Question

We need to validate that the date being stored to the table is a date in the future, is there a way to annotate the property so EF code first can validate and generate the db constraint?

Answer 1

Add an attribute on your models’ property, e.g.

[DateInTheFuture]
public DateTime ShippingDate { get; set; }

and the attribute is the usual simple validation attribute:

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Property | AttributeTargets.Field, AllowMultiple = false)]
public class DateInTheFutureAttribute : ValidationAttribute
{
    protected override ValidationResult IsValid(object value, ValidationContext context)
    {
        var futureDate = value as DateTime?;
        var memberNames = new List<string>() { context.MemberName };

        if (futureDate != null)
        {
            if (futureDate.Value.Date < DateTime.UtcNow.Date)
            {
                return new ValidationResult("This must be a date in the future", memberNames);
            }
        }

        return ValidationResult.Success;
    }
}