How to bind view model property with different name

Question

Is there a way to make a reflection for a view model property as an element with different name and id values on the html side.

That is the main que

Answer 1

The short answer is NO and long answer still NO. There is no built-in helper, attribute, model binder, whatever is it (Nothing out of box).

But what I did in before answer (I deleted it) was an awful solution that I realized yesterday. I am going to put it in github for who still wants to see (maybe it solves somebody problem) (I don't suggest it also!)

Now I searched it for again and I couldn't find anything helpful. If you are using something like AutoMapper or ValueInjecter like tool for mapping your ViewModel objects to Business objects and if you want to obfuscate that View Model parameters also, probably you are in some trouble. Of course you can do it but strongly typed html helpers are not going to help you alot. I even not talking about the if other developers taking branch and working over common view models.

Luckily my project (4 people working on it, and its commercial use for) not that big for now, so I decided to change View Model property names! (It is still lot work to do. Hundreds of view models to obfuscate their properties!!!) Thank you Asp.Net MVC !

There some ways in the links which I gave in question. But also if you still want to use the BindAlias attribute, I can only suggest you to use the following extension methods. At least you dont have to write same alias string which you write in BindAlias attribute.

Here it is:

public static string AliasNameFor(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper,
    Expression> expression)
{
    var memberExpression = ExpressionHelpers.GetMemberExpression(expression);
    if (memberExpression == null)
        throw new InvalidOperationException("Expression must be a member expression");
    var aliasAttr = memberExpression.Member.GetAttribute();
    if (aliasAttr != null)
    {
        return MvcHtmlString.Create(aliasAttr.Alias).ToHtmlString();
    }
    return htmlHelper.NameFor(expression).ToHtmlString();
}

public static string AliasIdFor(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper,
    Expression> expression)
{
    var memberExpression = ExpressionHelpers.GetMemberExpression(expression);
    if (memberExpression == null)
        throw new InvalidOperationException("Expression must be a member expression");
    var aliasAttr = memberExpression.Member.GetAttribute();
    if (aliasAttr != null)
    {
        return MvcHtmlString.Create(TagBuilder.CreateSanitizedId(aliasAttr.Alias)).ToHtmlString();
    }
    return htmlHelper.IdFor(expression).ToHtmlString();
}



public static T GetAttribute(this ICustomAttributeProvider provider)
    where T : Attribute
{
    var attributes = provider.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(T), true);
    return attributes.Length > 0 ? attributes[0] as T : null;
}

public static MemberExpression GetMemberExpression(Expression> expression)
{
    MemberExpression memberExpression;
    if (expression.Body is UnaryExpression)
    {
        var unaryExpression = (UnaryExpression)expression.Body;
        memberExpression = (MemberExpression)unaryExpression.Operand;
    }
    else
    {
        memberExpression = (MemberExpression)expression.Body;
    }
    return memberExpression;
}

When you want to use it:

[ModelBinder(typeof(AliasModelBinder))]
public class FilterViewModel
{
    [BindAlias("someText")]
    public string FilterParameter { get; set; }
}

In html:

@* at least you dont write "someText" here again *@
@Html.Editor(Html.AliasNameFor(model => model.FilterParameter))
@Html.ValidationMessage(Html.AliasNameFor(model => model.FilterParameter))

So I am leaving this answer here like this. This is even not an answer (and there is no answer for MVC 5) but who searching in google for same problem might find useful this experience.

And here is the github repo: https://github.com/yusufuzun/so-view-model-bind-20869735