Question

I have a requirement to display a label whose text is determined at run-time.

Previously, when the text was known at compile-time, I was able to use the DisplayName DataAnnotation to craft how my model represented its data.

As an example, I used to have this:

[DisplayName("Task Template")]
public List<KeyValuePair<int, string>> TaskTemplate { get; set; }

<%= Html.LabelFor(model => model.TaskTemplate) %>
<%= Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.TaskTemplateFlag, new SelectList(Model.TaskTemplate, "Key", "Value"))%>

but now the DisplayName needs to be determined at run-time.

According to this StackOverflow answer there is no way to do this using a DataAnnotation.

I’m left wondering what best practice is? Do I stop using LabelFor altogether? Should I just store a bunch of string properties in my model, load my values into the properties, and render using DisplayFor?

Update: I think that this is probably a good enough solution:

public string TaskTemplateLabel { get; set; }
public List<KeyValuePair<int, string>> TaskTemplate { get; set; }

//Constructor: TaskTemplateLabel = GetLabelFromDataSource();

<%= Html.LabelFor(model => model.CurrentDeviceName, Model.TaskTemplateLabel)%>

Answer 1

According to my understanding this is as easy as use an overload of the LabelFor html helper

@Html.LabelFor(x => item.ID, item.ID.ToString())

In the above example, a label will be created for the ID property and the text will actually be the value of the property

This is the rendered result:

<label for="item_ID">7061207d-4ad4-45dd-aada-8335b98538c3</label>

Compare this to the traditional example:

@Html.LabelFor(x => item.ID)

Which renders:

<label for="item_ID">ID</label>