How to create custom validation attribute for MVC - asp.net-mvc

I'd like to create a custom validation attribute for MVC2 for an email address that doesn't inherit from RegularExpressionAttribute but that can be used in client validation. Can anyone point me in the right direction?
I tried something as simple as this:
[AttributeUsage( AttributeTargets.Property | AttributeTargets.Field, AllowMultiple = false )]
public class EmailAddressAttribute : RegularExpressionAttribute
{
public EmailAddressAttribute( )
: base( Validation.EmailAddressRegex ) { }
}
but it doesn't seem to work for the client. However, if I use RegularExpression(Validation.EmailAddressRegex)] it seems to work fine.

You need to register an adapter for the new attribute in order to enable client side validation.
Since the RegularExpressionAttribute already has an adapter, which is RegularExpressionAttributeAdapter, all you have to do is reuse it.
Use a static constructor to keep all the necessary code within the same class.
[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Field | AttributeTargets.Property, AllowMultiple = false)]
public class EmailAddressAttribute : RegularExpressionAttribute
{
private const string pattern = #"^\w+([-+.]*[\w-]+)*#(\w+([-.]?\w+)){1,}\.\w{2,4}$";
static EmailAddressAttribute()
{
// necessary to enable client side validation
DataAnnotationsModelValidatorProvider.RegisterAdapter(typeof(EmailAddressAttribute), typeof(RegularExpressionAttributeAdapter));
}
public EmailAddressAttribute() : base(pattern)
{
}
}
For more information checkout this post explaining the complete process.
http://haacked.com/archive/2009/11/19/aspnetmvc2-custom-validation.aspx

The CustomValidationAttribute Class MSDN page has a few examples on it now. The Phil Haacked post is out of date.

Look at the universal Dependent Property Validator in this article

Have you tried using Data Annotations?
This is my Annotations project
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
public class IsEmailAddressAttribute : ValidationAttribute
{
public override bool IsValid(object value)
{
//do some checking on 'value' here
return true;
}
}
This is in my Models project
namespace Models
{
public class ContactFormViewModel : ValidationAttributes
{
[Required(ErrorMessage = "Please provide a short message")]
public string Message { get; set; }
}
}
This is my controller
[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult ContactUs(ContactFormViewModel formViewModel)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
RedirectToAction("ContactSuccess");
}
return View(formViewModel);
}
You'll need to google DataAnnotations as you need to grab the project and compile it. I'd do it but I need to get outta here for a long w/end.
Hope this helps.
EDIT
Found this as a quick google.

Related

ASP.NET MVC: Implement client side validation with attribute without IClientValidatable

