I started to play around with knockout.js and in doing so I used the FromJsonAttribute (created by Steve Sanderson). I ran into an issue with the custom attribute not performing model validation. I put together a simple example-- I know it looks like a lot of code-- but the basic issue is how to force the validation of the model within a custom model binder.
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
namespace BindingExamples.Models
{
public class Widget
{
[Required]
public string Name { get; set; }
}
}
and here is my controller:
using System;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using BindingExamples.Models;
namespace BindingExamples.Controllers
{
public class WidgetController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(Widget w)
{
if(this.ModelState.IsValid)
{
TempData["message"] = String.Format("Thanks for inserting {0}", w.Name);
return RedirectToAction("Confirmation");
}
return View(w);
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult PostJson([koListEditor.FromJson] Widget w)
{
//the ModelState.IsValid even though the widget has an empty Name
if (this.ModelState.IsValid)
{
TempData["message"] = String.Format("Thanks for inserting {0}", w.Name);
return RedirectToAction("Confirmation");
}
return View(w);
}
public ActionResult Confirmation()
{
return View();
}
}
}
My issue is that the model is always valid in my PostJson method. For completeness here is the Sanderson code for the FromJson attribute:
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Script.Serialization;
namespace koListEditor
{
public class FromJsonAttribute : CustomModelBinderAttribute
{
private readonly static JavaScriptSerializer serializer = new JavaScriptSerializer();
public override IModelBinder GetBinder()
{
return new JsonModelBinder();
}
private class JsonModelBinder : IModelBinder
{
public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
{
var stringified = controllerContext.HttpContext.Request[bindingContext.ModelName];
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(stringified))
return null;
var model = serializer.Deserialize(stringified, bindingContext.ModelType);
return model;
}
}
}
}