Question

I’m trying to output the following html using an html helper in asp.net mvc 2:

<input type="text" id="Name" name="Name" value="" autofocus />

I’m using this code now:

<%= Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Name) %>

and I’ve tried

// results in <input ... autofocus="" />
<%= Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Email, new { autofocus="" }) %>

// does not compile
<%= Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Email, new { autofocus=null }) %>

Is there any way to accomplish what I’m looking for using an html helper?

Answer 1

I think you’ll have to write your own helper for this. The default helpers output key/value pairs. Under the hood it uses a TagBuilder to construct the tag. For tag attributes it uses the format {0}="{1}" to format the key/value pairs for the attributes and their values.