How can I create a custom validation attribute with client side validation without implementing IClientValidatable?
How does System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.RequiredAttribute client side validate?
The reason to do this is because I'm using objects from classes in another project as models in my views and I don't want to add the System.Web.MVC reference to that project.
EDIT to add more information:
I know that IClientValidatable is used to add custom attributes to
the HTML to be used later by the unobtrusive validation.
I know I'll need to add the javascript code to made the validation in
the client.
What I don't know is how to use the information from the custom validation attribute to add the necessary attributes to the HTML for unobtrusive validation to work.
This is my custom validation attribute:
public class RequiredGuidAttribute : ValidationAttribute
{
public override bool IsValid(object value)
{
Guid? guidValue = value as Guid?;
if (guidValue == null)
return false;
return guidValue != Guid.Empty;
}
}
This is my property with the attribute applied:
[RequiredGuid(ErrorMessageResourceType = typeof(ClientOrderResources), ErrorMessageResourceName = "RequiredShippingMethod")]
public Guid ShippingMethodId
{
get { return GetProperty(ShippingMethodIdProperty); }
set { SetProperty(ShippingMethodIdProperty, value); }
}
And finally I'm rendering a hidden input for that property in the view using Html.HiddenFor.
Now, how can I get the error message from the attribute to apply it to the HTML? Should I do it my self using Reflection or there is a better way?
And then how can I tell Html.HiddenFor to use that information to add the necessary attributes to the HTML?
We had a similar problem. We have a model we use for our account creation that uses IClientValidatable on its custom attributes. However, we created a batch account creation process that sits outside of the website that we weren't able to reference System.Web.Mvc in. Because of this, when we called Validator.TryValidateObject, any custom validator that inherited from IClientValidatable was simply skipped. Here's what we were working with that was failing to validate outside of our website:
public class AgeValidatorAttribute : ValidationAttribute, IClientValidatable
{
public int AgeMin { get; set; }
public int AgeMax { get; set; }
public override bool IsValid(object value)
{
//run validation
}
}
public IEnumerable<ModelClientValidationRule> GetClientValidationRules(ModelMetadata metadata, ControllerContext context)
{
var rule = new ModelClientValidationRule
{
ErrorMessage = ErrorMessageString,
ValidationType = "agevalidator"
};
rule.ValidationParameters["agemin"] = AgeMin;
rule.ValidationParameters["agemax"] = AgeMax;
yield return rule;
}
Removing System.Web.Mvc required us to also remove GetClientValidationRules and the IClientValidatable reference. In order to do this and still have client side validation, we had to create a new class:
public class AgeValidatorClientValidator : DataAnnotationsModelValidator<AgeValidatorAttribute>
{
private readonly string _errorMessage;
private readonly string _validationType;
public AgeValidatorClientValidator(ModelMetadata metadata, ControllerContext context, AgeValidatorAttribute attribute)
: base(metadata, context, attribute)
{
this._errorMessage = attribute.FormatErrorMessage(metadata.DisplayName);
this._validationType = "agevalidator";
}
public override IEnumerable<ModelClientValidationRule> GetClientValidationRules()
{
var rule = new ModelClientValidationRule
{
ErrorMessage = this._errorMessage,
ValidationType = this._validationType
};
rule.ValidationParameters["agemin"] = base.Attribute.AgeMin;
rule.ValidationParameters["agemax"] = base.Attribute.AgeMax;
yield return rule;
}
}
As you can see, it does essentially the same thing as it used to, it's just done using the DataAnnatotationsModelValidator rather than IClientValidatable. There's one more step we need to do to actually attach the DataAnnotationsModelValidator to the atttribute, and that's done in the Global.asax.cs Application_Start method
DataAnnotationsModelValidatorProvider.RegisterAdapter(
typeof(AgeValidatorAttribute), typeof(AgeValidatorClientValidator));
Now you can use this just as you would use a normal attribute:
[AgeValidator(AgeMax = 110, AgeMin = 18, ErrorMessage = "The member must be between 18 and 110 years old")]
public string DateOfBirth { get; set; }
I know this question is a year old, but I spent all day yesterday and half of today trying to figure this issue out. So I hope this helps somebody who runs into the same problem if OP hasn't figured the answer out yet.
Please note, I did not include any javascript in this writeup as it required no changes from the standard implementation of custom validation rules using jQuery.validate.
You can't have custom validation on the client unless you implement IClientValidatable. And for that you also need to add client script as well.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vs2010trainingcourse_aspnetmvccustomvalidation_topic3.aspx
It is possible, i found this article on how to do it:
http://xhalent.wordpress.com/2011/05/12/custom-unobstrusive-jquery-validation-in-asp-net-mvc-3-using-dataannotationsmodelvalidatorprovider/
basically you have to create a DataAnnotationsModelValidator on your client an register it in Application_Start().
And don't forget that you still have to write the Javascript for client side validation.

