Question

I have a situation where I need to iterate through a small collection of query criteria and create a set of html fields for each. I would like to get unobtrusive js validation working for them, but of course, the problem is that you can’t use @Html.XxxFor(m => m.FieldName) because the field names need to be numbered – i.e.,

<input name="List[1].Category" />
<input name="List[1].Value" />

<input name="List[2].Category" />
<input name="List[2].Value" />

to get proper model binding and javascript behavior and whatnot. Consequently, I have to use:

@Html.Xxx("List[1].Category"...) such that I don’t get the unobtrusive validations emitted.

This all makes sense, but I’m wondering if anyone has found an elegant way to wire up unobtrusive validation in this scenario.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Here’s a code snippet which demonstrates how to use the XxxFor methods and get name attributes which are indexed:

@for (var i = 0; i < Model.List.Length; i++)
{
    @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.List[i].Category)
    @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.List[i].Value)
}

This would avoid needing to wire-up unobtrusive validation manually.