Question

I wrote an HtmlHelper expression I use a lot of the time to put title tags into my dropdown lists like so:

    public static HtmlString SelectFor<TModel, TProperty, TListItem>(
        this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
        Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression,
        IEnumerable<TListItem> enumeratedItems,
        string idPropertyName,
        string displayPropertyName,
        string titlePropertyName,
        object htmlAttributes) where TModel : class
    {
        //initialize values
        var metaData = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, htmlHelper.ViewData);
        var propertyName = metaData.PropertyName;
        var propertyValue = htmlHelper.ViewData.Eval(propertyName).ToStringOrEmpty();
        var enumeratedType = typeof(TListItem);

        //build the select tag
        var returnText = string.Format("<select id=\"{0}\" name=\"{0}\"", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(propertyName));
        if (htmlAttributes != null)
        {
            foreach (var kvp in htmlAttributes.GetType().GetProperties()
             .ToDictionary(p => p.Name, p => p.GetValue(htmlAttributes, null)))
            {
                returnText += string.Format(" {0}=\"{1}\"", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(kvp.Key),
                 HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(kvp.Value.ToStringOrEmpty()));
            }
        }
        returnText += ">\n";

        //build the options tags
        foreach (TListItem listItem in enumeratedItems)
        {
            var idValue = enumeratedType.GetProperties()
             .FirstOrDefault(p => p.Name == idPropertyName)
             .GetValue(listItem, null).ToStringOrEmpty();
            var titleValue = enumeratedType.GetProperties()
             .FirstOrDefault(p => p.Name == titlePropertyName)
             .GetValue(listItem, null).ToStringOrEmpty();
            var displayValue = enumeratedType.GetProperties()
             .FirstOrDefault(p => p.Name == displayPropertyName)
             .GetValue(listItem, null).ToStringOrEmpty();
            returnText += string.Format("<option value=\"{0}\" title=\"{1}\"",
             HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(idValue), HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(titleValue));
            if (idValue == propertyValue)
            {
                returnText += " selected=\"selected\"";
            }
            returnText += string.Format(">{0}</option>\n", displayValue);
        }

        //close the select tag
        returnText += "</select>";
        return new HtmlString(returnText);
    }

…this works swimmingly, but there are times when I want to go further. I’d like to customize the id, display, and title pieces of this beast without having to write out the html. For example, if I have some classes in a model like so:

public class item
{
    public int itemId { get; set; }
    public string itemName { get; set; }
    public string itemDescription { get; set; }
}

public class model
{
    public IEnumerable<item> items { get; set; }
    public int itemId { get; set; }
}

In my view I can write:

@Html.SelectFor(m => m.itemId, Model.items, "itemId", "itemName", "itemDescription", null)

…and I’ll get a nice dropdown with title attributes etc. This is great as long as the enumerated items have properties exactly as I’d like to display them. But what I’d really like to do is something like:

@Html.SelectFor(m => m.itemId, Model.items, id=>id.itemId, disp=>disp.itemName, title=>title.itemName + " " + title.itemDescription, null)

…and have, in this case, the title attribute on the options be a concatenation of the itemName property and the itemDescription property. I confess the meta-level of lambda expressions and Linq functions has got me a little dizzy. Can someone point me in the right direction?

FINAL RESULT For those who are curious, the following code gives me complete control over the select list’s ID, Title, and DisplayText properties using lambda expressions:

    public static HtmlString SelectFor<TModel, TProperty, TListItem>(
        this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
        Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> forExpression,
        IEnumerable<TListItem> enumeratedItems,
        Attribute<TListItem> idExpression,
        Attribute<TListItem> displayExpression,
        Attribute<TListItem> titleExpression,
        object htmlAttributes,
        bool blankFirstLine) where TModel : class
    {
        //initialize values
        var metaData = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(forExpression, htmlHelper.ViewData);
        var propertyName = metaData.PropertyName;
        var propertyValue = htmlHelper.ViewData.Eval(propertyName).ToStringOrEmpty();
        var enumeratedType = typeof(TListItem);

        //build the select tag
        var returnText = string.Format("<select id=\"{0}\" name=\"{0}\"", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(propertyName));
        if (htmlAttributes != null)
        {
            foreach (var kvp in htmlAttributes.GetType().GetProperties()
             .ToDictionary(p => p.Name, p => p.GetValue(htmlAttributes, null)))
            {
                returnText += string.Format(" {0}=\"{1}\"", HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(kvp.Key),
                 HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(kvp.Value.ToStringOrEmpty()));
            }
        }
        returnText += ">\n";

        if (blankFirstLine)
        {
            returnText += "<option value=\"\"></option>";
        }