Fluent Validation in ASP.net MVC - Database Validations

I'm using the Fluent Validation framework in my ASP.net MVC 3 project. So far all of my validations have been very simple (make sure string is not empty, only a certain length, etc.) but now I need to verify that something exists in the database or not.
Should Fluent Validation be used in this case?
If the database validation should be done using Fluent Validation, then how do I handle dependencies? The validator classes are created automatically, and I would need to somehow pass it one of my repository instances in order to query my database.
An example of what I'm trying to validate might:
I have a dropdown list on my page with a list of selected items. I want to validate that the item they selected actually exists in the database before trying to save a new record.
Edit
Here is a code example of a regular validation in Fluent Validation framework:
[Validator(typeof(CreateProductViewModelValidator))]
public class CreateProductViewModel
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public decimal Price { get; set; }
}
public class CreateProductViewModelValidator : AbstractValidator<CreateProductViewModel>
{
public CreateProductViewModelValidator()
{
RuleFor(m => m.Name).NotEmpty();
}
}
Controller:
public ActionResult Create(CreateProductViewModel model)
{
if(!ModelState.IsValid)
{
return View(model);
}
var product = new Product { Name = model.Name, Price = model.Price };
repository.AddProduct(product);
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}
As you can see, I never create the Validator myself. This works because of the following line in Global.asax:
FluentValidation.Mvc.FluentValidationModelValidatorProvider.Configure();
The problem is that now I have a validator that needs to interact with my database using a repository, but since I'm not creating the validators I don't know how I would get that dependency passed in, other than hardcoding the concrete type.
Can't you just create your own validation method where in you would kick-off the database validation?
RuleFor(m => m.name)
.Must(BeInDatabase)
private static bool BeInDatabase(string name)
{
// Do database validation and return false if not valid
return false;
}
I'm using FluentValidation for DataBase validations. just pass the Validation class the session in the Ctor. and do the validation inside the action something like:
var validationResult = new ProdcutValidator(session).Validate(product);
Update: Based on your example I add my example...
public class CreateProductViewModel
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public decimal Price { get; set; }
}
public class CreateProductViewModelValidator : abstractValidator<CreateProductViewModel>
{
private readonly ISession _session;
public CreateProductViewModelValidator(ISession session)
{
_session = session;
RuleFor(m => m.Name).NotEmpty();
RuleFor(m => m.Code).Must(m, Code => _session<Product>.Get(Code) == null);
}
}
Controller:
public ActionResult Create(CreateProductViewModel model)
{
var validator = new CreateProductViewModelValidator();
var validationResult =validator.Validate(model);
if(!validationResult.IsValid)
{
// You will have to add the errors by hand to the ModelState's errors so the
// user will be able to know why the post didn't succeeded(It's better writing
// a global function(in your "base controller" That Derived From Controller)
// that migrate the validation result to the
// ModelState so you could use the ModelState Only.
return View(model);
}
var product = new Product { Name = model.Name, Price = model.Price };
repository.AddProduct(product);
return RedirectToAction("Index");
}
Second update:
If you insist using parameterless constructor you will have to use some Inversion Of control container, a static class that is something like the Factory of your objects.
use it like this:
public class CreateProductViewModelValidator : abstractValidator<CreateProductViewModel>
{
private readonly ISession _session;
public CreateProductViewModelValidator()
{
_session = IoC.Container.Reslove<ISession>();
RuleFor(m => m.Name).NotEmpty();
RuleFor(m => m.Code).Must(m, Code => _session<Product>.Get(Code) == null);
}
}
You can find many IoC containers, most famous are Windsor and Ninject,
You will need to register- instruct the container once to resolve all the ISession to return your's session object.
The other way this could work for you is using Constructor injection. While this method isn't as clear cut as using an IoC library, it may help if you have a static way of accessing or fetching your session.
public class CreateProductViewModelValidator
{
private ISession _session;
public CreateProductViewModelValidator()
:this(SessionFactory.GetCurrentSession()) //Or some other way of fetching the repository.
{
}
internal CreateProductViewModelValidator(ISession session)
{
this._session = session;
RuleFor(m => m.Name);//More validation here using ISession...
}
}
I have been spending quite a bit of time thinking about this exact same issue. I am using ninject to inject my repository into my web UI layer so that my web UI only accesses the database through an interface.
I am wanting to be able to validate things that access the database such as checking for duplicate names and hence my validation needs to access the injected repository. I think that the best way to do this is to just setup Fluent Validation via the manual method rather than the MVC integrated way. For Example:
Create your validation Class (can pass in repository Interface):
public class CategoryDataBaseValidation : AbstractValidator<CategoryViewModel>
{
private IRepository repository;
public CategoryDataBaseValidation (IRepository repoParam)
{
repository = repoParam;
RuleFor(Category => Category.Name).Must(NotHaveDuplicateName).WithMessage("Name already exists");
}
private bool NotHaveDuplicateName(string name)
{
List<Category> c = repository.Categories.ToList(); //Just showing that you can access DB here and do what you like.
return false;
}
}
}
Then in your controller you can just create an instance of above class and pass in the repository (that ninject would have injected in the controller constructor)
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(CategoryViewModel _CategoryViewModel )
{
CategoryDataBaseValidation validator = new CategoryDataBaseValidation (repository);
ValidationResult results = validator.Validate(_CategoryViewModel );
if (results.IsValid == false)
{
foreach (var failure in results.Errors)
{
//output error
}
}
return View(category);
}
Both the above files can live in the Web UI project and you can then also just use the standard MVC DataAnnotations for client side validation.
Just thought that I would put this up for comment / help someone.

