.NET MVC usercontrols and conflicting IDs - asp.net-mvc

I have two different user controls both of which has a textbox with the ID: txtEmail. When I render both controls in MVC, I'm running into conflicting IDs. Does anyone have any suggestions to resolve this issue?

Yeah what I generally do is preface the id with the model name.
So my model might be MyModel so my id would be MyModel.txtEmail.
Unsure why you have txtEmail though in MVC. Generally you would have a textbox like so;
Html.TextBox("email") where email is the name of the field in your model.

I would place a small snip of code in the controller that will assign a dynamic name based on which control its coming from.

What griegs said except that if you have strongly typed your view to use a model with Email in you can use <%: Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.Email) %>. It will prefix the ID for you with the model name and everything will generally rock. You will need MVC2 though

Related

Avoiding foreach for #html.checkboxfor

I am developing an application using MVC. I had a requirement where I have to display checkbox for a list.
I was going through different posts for doing this, one of them is the use of avoiding foreach for looping and making use of #html.editorfor() as described in the answer by Darwin dimitrov here:
This answer works fabulously fine, but I have a clarification , it is:
In the same view I have 2 requirements , the one with checkboxfor and the other one with radiobuttonfor
So, If I am using
<div>#Html.EditorFor(x => x.RoleAccess)</div>
How do I write the (~/Views/Shared/EditorTemplates/RoleAccessViewModel.cshtml) to serve for checkboxfor for one requirement , and the other one for #radiobuttonfor .
Wont this approach be hardcoded which will always render the RoleAccessViewModel.cshtml whenever EditorFor(x => x.RoleAccess) is used?Please execuse me If I have used any technical terms wrong way,as I still a novice in mvc.
The EditorFor method has an overload that accepts a template name as argument. I think that solves your problem if I understand it correctly. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee407414%28v=vs.118%29.aspx
You can also solve this by using the UIHint attribute on your property instead (or in addition to) relying on naming the template after your view model. Then you can create an alternate template to render the radio buttons and specify that:
[UIHint("RadioList")]
public List<Something> MyRadioButtonList { get; set; }
EditorFor will then look for the template: Views\Shared\EditorTemplates\RadioList.cshtml
You could do the same for your checkbox list, as well, instead of relying on the view model. For example, [UIHint("CheckboxList")] and CheckboxList.cshtml. Then, you'd be able to apply these templates more broadly.

Is it possible to I create LabelTemplates for Html.Label and Html.LabelFor() in ASP.NET MVC?

For reasons that are questionable but practical, I'd like to create LabelTemplate defaults, just like EditorTemplates or DisplayTemplates.
So instead of this:
#Html.LabelFor(x => x.PropertyName, "Property Name")
or instead of this(the better way to do it in a View Model):
[DisplayName("Property Name")]
public string PropertyName{ get; set; }
I want this:
#Html.LabelFor(x => x.PropertyName)
With this (in a folder like this: /Views/Shared/LabelTemplates)
<%# Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<System.String>" %>
//Display logic here
Can you help a coder out?
Create your own custom html helper.
http://develoq.net/2011/how-to-create-custom-html-helpers-for-asp-net-mvc-3-and-razor-view-engine/
This is the code you can use to convert your property names:
Regex.Replace("PropertyName", "[a-z][A-Z]", m => m.Value[0] + " " + m.Value[1]);
I know this isn't strictly an answer to your question, but since I still want to suggest a plan of action, I'll post it like this rather than in a comment.
Are you sure you want this?
If you manage to do this, you will set the label of a field to some value based on its type. This might seem tempting at first glance - you could possibly save yourself some key strokes every here and there.
But what happens if you e.g. have a type Address containing some properties for street name, number, zip code etc, and then want the user to fill in the home address and the work address in the same form - how would you label them differently and still use the same type? And even worse - do you really want the same label on all your strings? In order to avoid these two scenarios, you'll need to resort to Html.DisplayFor(m => m.PropertyName, "TemplateName") anyway, which means you'll be in just as sorry a situation as you already are. Furthermore, you'll have at least two places you have to look to find the correct display logic for your label, rather than just one.
Remember that there is no absolute requirement to use the LabelFor() helper - you can just as well just roll your own extension method on HtmlHelper, or even ignore them and output plane HTML:
<label for="Person_HomeAddress">Home address</label> <!-- the ID might be wrong -->
<%: Html.EditorFor(m => m.HomeAddress) %>
Since the EditorFor() outputs an ID matched to the name of the model and property names, you'll be fine.

