MVC DateTime binding with incorrect date format

Question

Asp.net-MVC now allows for implicit binding of DateTime objects. I have an action along the lines of

public ActionResult DoSomething(DateTime startDate) 
{ 
... 
}

This successfully converts a string from an ajax call into a DateTime. However, we use the date format dd/MM/yyyy; MVC is converting to MM/dd/yyyy. For example, submitting a call to the action with a string '09/02/2009' results in a DateTime of '02/09/2009 00:00:00', or September 2nd in our local settings.

I don't want to roll my own model binder for the sake of a date format. But it seems needless to have to change the action to accept a string and then use DateTime.Parse if MVC is capable of doing this for me.

Is there any way to alter the date format used in the default model binder for DateTime? Shouldn't the default model binder use your localisation settings anyway?

Answer 1

Try to use toISOString(). It returns string in ISO8601 format.

GET method

javascript

$.get('/example/doGet?date=' + new Date().toISOString(), function (result) {
    console.log(result);
});

c#

[HttpGet]
public JsonResult DoGet(DateTime date)
{
    return Json(date.ToString(), JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

POST method

javascript

$.post('/example/do', { date: date.toISOString() }, function (result) {
    console.log(result);
});

c#

[HttpPost]
public JsonResult Do(DateTime date)
{
     return Json(date.ToString());
}

Answer 2

public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
{
    var str = controllerContext.HttpContext.Request.QueryString[bindingContext.ModelName];
    if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(str)) return null;
    var date = DateTime.ParseExact(str, "dd.MM.yyyy", null);
    return date;
}

Answer 3

I set CurrentCulture and CurrentUICulture my custom base controller

    protected override void Initialize(RequestContext requestContext)
    {
        base.Initialize(requestContext);

        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-GB");
        Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-GB");
    }

Answer 4

It going to be slightly different in MVC 3.

Suppose we have a controller and a view with Get method

public ActionResult DoSomething(DateTime dateTime)
{
    return View();
}

We should add ModelBinder

public class DateTimeBinder : IModelBinder
{
    #region IModelBinder Members
    public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
    {
        DateTime dateTime;
        if (DateTime.TryParse(controllerContext.HttpContext.Request.QueryString["dateTime"], CultureInfo.GetCultureInfo("en-GB"), DateTimeStyles.None, out dateTime))
            return dateTime;
        //else
        return new DateTime();//or another appropriate default ;
    }
    #endregion
}

and the command in Application_Start() of Global.asax

ModelBinders.Binders.Add(typeof(DateTime), new DateTimeBinder());