custom validation attribute not working on client, just on server

I am trying to implement custom attribute validation, similar to one demonstrated here in ScottGu's blog:
http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2010/01/15/asp-net-mvc-2-model-validation.aspx
I have this custom validator attribute for Email:
public class EmailAttribute : RegularExpressionAttribute
{
public EmailAttribute() :
base("^[A-Za-z0-9](([_\\.\\-]?[a-zA-Z0-9]+)*)#([A-Za-z0-9]+)(([\\.\\-]?[a-zA-Z0-9]+)*)\\.([A-Za-z]{2,})$") { }
}
My class uses it like this:
[Required(ErrorMessage = ValidationCiM.MsgObaveznoPolje)]
[Email(ErrorMessage = ValidationCiM.MsgMailNeispravan)]
[StringLength(ValidationCiM.LenSrednjePolje, ErrorMessage = ValidationCiM.MsgSrednjePolje)]
public string Mail { get; set; }
and it all works well on server side, model is validated ok, and everything. But client side validation does not activate for this the second attribute, it works for Required, and it also works for StringLength but not for Email.
i have tried including both jquery and Microsoft ajax scripts, but there seems to be no difference.
In ScottGu's blog, he states that the custom validation if implemented like this should work without the need to add custom script.
Any ideas please?
Use IClientValidatable in ASP.NET MVC 3:
public class EmailAttribute : RegularExpressionAttribute, IClientValidatable
{
public EmailAttribute()
:base(#"^([a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]+)#((\[[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.)|(([a-zA-Z0-9\-]+\.)+))([a-zA-Z]{2,4}|[0-9]{1,3})$")
{
}
public System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable<ModelClientValidationRule> GetClientValidationRules(ModelMetadata metadata, ControllerContext context)
{
var rule = new ModelClientValidationRegexRule(this.ErrorMessageString, base.Pattern);
return new[] { rule };
}
}
What you actually needed to do was this (on application start):
DataAnnotationsModelValidatorProvider.RegisterAdapter(typeof(EmailAttribute), typeof(RegularExpressionAttributeAdapter));
It hooks up the client validation to your custom attribute.

Extending the DataAnnotations attributes for MVC in asp.net

Brad Willson has a great article on descripting how to use DataAnnotations. http://bradwilson.typepad.com/blog/2009/04/dataannotations-and-aspnet-mvc.html What I would like to do is extend the available attributes that I can use. Something like [ PastDate(you must enter a date in the past)] or [InvoiceNumber( all invoices start with INV and end with 002)]. I know that I could use the Regular expression attribute to accomplish this. However having more descriptive attributes would be a cleaner solution.
You need to create a class that inherits from System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.ValidationAttribute and then use that attribute like this :
public class yourModel {
[CustomValidation(typeof(yourClass), "yourMethod")]
public int yourProperty { get; set; }
}
Haven't tried it but it should work.
I have a few of these in my project - some still use regular expressions, but at least this way they're only in one place:
public class TelephoneAttribute : RegularExpressionAttribute
{
public TelephoneAttribute()
: base(#"^\(?(\d{3}\)?)((-| )?\d{3})(-?\d{4})$") { }
}
And more like what your example:
public class MinimumDateAttribute : RangeAttribute
{
public MinimumDateAttribute(string MinimumDate)
: base(typeof(DateTime), MinimumDate, DateTime.MaxValue.ToShortDateString()) { }
}