Using multiple partial views in MVC3 razor forms

I have an insurance entry form that has contact information for two people. I have created a Razor partial view for the contact entry and put it in the form twice. The 'master' view model (VmApplicationForm) contains two instances of a subsidiary view model (VmPolicyHolder) corresponding to the two contacts as well as some properties common to both contacts. I am calling #Html.RenderPartial("_CreateOrEdit", Model.contactInfo1) and #Html.RenderPartial("_CreateOrEdit", Model.contactInfo2) in the page. With this arrangement (no surprises) the rendered code has duplicate IDs for the form input elements.
Is there any way of getting RenderPartial to prefix the IDs and Name attributes? I couldn't see this in the documentation, but perhaps I've missed something.
Sorry, I don't have time yet to give you the example code, but i'll give you the idea. You should first create EditorTemplate for that probably called ContactInfo class. And then, in the base class(Holding that two contacts) edit view, you should write
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.contactInfo1)
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.contactInfo2)
This way, it will render that EditorTemplate and generate correct ids and names to inputs within it.
What you are doing is trying to post a collection of items in a form- this can indeed be done in MVC (as well as in any web page/application that uses a FORM tag), however it requires some special handling to avoid id collisions and to correctly format the post data. Steve Sanderson has a great post on how to accomplish this:
http://blog.stevensanderson.com/2010/01/28/editing-a-variable-length-list-aspnet-mvc-2-style/
Essentially its a wrapper to append unique guids to element ids (in your case for each contactInfo), and create the proper array format in the tags. eg <input name="ContactInfo[f2cc4d6b-fc32-45e9-9d3d-fce54c3fede3].FirstName">
if your model is something like ContactInfo, you will end up posting like
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(IEnumerable<ContactInfo> contacts)
{
// To do: do whatever you want with the data
}

Some Confusion / Query Related to MVC2

I have just started using MVC 2 , I have got a couple of queries , may be you guys can help me to clear my confusion.
Why mvc doesnt allows to inherit multiple models on a view page.
For instance if i inherited account model in my view , why i cant excess the associated entity properties with the account model in that view, We are only allowed to use the properties of that model like <%: Model.FirstName :%> Where First name is the property of account model. Why we cannot use <%:Model.account.aspnet_users.vehicle.make %> Where aspnet_users is associated with account through a foreign key vice versa. MVC 2 only allows <%:Model.account.aspnet_users.vehicle %> Therfore I cant use the associated property of vehicle which in this case is vehicle.make. I was thinking of doing something like <%: Html.TextboxFor(model => model.account.aspnet_users.vehicle.make %>.
ASP.NET MVC doesn't restrict navigation to related properties. If you cannot access the property it means either:
The relation is not loaded (it is null) and lazy loading is turned off / context is disposed
The relation is actually a collection an you must use Linq to navigate in the collection

How can I make a parameter on an Action Method be a Model Class

I'm new to asp.net mvc and I came across a project a while back which included an actual Model class as a parameter on an Action Method. It looked something like this:
public ActionResult Index(PersonFormViewModel person)
{
id = person.Id; ...etc..
}
Can anyone point me to some samples on how to implement something like this within my own project?
Thanks in advance
In your view, simply prefix the inputs that correspond to the model's properties with the parameter name of the model. For a model with simple properties this should just work. If your model has complex properties (submodels) you may need to develop a custom model binder. If you have arrays, then you'll need to do some extra formatting in the view side (see Phil Haack's blog on this).
<%= Html.Hidden("Person.Id") %>
<%= Html.TextBox("Person.FirstName") %>
<%= Html.TextBox("Person.LastName" ) %>
It is actually really easy to do, your names on your form elements and your model object just need to line up for the auto binder to work, or you can implement or specify a custom binder. Scott Gu wrote about it on his blog when it first came out in the preview 5 release.
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/10/16/asp-net-mvc-beta-released.aspx
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2008/09/02/asp-net-mvc-preview-5-and-form-posting-scenarios.aspx
Another nice example:
http://www.bradygaster.com/post/ASPNET-MVC-Model-Binding-Example.aspx

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