of the property respectively.
public static class ExtentionMethods
{
public static MvcHtmlString ActionLink<TModel, TProperty>(
this HtmlHelper<TModel> helper,
string linkText,
string actionName,
string controllerName,
params Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>>[] expressions)
{
var urlHelper = new UrlHelper(helper.ViewContext.HttpContext.Request.RequestContext);
var url = urlHelper.Action(actionName, controllerName);
if (expressions.Any())
{
url += "?";
foreach (var expression in expressions)
{
var result = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);
var metadata = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression<TModel, TProperty>(expression, helper.ViewData);
url = string.Concat(url, result, "=", metadata.SimpleDisplayText, "&");
}
url = url.TrimEnd('&');
}
return new MvcHtmlString(string.Format("<a href='{0}'>{1}</a>", url, linkText));
}
}
Sample Models
public class MyViewModel
{
public string SomeProperty { get; set; }
public FilterViewModel Filter { get; set; }
}
public class FilterViewModel
{
public string MessageFilter { get; set; }
}
Action
public ActionResult YourAction(MyViewModel model)
{
return this.View(
new MyViewModel
{
SomeProperty = "property value",
Filter = new FilterViewModel
{
MessageFilter = "stuff"
}
});
}
Usage
Any number of your view model properties can be added to the querystring through that last params parameter of the method.
#this.Html.ActionLink(
"Your Link Text",
"YourAction",
"YourController",
x => x.SomeProperty,
x => x.Filter.MessageFilter)
Markup
<a href='/YourAction/YourController?SomeProperty=some property value&Filter.MessageFilter=stuff'>Your Link Text</a>
Instead of using string.Format you could use TagBuilder, the querystring should be encoded to be safely passed in a URL and this extension method would need some additional validation but I think it could be useful. Note also that, though this extension method is built for MVC 4, it could be easily modified for previous versions. I didn't realize that that one of the MVC tags was was for version 3 until now.
You could create one RouteValueDictionary from a FilterViewModel instance and then use ToDictionary on that to pass to another RouteValues with all the keys prefixed with 'Filter.'.
Taking it further, you could construct a special override of RouteValueDictionary which accepts a prefix (therefore making it more useful for other scenarios):
public class PrefixedRouteValueDictionary : RouteValueDictionary
{
public PrefixedRouteValueDictionary(string prefix, object o)
: this(prefix, new RouteValueDictionary(o))
{ }
public PrefixedRouteValueDictionary(string prefix, IDictionary<string, object> d)
: base(d.ToDictionary(kvp=>(prefix ?? "") + kvp.Key, kvp => kvp.Value))
{ }
}
With that you can now do:
Html.ActionLink(
item.Message,
"Index",
"Home",
new PrefixedRouteValueDictionary("Filter.",
new FilterViewModel() { MessageFilter = item.Message }),
null);
The caveat to this, though, is that the Add, Remove, TryGetValue and this[string key] methods aren't altered to take into account the prefix. That can be achieved by defining new versions of those methods, but because they're not virtual, they'd only work from callers that know they're talking to a PrefixedRouteValueDictionary instead of a RouteValueDictionary.

EF 4: Referencing Non-Scalar Variables Not Supported

I'm using code first and trying to do a simple query, on a List property to see if it contains a string in the filtering list. However I am running into problems. For simplicity assume the following.
public class Person
{
public List<string> FavoriteColors { get; set; }
}
//Now some code. Create and add to DbContext
var person = new Person{ FavoriteColors = new List<string>{ "Green", "Blue"} };
dbContext.Persons.Add(person);
myDataBaseContext.SaveChanges();
//Build
var filterBy = new List<string>{ "Purple", "Green" };
var matches = dbContext.Persons.AsQueryable();
matches = from p in matches
from color in p.FavoriteColors
where filterBy.Contains(color)
select p;
The option I am considering is transforming this to a json serialized string since I can perform a Contains call if FavoriteColors is a string. Alternatively, I can go overboard and create a "Color" entity but thats fairly heavy weight. Unfortunately enums are also not supported.
I think the problem is not the collection, but the reference to matches.
var matches = dbContext.Persons.AsQueryable();
matches = from p in matches
from color in p.FavoriteColors
where filterBy.Contains(color)
select p;
If you check out the Known Issues and Considerations for EF4 this is more or less exactly the case mentioned.
Referencing a non-scalar variables,
such as an entity, in a query is not
supported. When such a query executes,
a NotSupportedException exception is
thrown with a message that states
"Unable to create a constant value of
type EntityType.
Also note that it specifically says that referencing a collection of scalar variables is supported (that's new in EF 4 imo).
Having said that the following should work (can't try it out right now):
matches = from p in dbContext.Persons
from color in p.FavoriteColors
where filterBy.Contains(color)
select p;
I decided to experiment by creating a "StringEntity" class to overcome this limitation, and used implicit operators to make nice easy transformations to and from strings. See below for solution:
public class MyClass
{
[Key, DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGenerationOption.Identity)]
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public List<StringEntity> Animals { get; set; }
public MyClass()
{
List<StringEntity> Animals = List<StringEntity>();
}
}
public class StringEntity
{
[Key, DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGenerationOption.Identity)]
public Guid Id { get; set; }
public string Value { get; set; }
public StringEntity(string value) { Value = value; }
public static implicit operator string(StringEntity se) { return se.Value; }
public static implicit operator StringEntity(string value) { return new StringEntity(value); }
}
public class MyDbContext : DbContext
{
public DbSet<MyClass> MyClasses { get; set; }
protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
modelBuilder.Entity<MyClass>()
.HasMany(x => x.Animals)
.WithMany()
.Map(x =>
{
x.MapLeftKey(l => l.Id, "MyClassId");
x.MapRightKey(r => r.Id, "StringEntityId");
});
}
}
...Everything looked like it was working perfectly with some testing(Albeit heavy), and then I implemented for its original purpose, a Multiselect ListBox in an MVC3 view. For reasons unknown to me, IF the ListBox is assigned the same NAME as an Entity Collection Property, none of your selected items will be loaded.
To demonstrate the following did NOT work:
//Razor View Code
string[] animalOptions = new string[] {"Dog", "Cat", "Goat"};
string[] animalSelections = new string[] {"Dog", "Cat"};
Html.ListBox("Animals", Multiselect(animalOptions, animalSelections));
To get around this limitation, I needed to do four things:
//#1 Unpluralize the ListBox name so that is doesn't match the name Model.Animals
var animalOptions = new string[] {"Dog", "Cat", "Goat"};
#Html.ListBox("Animal", new MultiSelectList(animalOptions, Model.Animals.Select(x => x.Value)))
//#2 Use JQuery to replace the id and name attribute, so that binding can occur on the form post
<script type="text/javascript">
jQuery(function ($) {
$("select#Animal").attr("name", "Animals").attr("id", "Animals");
});
</script>
//#3 Create a model binder class to handle List<StringEntity> objects
public class StringEntityListBinder : IModelBinder
{
public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
{
var stringArray = controllerContext.HttpContext.Request.Params.GetValues(bindingContext.ModelName);
return stringArray.Select(x => new StringEntity(x)).ToList();
}
}
//#4 Initialize the binder in your Global.asax setup.
ModelBinders.Binders.Add(typeof(List<StringEntity>), new StringEntityListBinder ());
Note, that the Listbox bug did NOT occur when the property was a List of strings, it just didn't like it when it was a List of entities.

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