Validation attributed is cached - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

I have following code in custom validation attribute called DateRange:
private DateTime _minDate = DateTime.Today.AddYears(-100);
private DateTime _maxDate = DateTime.MaxValue;
// String representation of the Min Date (yyyy/MM/dd)
public string Min
{
get { return FormatDate(_minDate, DateTime.Today.AddYears(-100)); }
set { _minDate = value == "Today" ? DateTime.Today : ParseDate(value, DateTime.Today.AddYears(-100)); }
}
// String representation of the Max Date (yyyy/MM/dd)
public string Max
{
get { return FormatDate(_maxDate, DateTime.MaxValue); }
set { _maxDate = value == "Today" ? DateTime.Today : ParseDate(value, DateTime.MaxValue); }
}
Then I write this attribute in metadata on some property of entity model like this:
[DateRange(Max = "Today")]
public string SomeDateProperty { get; set; };
I set breakpoint on Max property's getter. First time I open view, breakpoint is activated and DateTime.Today is got. Consequent refresh of the view does not activate breakpoint and old value is got. I think it's caching validation attribute. My question is: Is this because of caching? If it is, then how to disable it? Thanks in advance

Answer 1

The constructor for the custom attributes only get hit once, no idea how to turn off any sort of caching. The way I got round this for my scenario, was to only deal with the date calculation in the "IsValid" Method.
I created a date in the past attribute, that needed the date to be in the past, but you could set how long in the past was valid.
public class DateInPastAttribute : ValidationAttribute
{
private const string DefaultErrorMessage = "'{0}' must be in the past.";
public int DaysInPastAllowed { get; set; }
public DateInPastAttribute(int daysInPastAllowed)
: base(DefaultErrorMessage)
{
this.DaysInPastAllowed = daysInPastAllowed;
}
public override bool IsValid(object value)
{
if (!(value is DateTime))
{
return true;
}
DateTime maxDate = DateTime.Now;
DateTime minDate = maxDate.AddDays(this.DaysInPastAllowed * -1);
DateTime dateValue = (DateTime)value;
return
minDate <= dateValue &&
dateValue <= maxDate;
}
public override string FormatErrorMessage(string name)
{
return string.Format(CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, this.ErrorMessageString, name);
}
}
You can then use it in your view model like this:
[DateInPast(365)]
public DateTime DateReceived { get; set; }
Which would allow a date to be entered within the last year. You could amend this for the scenario that you require.