Remote Validation in MVC3: Simple Way to Pass the Form value from Custom View Model to Controller via Remote Attribute

There are so many articles on the web about the remote validation in MVC3. But I didn’t find the right article to get the perfect solution for my project. I just spent a week to solve it by my own idea and it works like a charm. You are thinking what’s the problem as remote validation is so easy in MVC3. That’s right, but if you need to do remote validation against more than one parameter as well any type of value from form then, this article will help you a lot to get your job done perfectly.

This article covers the following topics:

• What I want to do?
• What I did and save my hair loss?
• Are there any alternatives?

What I want to do?

As per the above picture, I want to send the bo_account_id, bo_account_no and hidden value of FormType to controller to check that bo_account_no exists or not. This doesBoExist method will work for both create and edit view. That way, I use hidden value as ‘create’ at create view and ‘edit’ at edit view. In case of bo_account_id, at create view, it will send null value and edit view, it will send bo_account_no of which data you want to edit.

What I did and saved my hair loss?

BO Model

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace StockPortfolio.Models
{
    [MetadataType(typeof(BO_Validation))]
    [Bind(Include = "vBONo,vBrokerID,vInvestorID,nCommision")]
    public partial class BO
    {
        public string FormType { get; set; }

        public BO()
        {
        }
    }
    public class BO_Validation
    {
        [Key]
        [HiddenInput(DisplayValue = false)]
        public string vBOID { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [Display(Name = "BO Account NO")]
        [Remote("doesBoExist", "BO", 
        AdditionalFields = "FormType,vBOID", 
        HttpMethod = "POST", 
        ErrorMessage = "BO account no already exists. Please enter a different BO account no.")]
        public string vBONo { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [Display(Name = "Broker Name")]
        public string vBrokerID { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [Display(Name = "Investor Name")]
        public string vInvestorID { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [Range(0.01,1)]
        [Display(Name = "Commision")]
        public decimal nCommision { get; set; }
    }
}

BOCreate Model

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace StockPortfolio.Models
{
    [Bind(Exclude = "SelectedStockExchange")]
    public class BOCreate
    {
        stock_sadequeEntities db = new stock_sadequeEntities();

        public BO bo { get; set; }
        public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> StockExchange { get; set; }
        public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> BrokerSelect { get; set; }
        public IEnumerable<SelectListItem> InvestorSelect { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [Display(Name = "Stock Exchange")]
        public string vStockExID { get; set; }

        public BOCreate()
        {
        }

        public BOCreate(BO boes)
        {
            this.bo = boes;

            var queryA = db.StockExchanges.Select(c => new SelectListItem
            {
                Value = c.vStockExchangeID,
                Text = c.vStockExchangeName,
            });
            StockExchange = queryA.AsEnumerable();

            var queryB = db.Brokers.Select(c => new SelectListItem
            {
                Value = c.vBrokerID,
                Text = c.vBrokerName,
            }).Where(u => u.Value == bo.vBrokerID);
            BrokerSelect = queryB.AsEnumerable();

            var queryC = db.Investors.Select(c => new SelectListItem
            {
                Value = c.vInvestorID,
                Text = c.vInvestorName,
            });
            InvestorSelect = queryC.AsEnumerable();
        }
    }
}

BOController (Due to some security issue with my project, I didn’t post all the code of this controller, but the below code is enough to understand the concept)

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Routing;
using System.Web.Security;
using StockPortfolio.Models;
using StockPortfolio.Models.BOFolder;
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;
using MvcPaging;

namespace StockPortfolio.Controllers
{
    public class BOController : Controller
    {
        IBORepository BORepository;

        [HttpPost]
        public JsonResult doesBoExist(FormCollection parm)
        {
            BO bo = BORepository.GetBOByName(parm["bo.vBONo"], 
            parm["bo.FormType"], parm["bo.vBOID"]);
            return Json(bo == null);
        }
    }
}

Create view (Due to some security issue with my project, I didn’t post all the code of this view, but the below code is enough to understand the concept):

@model StockPortfolio.Models.BOCreate

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Create New BO Account";
}

<div class="row">
    <div class = "span8 offset2">
        <h1>Create New BO Account</h1>
        <hr />

        @if (!Html.ViewData.ModelState.IsValid)
        {
        <div class="alert alert-error">
          <a class="close" data-dismiss="alert">×</a>
          Incomplete data found. Please correct the errors and try again.
        </div>
        }

        @using (Html.BeginForm("Create", "BO", 
        FormMethod.Post, new { @class = "form-horizontal", 
        id = "BOform" })) 
        {
            <fieldset>
                @Html.HiddenFor(model => model.bo.FormType)

                <div class="control-group">
                    <label class="control-label" 
                    for="focusedInput">@Html.LabelFor
                    (model => model.bo.vBONo)</label> 
                    <div class="controls">
                        @Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.bo.vBONo)
                        <span class="help-inline">
                        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.bo.vBONo)</span>
                    </div>
                </div>
                <div class="form-actions">
                    <input type="submit" 
                    class="btn btn-primary" value="Create" /> 
                </div>
            </fieldset>
        }
        <P>@Html.ActionLink("Back to List", "Index")</P>
    </div>
</div>

I posted all the required code. Now I will point the important code from above:

1. FormType is created at BO model. (See BO Model [Line – 14])
2. Use a remote validation attribute with required data. It contains AddtionalFields as FormType and vBOID (see BO Model [Line – 28])
3. Create a custom model with the object of BO and three SelectListItem StockExchange, BrokerSelect and InvestorSelect. This model is used for view. (see BOCreate Model [Line – 15 to 18])
4. Create a doesBoExist method with FormCollection parameter and pickup the individual data from parameter as parm["bo.vBONo"], parm["bo.FormType"], parm["bo.vBOID"] and that’s the main trick. (see BOController [Line – 20])

And that’s all.

Are there any alternatives?

If you know any alternatives, please let me know.

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