Question

I have the following class:

   public class City {  
      public string Name { get; set; }
      public bool CityValid { get; set; }
   }

I know how to set up the name but how can I set up the CityValid field so it acts like a checkbox. I’d like to do this without using HTML helpers.

Answer 1

If you really don’t want to use helpers, you would use a normal HTML input tag:

<input type="checkbox" id="CityValid" name="CityValid" value="@Model.CityValid" />
<input type="hidden" id="CityValue_Hidden" name="CityValid" value="false" />

The name attribute has to match your property name so that the model binder will pick it up correctly when you post back to the server.

When you use the helpers, something similar to the above markup will be generated. The hidden field is there so that a value is always sent with the form post data, regardless of whether you check the box or not (if you leave the box unchecked, no value gets sent by default, not even a ‘false’).

However, unless you’re doing something really weird, I’d recommend you stick to using the helpers. Either:

@Html.CheckboxFor(m => m.CityValid)

or

@Html.EditorFor(m => m.CityValid)