Question

I have a ‘Create’ page in my MVC3 application that has 4 input fields that are all required. I also have an ‘Edit’ page in which 3 of these 4 fields can be edited. I do not want to display the 4th field and want to maintain it at its initial value (the field is the date that the entry was created ).

I mark the 4th field as [Required] in the model then this causes the model to be declared as invalid in post action method of the Edit field. If I omit the [Required] annotation then someone can create a user with a null value for this 4th field.

How can I get around this problem?

Model Code:

    [Required]
    [DisplayName("User Name")]
    public string UserName { get; set; }

    [Required]
    public string Role { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [DataType(DataType.Date)]
    [DisplayName("Insert Date")]
    public DateTime? InsertDate { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [DisplayName("Active")]
    public bool ActiveInd { get; set; }

Controller Code:

public ActionResult Edit(int id, ZUserRoleModel mod)
    {

        if (ModelState.IsValid)
        {

            // code removed

            return RedirectToAction("Index");
        }
        return View(mod);

    }

Answer 1

You can make that field as hidden in edit mode.

@Html.HiddenFor(x => x.EntryDate)