Question

Is there a way to use the LabelFor helper and customize the label text without having to use the DisplayNameAttribute in my model?

Answer 1

I have created this html helpers for my project:

public static class MyLabelExtensions
{
    public static MvcHtmlString Label(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string forName, string labelText)
    {
        return Label(htmlHelper, forName, labelText, (object) null);
    }

    public static MvcHtmlString Label(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string forName, string labelText,
                                      object htmlAttributes)
    {
        return Label(htmlHelper, forName, labelText, new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes));
    }
    public static MvcHtmlString Label(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string forName, string labelText,
                                      IDictionary<string, object> htmlAttributes)
    {
        var tagBuilder = new TagBuilder("label");
        tagBuilder.MergeAttributes(htmlAttributes);
        tagBuilder.MergeAttribute("for", forName.Replace(".", tagBuilder.IdAttributeDotReplacement), true);
        tagBuilder.SetInnerText(labelText);
        return MvcHtmlString.Create(tagBuilder.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal));
    }

    public static MvcHtmlString LabelFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
                                                            Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression,
                                                            string labelText)
    {
        return LabelFor(htmlHelper, expression, labelText, (object) null);
    }
    public static MvcHtmlString LabelFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
                                                            Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression,
                                                            string labelText, object htmlAttributes)
    {
        return LabelFor(htmlHelper, expression, labelText, new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes));
    }
    public static MvcHtmlString LabelFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
                                                            Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression,
                                                            string labelText,
                                                            IDictionary<string, object> htmlAttributes)
    {
        string inputName = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);
        return htmlHelper.Label(inputName, labelText, htmlAttributes);
    }
}

I use them with “strongly typed” resources:

<%= Html.LabelFor(m=>m.NickName, UserStrings.NickName) %>

Hope that helps…