Validation Firing on Page Load - asp.net-mvc-3

Currently, I have an MVC 3 app using the Razor View engine. I have unobtrusive validation enabled. The problem is that for some reason, on page load, my Edit View is displaying errors for required fields (even though the fields have a value). Has anyone else ran into this? Any suggestions for resolving this? Thanks.
Sample Field with problem:
<div class="full">
<label>Description:</label>
#Html.EditorFor(x=>x.Description, new{#class="super-textarea"})
#Html.ValidationMessageFor(x => x.Description)
</div>
Data Annotations on Model:
[Required, DataType(DataType.MultilineText)]
public virtual string Description { get; set; }
WebConfig enabled settings:
<add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true" />
<add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="true" />
And of course the proper jquery files....

You can also clear the errors from the ModelState
ModelState.Clear();

Ok. Found the problem. Validation was happening due to Model binding attempting to take place. This was happening because our Get Method looks like this.
[HttpGet, RequestedObjectFilter]
public virtual ViewResult Edit(TKey id, T requestedObject)
{
return View(requestedObject);
}
A feature of .NET MVC is that anytime a reference value is passed as a parameter in the Method Signature of a ViewResult, ModelBinding is triggered, which in turn fires off validation. The reason that we were passing in the object to our method was due to our RequestedObjectFilter which would fetch the related entity from our abstracted repository, and pass it in to this method via the ActionParameters property. We refactored our RequestedObjectFilter to set the ViewModel instead, allowing us to remove the parameter from the method, thus solving the problem. Now our method looks like this:
[HttpGet, RequestedObjectFilter]
public virtual ViewResult Edit(TKey id)
{
return View();
}

Related

MVC 3 POST data and the Id field

I have a strongly typed razor view for a model in my MVC 3 project. Basically its for editing the model.
The model contains an Id field for the database key and some other string fields (Its a viewModel and all but thats not the point of the question).
In the view I just have a form and a submit button and nothing else. When the View is posted to the controller the model in the controller has all fields empty EXCEPT for the Id field which seems to have been auto-magically filled up.
How and where does the Id field gets populated in the model without there being a corresponding 'input' element for it in the view.
This is probably a dumb question but I would appreciate even just a link to what I should read up on. Thanks.
I bet it comes from the url as route parameter.
For example you have the following controller:
public class HomeController: Controller
{
public ActionResult Index(int id)
{
vqr model = GetModel(id);
return View(model);
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(MyViewModel model)
{
// the model.Id property will be automatically populated here
// because the request was POST /home/index/123
...
}
}
and the following view:
#model MyViewModel
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
<button type="submit">OK</button>
}
Now you navigate to GET /home/index/123 and you get the following markup:
<form action="/home/index/123" method="post">
<button type="submit">OK</button>
</form>
Notice the action attribute of the form? That's where the id comes from. Basically the Html.BeginForm() helper uses the current url when generating the action attribute, and since the current url is /home/index/123 it is what gets used.
And because if you have left the default routes in your Global.asax, the {id} route token is used at the end of the url, the default model binder successfully binds it to the Id property of your view model.
You are probably hitting a URL similar to the following: /MyObject/Edit/15
This is then returning the page that you have your blank form on.
What happens next is you have an HTML.BeginForm() which is posting BACK to /MyObject/Edit/15
Now because of the post back having the same format your routing rules are picking up the '15' and binding it back to your id.
Have you added the ID field as a hidden field?
e.g.
#Html.HiddenFor(x=> x.ID)

