I implemented IValidatableObject to my class and intended to have the errors shown in @Html.ValidationSummary(true). However, the class with the IValidatableObject is a property of the model in my view, and that causes the errors to be hidden when I exclude property errors.
There is another person on Stackoverflow with exactly the same problem, but no one has answer. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6433023/mvc3-validationsummary-exclude-property-errors-ivalidatableobject/10433504.
To solve this, I dug out MVC3’s source code, copied and changed the ValidationSummary method to allow specific properties to be included. The following shows how to use my ValidationSummary method
@Html.ValidationSummary(new [] { "PropertyName" })
would include the property named PropertyName
@Html.ValidationSummary(new [] { "ArrayName[]" })
would include the properties ArrayName[0], ArrayName[1] etc.
@Html.ValidationSummary(new [] { "ArrayName[]", "PropertyName" })
would include both.
And here’s the code!
public static MvcHtmlString ValidationSummary(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string[] includePropertyErrors)
{
return ValidationSummary(htmlHelper, includePropertyErrors, null, null);
}
public static MvcHtmlString ValidationSummary(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string[] includePropertyErrors, string message)
{
return ValidationSummary(htmlHelper, includePropertyErrors, message, null);
}
public static MvcHtmlString ValidationSummary(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string[] includePropertyErrors, string message, IDictionary<string, object> htmlAttributes)
{
if (htmlHelper == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("htmlHelper");
}
FormContext formContext = htmlHelper.ViewContext.ClientValidationEnabled ? htmlHelper.ViewContext.FormContext : null;
if (htmlHelper.ViewData.ModelState.IsValid)
{
if (formContext == null)
{ // No client side validation
return null;
}
// TODO: This isn't really about unobtrusive; can we fix up non-unobtrusive to get rid of this, too?
if (htmlHelper.ViewContext.UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled)
{ // No client-side updates
return null;
}
}
string messageSpan;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(message))
{
TagBuilder spanTag = new TagBuilder("span");
spanTag.SetInnerText(message);
messageSpan = spanTag.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal) + Environment.NewLine;
}
else
{
messageSpan = null;
}
StringBuilder htmlSummary = new StringBuilder();
TagBuilder unorderedList = new TagBuilder("ul");
IEnumerable<ModelState> modelStates = from ms in htmlHelper.ViewData.ModelState
where ms.Key == htmlHelper.ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix ||
includePropertyErrors.Any(property =>
{
string prefixedProperty = string.IsNullOrEmpty(htmlHelper.ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix) ? property : htmlHelper.ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix + "." + property;
if (property.EndsWith("[]"))
{
return prefixedProperty.Substring(0, property.Length - 2) == Regex.Replace(ms.Key, @"\[[^\]]+\]", string.Empty);
}
else
{
return property == ms.Key;
}
})
select ms.Value;
if (modelStates != null)
{
foreach (ModelState modelState in modelStates)
{
foreach (ModelError modelError in modelState.Errors)
{
string errorText = GetUserErrorMessageOrDefault(htmlHelper.ViewContext.HttpContext, modelError);
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(errorText))
{
TagBuilder listItem = new TagBuilder("li");
listItem.SetInnerText(errorText);
htmlSummary.AppendLine(listItem.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal));
}
}
}
}
if (htmlSummary.Length == 0)
{
htmlSummary.AppendLine(@"<li style=""display:none""></li>");
}
unorderedList.InnerHtml = htmlSummary.ToString();
TagBuilder divBuilder = new TagBuilder("div");
divBuilder.MergeAttributes(htmlAttributes);
divBuilder.AddCssClass((htmlHelper.ViewData.ModelState.IsValid) ? HtmlHelper.ValidationSummaryValidCssClassName : HtmlHelper.ValidationSummaryCssClassName);
divBuilder.InnerHtml = messageSpan + unorderedList.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal);
if (formContext != null)
{
if (!htmlHelper.ViewContext.UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled)
{
// client val summaries need an ID
divBuilder.GenerateId("validationSummary");
formContext.ValidationSummaryId = divBuilder.Attributes["id"];
formContext.ReplaceValidationSummary = false;
}
}
return new MvcHtmlString(divBuilder.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal));
}
private static string GetUserErrorMessageOrDefault(HttpContextBase httpContext, ModelError error)
{
return string.IsNullOrEmpty(error.ErrorMessage) ? null : error.ErrorMessage;
}