Question

I have a comment model with string property like this:

[Column]
public string Text { get; set; }

Comment text can have all HTML tags inside (i know it’s bad, but i have to). But when i update object, MVC 2 escapes all HTML tags.

Updating method is:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Edit(int ID=0)
{
        Comment comment= ID == 0
            ? new Comment ()
            : commentRepository.Comments.First(x => x.ID == ID);

        TryUpdateModel(comment);

        if (ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            commentRepository.Save(comment);
            return RedirectToAction("View/" + comment.ID);
        }
        else
        {
            return View(comment);
        }
    }

How can i update comment text without escaping?

P.S. Also i have problem with column type: when i switch column Text in SQL Server Express from varchar to text, updating model fails:

The data types text and nvarchar are incompatible in the equal to operator.

Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: The data types text and nvarchar are incompatible in the equal to operator.

Answer 1

What you have to do is turn off validation for that particular input field. To do that you can add this filter to you action:

[ValidateInput(false)]

Or if you want to be specific and only turn it off on that one field (maybe it will work on multiple, i haven’t tested that though) do something like this:

[ValidateInput(true, Exclude = "YourFieldName")]

This will exclude you field but still check all other fields.

ADDON: Adding filters ca be done in (AFAIK) two way. Here are 2 samples:

[HttpPost, ValidateInput(true, Exclude = "YourFieldName")]
public ActionResult SomeAction(...) { ... }

[HttpPost]
[ValidateInput(true, Exclude = "YourFieldName")]
publiv ActionResult SomeAction(...) { ... }