Wizard in ASP.NET MVC3 and Multiple HttpPost

I am using the Wizard control described in http://afana.me/post/create-wizard-in-aspnet-mvc-3.aspx
It works great, but I need to have Multiple HttpPost within the same Controller. In my scenario, I need to add to a collection before moving to next step. In the partial view for that step. I have following set up:
#using (Html.BeginForm("AddJobExperience", "Candidate"))
{
<input type="submit" value="Add Experience" />
}
When I press the Add Experience input, it is routed to the
[HttpPost, ActionName("Index")]
public ActionResult Index(CandidateViewModel viewModel)
{
}
instead of
[HttpPost, ActionName("AddJobExperience")]
public ActionResult AddJobExperience(CandidateViewModel col)
{
}
what am I doing wrong?
It sounds like you need to break up your CandidateViewModel into separate ViewModels and your big Wizard View into separate Views so that there is one per action for each step of the wizard.
Step one they add the job experience, so have a view, viewmodel and an action for that, Step two they do whatever else and you have a separate view, viewmodel and action for that as well. etc, etc
Breaking up your CandidateViewModel into separate ViewModels will mean that you can just focus on the data required for that step, and can add the validation, then when they click submit, it posts the data to the next step.
Then, when you want to improve the UI behaviour, add some AJAX, and maybe use something like JQuery UI Tabs to make it behave more like a wizard in a desktop app.
It sounds like you still have nested forms. Don't do this, it is not valid HTML.
You have 2 options here, depending on what you are trying to achieve. If you want to post your job experiences separately one at a time, then put them in their own #using(Html.BeginForms, but don't nest them in an outer form. When a user clicks the Add Experience button, do your work on that one experience and then return a new view to the user.
If you want to post all of the job experiences at the same time, then wrap all of them in a single #using(Html.BeginForm and do not put #using(Html.BeginForm in your partial views. See another question I answered here for more info on how to post a collection of items in a single HTTP POST.
The 2nd method is what it sounds like you are trying to achieve, and for this, you should probably use AJAX to add multiple job experiences to your collection without doing a full postback. You can then do 1 HTTP POST to submit all job experiences in the collection to your wizard controller. It's not very difficult to implement a feature like this:
Given I can see the Add Experience button
When I click the Add Experience button
Then I should see a new experience partial view with input fields
And I should enter data in these fields
When I click the Add Experience button a second time
Then I should see another new experience partial view with input fields
And I should enter data in these fields
When I click the Add Experience button a third time
Then I should see a third new experience partial view with input fields
And I should enter data in these fields
When I click the Next button in the wizard
Then my controller will receive data for all 3 experiences I submitted in a single form
you need to use ActionMethodSelectorAttribute or ActionNameSelectorAttribute which allow to add new attribute on action to call different action on respective of button click
In View:
#using (Html.BeginForm())
{
<input type="submit" value="Add Experience" name="AddExperience" />
<input type="submit" value="Add Experience" name="AddJobExperience" />
}
add new class FormValueRequiredAttribute in application which extend ActionMethodSelectorAttribute class to check on which button is clicked
//controller/FormValueRequiredAttribute.cs
public class FormValueRequiredAttribute : ActionMethodSelectorAttribute
{
public string ButtonName { get; set; }
public override bool IsValidForRequest(ControllerContext controllerContext, MethodInfo methodInfo)
{
var req = controllerContext.RequestContext.HttpContext.Request;
return !string.IsNullOrEmpty(req.Form[this.ButtonName]);
}
}
then you should add this attribute on action to call corresponding action
In Controller
[HttpPost]
[FormValueRequired(ButtonName = "AddExperience")]
public ActionResult Index(CandidateViewModel viewModel)
{
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
[ActionName("Index")]
[FormValueRequired(ButtonName = "AddJobExperience")]
public ActionResult AddJobExperience_Index(CandidateViewModel viewModel)
{
return View();
}
Note if your Html.BeginForm method in Index.cshtml then you don't need specify ActionName attribute on Index Action, now AddJobExperience_Index act same as Index Action.

ValidateRequest in Razor syntax

I have the following header of ASP.Net MVC page:
<%# Page Title="" Language="C#" MasterPageFile="~/Views/Shared/Admin.Master" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewPage<NEOGOV_Ideas.Models.SubIdeaAdminPage>"
ValidateRequest="false" %>
I need to move this page to Razor syntax. How should I set ValidateRequest?
Thanks
Decorate your action method with ValidateInput attribute
[HttpPost]
[ValidateInput(false)]
public ActionResult index()
{
return view();
}
You shouldn't need that line in the view, instead use the ValidateInput(false) attribute on the controller method.
Make sure you've got this in your web.config if you're using ASP .net 4.0 (which I presume you are if you're using MVC 3)
<httpRuntime requestValidationMode="2.0"/>
Martin
From MVC 4 we can allow html content only for property of model class, not for the whole request. Just need to mark property by attribute AllowHtml
public class EditorialPixlocateRequestViewModel
{
[AllowHtml]
public string Xml { get; set; }
}

server side validation in the main view cause also validation in partial view, how to stop that?

