maxlength attribute of a text box from the DataAnnotations StringLength in Asp.Net MVC

Question

I am working on an MVC2 application and want to set the maxlength attributes of the text inputs.

I have already defined the stringlength attribute on the Model objec

Answer 1

If you want this to work with a metadata class you need to use the following code. I know its not pretty but it gets the job done and prevents you from having to write your maxlength properties in both the Entity class and the View:

public static MvcHtmlString TextBoxFor2
(
  this HtmlHelper htmlHelper,
  Expression> expression,
  object htmlAttributes = null
)
{
  var member = expression.Body as MemberExpression;

  MetadataTypeAttribute metadataTypeAttr = member.Member.ReflectedType
    .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(MetadataTypeAttribute), false)
    .FirstOrDefault() as MetadataTypeAttribute;

  IDictionary htmlAttr = null;

  if(metadataTypeAttr != null)
  {
    var stringLength = metadataTypeAttr.MetadataClassType
      .GetProperty(member.Member.Name)
      .GetCustomAttributes(typeof(StringLengthAttribute), false)
      .FirstOrDefault() as StringLengthAttribute;

    if (stringLength != null)
    {
      htmlAttr = new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes);
      htmlAttr.Add("maxlength", stringLength.MaximumLength);
    }                                    
  }

  return htmlHelper.TextBoxFor(expression, htmlAttr);
}

---

Example class:

[MetadataType(typeof(Person.Metadata))]
public partial class Person
{
  public sealed class Metadata
  {

    [DisplayName("First Name")]
    [StringLength(30, ErrorMessage = "Field [First Name] cannot exceed 30 characters")]
    [Required(ErrorMessage = "Field [First Name] is required")]
    public object FirstName { get; set; }

    /* ... */
  }
}