        //build the options tags
        foreach (TListItem listItem in enumeratedItems)
        {
            var idValue = idExpression(listItem).ToStringOrEmpty();
            var displayValue = displayExpression(listItem).ToStringOrEmpty();
            var titleValue = titleExpression(listItem).ToStringOrEmpty();
            returnText += string.Format("<option value=\"{0}\" title=\"{1}\"",
                HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(idValue), HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(titleValue));
            if (idValue == propertyValue)
            {
                returnText += " selected=\"selected\"";
            }
            returnText += string.Format(">{0}</option>\n", displayValue);
        }

        //close the select tag
        returnText += "</select>";
        return new HtmlString(returnText);
    }

    public delegate object Attribute<T>(T listItem);

Answer 1

If you don’t need the title attribute on individual options your code could be simplified to:

public static HtmlString SelectFor<TModel, TProperty, TIdProperty, TDisplayProperty, TListItem>(
    this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
    Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression,
    IEnumerable<TListItem> enumeratedItems,
    Expression<Func<TListItem, TIdProperty>> idProperty,
    Expression<Func<TListItem, TDisplayProperty>> displayProperty,
    object htmlAttributes
) where TModel : class
{
    var id = (idProperty.Body as MemberExpression).Member.Name;
    var display = (displayProperty.Body as MemberExpression).Member.Name;
    var selectList = new SelectList(enumeratedItems, id, display);
    var attributes = new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes);
    return htmlHelper.DropDownListFor(expression, selectList, attributes);
}

and used like this:

@Html.SelectFor(
    m => m.itemId, 
    Model.items, 
    id => id.itemId, 
    disp => disp.itemName, 
    null
)

---

And if you need the title attribute, well, you will have to implement everything that the DropDownList helper does manually which could be quite of a pain. Here’s an example of only a small portion of all the functionality:

public static class HtmlExtensions
{
    private class MySelectListItem : SelectListItem
    {
        public string Title { get; set; }
    }

    public static HtmlString SelectFor<TModel, TProperty, TIdProperty, TDisplayProperty, TListItem>(
        this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
        Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression,
        IEnumerable<TListItem> enumeratedItems,
        Expression<Func<TListItem, TIdProperty>> idProperty,
        Expression<Func<TListItem, TDisplayProperty>> displayProperty,
        Func<TListItem, string> titleProperty,
        object htmlAttributes
    ) where TModel : class
    {
        var name = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);
        var fullHtmlName = htmlHelper.ViewContext.ViewData.TemplateInfo.GetFullHtmlFieldName(name);

        var select = new TagBuilder("select");
        var compiledDisplayProperty = displayProperty.Compile();
        var compiledIdProperty = idProperty.Compile();
        select.GenerateId(fullHtmlName);
        select.MergeAttributes(new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes));
        select.Attributes["name"] = fullHtmlName;
        var selectedValue = htmlHelper.ViewData.Eval(fullHtmlName);
        var options = 
            from i in enumeratedItems
            select ListItemToOption(
                ItemToSelectItem(i, selectedValue, compiledIdProperty, compiledDisplayProperty, titleProperty)
            );
        select.InnerHtml = string.Join(Environment.NewLine, options);
        return new HtmlString(select.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal));
    }

    private static MySelectListItem ItemToSelectItem<TListItem, TIdProperty, TDisplayProperty>(TListItem i, object selectedValue, Func<TListItem, TIdProperty> idProperty, Func<TListItem, TDisplayProperty> displayProperty, Func<TListItem, string> titleProperty)
    {
        var value = Convert.ToString(idProperty(i));
        return new MySelectListItem
        {
            Value = value,
            Text = Convert.ToString(displayProperty(i)),
            Title = titleProperty(i),
            Selected = Convert.ToString(selectedValue) == value
        };
    }

    private static string ListItemToOption(MySelectListItem item)
    {
        var builder = new TagBuilder("option");
        builder.Attributes["value"] = item.Value;
        builder.Attributes["title"] = item.Title;
        builder.SetInnerText(item.Text);
        if (item.Selected)
        {
            builder.Attributes["selected"] = "selected";
        }
        return builder.ToString();
    }
}

and then use like this:

@Html.SelectFor(
    m => m.itemId, 
    Model.items, 
    id => id.itemId, 
    disp => disp.itemName, 
    title => title.itemName + " " + title.itemDescription, 
    null
)