Question

I am building an ASP.Net MVC 3 Web application using Entity Framework 4.1. To perform validation within one of my Views which accepts a ViewModel. I am using Data Annotations which I have placed on the properties I wish to validate.

ViewModel

public class ViewModelShiftDate
{
    public int shiftDateID { get; set; }

    public int shiftID { get; set; }

    [DisplayName("Start Date")]
    [Required(ErrorMessage = "Please select a Shift Start Date/ Time")]
    public DateTime? shiftStartDate { get; set; }

    [DisplayName("Assigned Locum")]
    public int assignedLocumID { get; set; }

    public SelectList AssignedLocum { get; set; }

}

View

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
@Html.ValidationSummary(true)

    <br />
    <div class="editor-label">
        @Html.LabelFor(model => model.shiftStartDate)
    </div>
    <div class="editor-field">
        @Html.EditorFor(model => model.shiftStartDate, new { @readonly = "readonly" })
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.shiftStartDate)
    </div>
    <br />

    <div class="editor-label">
        @Html.LabelFor(model => model.assignedLocumID)
    </div>
    <div class="editor-field">
        @Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.assignedLocumID, Model.AssignedLocum)
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.assignedLocumID)
    </div>
    <br />

    <p>
        <input type="submit" value="Save" />
    </p>
    <br />
}

The SelectList ‘AssignedLocum‘ is passed into my View for a DropDownList, and the item selected is assigned to the property ‘assignedLocumID‘.

As you can see from my ViewModel, the only required field is ‘shiftStartDate‘, however, when I hit the Submit button in my View, the drop down list ‘AssignedLocum‘ also acts a required field and will not allow the user to submit until a value is selected.

Does anyone know why this property is acting as a required field even though I have not tagged it to be so?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Try to use default value for dropdown (for example “Please select”)

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.assignedLocumID, Model.AssignedLocum, "Please select")