Updating value provider prior to TryUpdateModel

Lets say we have a class with a property called PetsName. If it is left blank on the screen I want to update the value provider so if the user doesn't enter a pet name, we force 'unnamed'. This isn't the actual scenario.. this is of course a sample, so answers like 'just set default values on a webpage, etc' won't fit this scenario : )

The main issue is we want to update the values so when you update the model it will use whatever you have overridden. I guess one idea is to remove the value and add it. When I check ModelState, it does have the updated value, however when I call TryUpdateModel, the value is not updated. Its possible what Im doing below is indeed correct and there is another issue here but I figured I'd try this first. Thanks!



    //Sample case:

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Edit(PetOwner petOwner)
    {

    //If pets name is not set, force to "Unknown"
    if(petOwner.PetsName=="")
    {
    //Tried this too ModelState.Remove("PetsName");
    //ModelState.Add("PetsName", new ModelState());
    ModelState["PetsName"].Value = new ValueProviderResult("Unnamed", "Unnamed", CultureInfo.CurrentCulture);
    }

    //Get the record/relationships from DB to merge with ModelState
    PetOwner petOwnerToSave = from o in ctx.PetOwners where o.PetOwnerId == petOwner.PetOwnerId select o;

    TryUpdateModel(petOwnerToSave);

    //Save petOwnerToSave
    }

The real issue behind the scenes here is that Html.HiddenFor wasn't displaying the correct value even though TryUpdateModel was updating a value in the model to give to the view.

The issue here is that the Html helpers assume if you are rendering a view after a post, there mustve been an error (otherwise you wouldve redirected back to the view with a GET method - hence the Post Redirect Get issue)

This is described in detail at: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/simonince/archive/2010/05/05/asp-net-mvc-s-html-helpers-render-the-wrong-value.aspx