Ninject - how and when to inject

I'm a newbie when it comes to DI and ninject and I'm struggling a bit
about when the actual injection should happen and how to start the
binding.
I'm using it already in my web application and it working fine there,
but now I want to use injection in a class library.
Say I have a class like this:
public class TestClass
{
[Inject]
public IRoleRepository RoleRepository { get; set; }
[Inject]
public ISiteRepository SiteRepository { get; set; }
[Inject]
public IUserRepository UserRepository { get; set; }
private readonly string _fileName;
public TestClass(string fileName)
{
_fileName = fileName;
}
public void ImportData()
{
var user = UserRepository.GetByUserName("myname");
var role = RoleRepository.GetByRoleName("myname");
var site = SiteRepository.GetByID(15);
// Use file etc
}
}
I want to use property injection here because I need to pass in a
filename in my constructor. Am I correct in saying that if I need to
pass in a constructor parameter, I cannot use constructor injection?
If I can use constructor injection with additional parameters, how do
I pass those parameters in?
I have a console app that consumes by Test class that looks as
follows:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// NinjectRepositoryModule Binds my IRoleRepository etc to concrete
// types and works fine as I'm using it in my web app without any
// problems
IKernel kernel = new StandardKernel(new NinjectRepositoryModule());
var test = new TestClass("filename");
test.ImportData();
}
}
My problem is that when I call test.ImportData() my repositories are null - nothing has been injected into them. I have tried creating another module and calling
Bind<TestClass>().ToSelf();
as I thought this might resolve all injection properties in TestClass but I'm getting nowhere.
I'm sure this is a trivial problem, but I just can't seem to find out
how to go about this.
You are directly newing TestClass, which Ninject has no way of intercepting - remember there's no magic like code transformation intercepting your news etc.
You should be doing kernel.Get<TestClass> instead.
Failing that, you can inject it after you new it with a kernel.Inject( test);
I think there's an article in the wiki that talks about Inject vs Get etc.
Note that in general, direct Get or Inject calls are a Doing It Wrong smell of Service Location, which is an antipattern. In the case of your web app, the NinjectHttpModule and PageBase are the hook that intercepts object creation - there are similar interceptors / logical places to intercept in other styles of app.
Re your Bind<TestClass>().ToSelf(), generally a StandardKernel has ImplicitSelfBinding = true which would make that unnecessary (unless you want to influence its Scope to be something other than .InTransientScope()).
A final style point:- you're using property injection. There are rarely good reasons for this, so you should be using constructor injection instead.
And do go buy Dependency Injection in .NET by #Mark Seemann, who has stacks of excellent posts around here which cover lots of important but subtle considerations in and around the Dependency Injection area.
OK,
I've found out how to do what I need, thanks in part to your comments Ruben. I've created a new module that basically holds the configuration that I use in the class library. Within this module I can either Bind using a placeholder Interface or I can add a constructor parameter to the CustomerLoader.
Below is the code from a dummy console app to demonstrating both ways.
This might help someone else getting started with Ninject!
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Ninject.Core;
using Ninject.Core.Behavior;
namespace NinjectTest
{
public class Program
{
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
var kernel = new StandardKernel(new RepositoryModule(), new ProgramModule());
var loader = kernel.Get<CustomerLoader>();
loader.LoadCustomer();
Console.ReadKey();
}
}
public class ProgramModule : StandardModule
{
public override void Load()
{
// To get ninject to add the constructor parameter uncomment the line below
//Bind<CustomerLoader>().ToSelf().WithArgument("fileName", "string argument file name");
Bind<LiveFileName>().To<LiveFileName>();
}
}
public class RepositoryModule : StandardModule
{
public override void Load()
{
Bind<ICustomerRepository>().To<CustomerRepository>().Using<SingletonBehavior>();
}
}
public interface IFileNameContainer
{
string FileName { get; }
}
public class LiveFileName : IFileNameContainer
{
public string FileName
{
get { return "live file name"; }
}
}
public class CustomerLoader
{
[Inject]
public ICustomerRepository CustomerRepository { get; set; }
private string _fileName;
// To get ninject to add the constructor parameter uncomment the line below
//public CustomerLoader(string fileName)
//{
// _fileName = fileName;
//}
public CustomerLoader(IFileNameContainer fileNameContainer)
{
_fileName = fileNameContainer.FileName;
}
public void LoadCustomer()
{
Customer c = CustomerRepository.GetCustomer();
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Name:{0}\nAge:{1}\nFile name is:{2}", c.Name, c.Age, _fileName));
}
}
public interface ICustomerRepository
{
Customer GetCustomer();
}
public class CustomerRepository : ICustomerRepository
{
public Customer GetCustomer()
{
return new Customer() { Name = "Ciaran", Age = 29 };
}
}
public class Customer
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public int Age { get; set; }
}
}

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