How can I make Html.CheckBoxFor() work on a string field?

Question

I\'m using ASP.NET MVC3 with Razor and C#. I am making a form builder of sorts, so I have a model that has a collection of the following object:

public class         


        

Answer 1

One way is to create your own htmlhelper extension method.

    public static MvcHtmlString CheckBoxStringFor(this HtmlHelper html, Expression> expression)
    {
        // get the name of the property
        string[] propertyNameParts = expression.Body.ToString().Split('.');
        string propertyName = propertyNameParts.Last();

        // get the value of the property
        Func compiled = expression.Compile();
        string booleanStr = compiled(html.ViewData.Model);

        // convert it to a boolean
        bool isChecked = false;
        Boolean.TryParse(booleanStr, out isChecked);

        TagBuilder checkbox = new TagBuilder("input");
        checkbox.MergeAttribute("id", propertyName);
        checkbox.MergeAttribute("name", propertyName);
        checkbox.MergeAttribute("type", "checkbox");
        checkbox.MergeAttribute("value", "true");
        if (isChecked)
            checkbox.MergeAttribute("checked", "checked");

        TagBuilder hidden = new TagBuilder("input");
        hidden.MergeAttribute("name", propertyName);
        hidden.MergeAttribute("type", "hidden");
        hidden.MergeAttribute("value", "false");

        return MvcHtmlString.Create(checkbox.ToString(TagRenderMode.SelfClosing) + hidden.ToString(TagRenderMode.SelfClosing));
    }

The usage is the same as CheckBoxFor helper (e.Value is a string)

@Html.CheckBoxStringFor(e => e.Value)