Question

I have a question on how to create custom View Helpers.
I would like, in my Index View, to change my default dateTime format. I want to write my own Helper as I thought it was easy like in e.g. PHP.
I did:

1. Created Class:

   public static class CustomViewHelpers
   {
       public static MvcHtmlString returnDateString(string format, DateTime date)
       {
           return MvcHtmlString.Create(date.ToString(format));
       }
   }
   

2. I added it to the web.config,

3. I used it like that:

    <p><em>
       Birth date</em>
       <%: CustomViewHelpers.returnDateString("D", Model.Birth_Date); %></p>
   

But I always get the error:

Compilation Error

Description: An error occurred during the compilation of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific error details and modify your source code appropriately.

Compiler Error Message: CS1026: ) expected

But I think it is a wrong error because when I remove my line it works correctly and I see there are these “)” marks.
Can you explain to me why this kind of helper does not work? Maybe you know a good tutorial on how to write your own helpers in ASP.NET MVC2?

Answer 1

Remove the ; from the call to the helper.

<%: ... %> hold expressions, not statements, and should not have semicolons.