I have layout with login partial view (username, password and submit button) and models ( some controls and submit button)with validation(server side and client side) displayed in normal views (#RenderBody() in layout).
My problem is when do server side validation in any of my views it also validate the login partial view because it execute the httppost function of the login. how can I stop that??
login view controller
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult LogOn()
{
return PartialView();
}
//
// POST: /Account/LogOn
[HttpPut]
public ActionResult LogOn(LogOnModel model)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
if (MembershipService.ValidateUser(model.UserName, model.Password))
{
FormsService.SignIn(model.UserName, model.RememberMe);
ViewBag.UserName = model.UserName;
}
else
{
ModelState.AddModelError("", Resources.Account.Account.LoginFailureText);
}
}
return PartialView(model);
}
and model controller
public ActionResult MyModel()
{
ViewBag.DisplayThxMsg = false;
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult MyModel(Models.FeedbacksModel feedback)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
//do something
}
else{
//do another thing
}
return View(feedback);
}
I find your question very difficult to understand. Im guessing your problem is you have a login partial control displayed as part of site layout and is shown on all pages. So while submitting any page, the username password validation kicks in, and you want to prevent that.
Understand that all validation # server - side happens while model binding, As properties are bound to the posted fields, the attributes on the fields are looked at and honored / catered to. So to prevent server side validation simply put the login partial view in it's own form so it is not sent while submitting other forms on the page.
In short have 2 forms - one form for login and one for feedback. Don't put all input fields in the same form.
If you still have validation errors after that, then it is because of other reasons like, type conversion problems. The default model binder will add some errors for basic type conversion issues (for example, passing a non-number for something which is an "int").The sample DataAnnotations model binder will fill model state with validation errors taken from the DataAnnotations attributes on your model.
EDIT
If you look at line number 125
#using (Html.BeginForm()){Html.RenderAction("LogOn", "Account");}
You have the above code which will render the login form.
It will do so inside the other form at line 45
<form id="form1" runat="server" method="post">
This has no end tag therefore it will encompass the whole document till </html>
You should change the structure from
<form id="form1" runat="server" method="post">
#using (Html.BeginForm()){Html.RenderAction("LogOn", "Account");}
</form
to
<form id="form1" runat="server" method="post">
</form>
#using (Html.BeginForm()){Html.RenderAction("LogOn", "Account");}
This line #using (Html.BeginForm()){Html.RenderAction("LogOn", "Account");} will render this form <form id="LoginView1" action="LogOn"> and all child elements of it.
LATEST EDIT
In your layout page use this :
#Html.Partial("~/Views/Shared/LogOnPartial.cshtml", new LogOnModel())
instead of this :
#Html.Action("LogOnPartial", "Account")
The reason why it all works is, the LogOnPartial method marked with [HttpPost] is called because the request was in a POST context. What you want is, You just need the view without the action executing even when POSTing. The above code does that. It renders the view without calling the action method. MVC3 is sort of a stupid servent : It only knows that it should call the Action method marked with [HttpPost] when the request is in a post context. It doesn't know that the request is in a post context for another action (index) and not this one (logonpartial). So now you can remove this method
public ActionResult LogOnPartial()
{
return PartialView();
}
which will no longer be used.
Note that you need to change the account controller's LogOnPartial Method to return
return RedirectToAction("Index","Home"); instead of return PartialView(model); on successful login. And on FAILURE you cannot render a partialview as you have coded. You must return an entirely new View. It must neither be index nor LogonPartails - just return return View("Login_Error_View"); which has its own layout. Otherwise it will be difficult to control the workflow.

MVC3: How to Post a Form that contains partial views?

Tools: MVC3, jQuery Unobtrusive Validation, Razor, VS 2010
I am developing an MVC2 project that enables users to request services. I have placed information common to all forms in partial views, which are strongly typed to their own models. Each partial view has its own controller. The partial views are rendered in the main container page. I have unobtrusive jQuery data validation working for all data on the rendered page.
Questions: What is the best way to code a Post that relays all the page data to the server and how can I associate the partial views to their respective models? Is it possible for the controllers for the partial views to handle their own data storage chores? Any good examples somewhere? Or, is this architecture flawed and I should rethink?
Thanks in advance,
Arnold
No, not at all, sounds nicely broken up and easy to test. First off, make sure the forms are well set up with the right action, method, etc. in HTML. So then to post the whole page you could do something like this:
var savePage = function () {
$('form').each(function (formIndex, formElement) {
var f = $(formElement);
$.post(f.attr('action'), f.serialize(), successfulFormPost);
});
};
var successfulFormPost = function (data) { ... };
Now, if your MVC view looks something like this:
(Notice the naming convention for the name attribute). Then you can make your controller for that form take in a strongly typed parameter that matches the view's #Model:
public class SomeModel {
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
}
public class SomeController : Controller {
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult SomeAction(SomeModel someModel) {
// use someModel.Id, someModel.Description here
}
}
I did that HTML a little more manually, but I'm just proving a point about binding and linking up HTML POST with controller actions. I'll leave it up to you to bring in unobtrusive validation by using the Html.TextBox type syntax. Just remember to set the name attribute of your input fields according to how the default binder works:
http://www.asp.net/mvc
That's a great source for all these fundamentals.

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