While Microsoft has created some automagic rendering of html attributes in razor MVC4, it took me quite some time to find out how to render a second css class on an element, based on a conditional razor expression. I would like to share it with you.
Based on a model property @Model.Details, I want to show or hide a list item. If there are details, a div should be shown, otherwise, it should be hidden. Using jQuery, all I need to do is add a class show or hide, respectively. For other purposes, I also want to add another class, "details". So, my mark-up should be:
<div class="details show">[Details]</div>
or <div class="details hide">[Details]</div>
Below, I show some failed attempts (resulting mark-up assuming there are no details).
This: <div @(@Model.Details.Count > 0 ? "class=details show" : "class=details hide")>
,
will render this: <div class="details" hide="">
.
This: <div @(@Model.Details.Count > 0 ? "class=\"details show\"" : "class=\"details hide\"")>
.
will render this: <div class=""details" hide"="">
.
This: <div @(@Model.Details.Count > 0 ? "class='details show'" : "class='details hide'")>
will render this: <div class="'details" hide'="">
.
None of these are correct mark-up.
I believe that there can still be and valid logic on views. But for this kind of things I agree with @BigMike, it is better placed on the model. Having said that the problem can be solved in three ways:
Your answer (assuming this works, I haven't tried this):
<div class="details @(@Model.Details.Count > 0 ? "show" : "hide")">
Second option:
@if (Model.Details.Count > 0) {
<div class="details show">
}
else {
<div class="details hide">
}
Third option:
<div class="@("details " + (Model.Details.Count>0 ? "show" : "hide"))">
This:
<div class="details @(@Model.Details.Count > 0 ? "show" : "hide")">
will render this:
<div class="details hide">
and is the mark-up I want.
You can add property to your model as follows:
public string DetailsClass { get { return Details.Count > 0 ? "show" : "hide" } }
and then your view will be simpler and will contain no logic at all:
<div class="details @Model.DetailsClass"/>
This will work even with many classes and will not render class if it is null:
<div class="@Model.Class1 @Model.Class2"/>
with 2 not null properties will render:
<div class="class1 class2"/>
if class1 is null
<div class=" class2"/>
You can use String.Format function to add second class based on condition:
<div class="@String.Format("details {0}", Details.Count > 0 ? "show" : "hide")">