Can I reuse a remote validation action in MVC3 - asp.net-mvc-3

Question

I am using a Remote validation attribute on my view model to validate a Bank Account that is specified for my Company:
ViewModel:
[Remote("CheckDefaultBank", "Company")]
public string DefaultBank
{
This in the controller I have:
[HttpGet]
public JsonResult CheckDefaultBank(string defaultBank)
{
bool result = BankExists(defaultBank);
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
That all works well. But, I have two other banks related to my company as well. However, when the remote validation js calls the action it uses a parameter mactching the field name of "DefaultBank"... so I use that as a parameter in my action.
Is there some attribute I can add in the view so that it will use a parameter of say "bankId" on the ajax get so I don't need an action for each field which are basically exactly the same?
The goal here is to eliminate now having to have this in my controller:
[HttpGet]
public JsonResult CheckRefundBank(string refundBank)
{
bool result = BankExists(defaultBank);
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
[HttpGet]
public JsonResult CheckPayrollBank(string payrollBank)
{
bool result = BankExists(defaultBank);
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
I was hoping I could do something like this in the view:
#Html.EditorFor(model => model.DefaultBank, new { data-validate-parameter: bankId })
This way I could just use the same action for all of the Bank entries like:
[HttpGet]
public JsonResult CheckValidBank(string bankId)
{
bool result = BankExists(bankId);
return Json(result, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}
Possible?

Answer 1

For just such a situation, I wrote a RemoteReusableAttribute, which may be helpful to you. Here is a link to it: Custom remote Validation in MVC 3

Answer 2

Since MVC uses the default model binder for this, just like a normal action method. You could take a FormsCollection as your parameter and lookup the value. However, I personally would find it much easier to just use several parameters to the function, unless you start having dozens of different parameters.
You could also write a custom model binder, that would translate the passed parameter to a generic one.

Answer 3

Consider encapsulating the logic, "BankExists" in this case into a ValidationAttribute (Data Annotations Validator). This allows other scenarios as well.
Then use a wrapper ActionResult like the one below, which lets you pass in any validator.
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult CheckRefundBank(string refundBank)
{
var validation = BankExistsAttribute();
return new RemoteValidationResult(validation, defaultBank);
}
Here is the code for the ActionResult that works generically with Validators.
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Web.Mvc;
public class RemoteValidationResult : ActionResult
{
public RemoteValidationResult(ValidationAttribute validation, object value)
{
this.Validation = validation;
this.Value = value;
}
public ValidationAttribute Validation { get; set; }
public object Value { get; set; }
public override void ExecuteResult(ControllerContext context)
{
var json = new JsonResult();
json.JsonRequestBehavior = JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet;
if (Validation.IsValid(Value))
{
json.Data = true;
}
else
{
json.Data = Validation.FormatErrorMessage(Value.ToString());
}
json.ExecuteResult(context);
}
}
As an extra enhancement consider creating a Controller Extension method to dry up your return call even more.