How to extend the ValidationSummary HTML Helper in ASP.NET MVC?

Question

I need to wrap the Validation Summary in a div. How do I set the Validation Summary to wrap it with a div when errors are present?

<div class="validation-summary"> 
  <%= Html.ValidationSummary("Login was unsuccessful. Please correct the errors and try again.") %>
</div>

ten5peed · Accepted Answer · 2009-05-28 05:19:38Z

25

I had to extend the validation summary extensions in another project of mine to deal with more than one form on a page.

Although this is different, you could create your own extension method...

namespace System.Web.Mvc
{
    public static class ViewExtensions
    {
        public static string MyValidationSummary(this HtmlHelper html, string validationMessage)
        {
            if (!html.ViewData.ModelState.IsValid)
            {
                return "<div class=\"validation-summary\">" + html.ValidationSummary(validationMessage) + "</div>"
            }

            return "";
        }
    }
}

Then just call

<%= Html.MyValidationSummary(
    "Login was unsuccessful. Please correct the errors and try again.") %>

HTHs, Charles

answered May 28, 2009 at 5:19

ten5peed

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5 Comments

Slee Over a year ago

I get an HtmlHelper does not contain a definition for ValidationSummary when I try and use this in my MVC 2 project - any ideas?

ajbeaven Over a year ago

Make sure you have a reference to System.Web.Mvc.Html;

Jason Over a year ago

You might want to return a MvcHtmlString instead of a string for the html not to be encoded and to be treated as html code. I am using MVC3 with the new Razor view engine.

FarFigNewton Over a year ago

Is there a way to make this work for unobtrusive javascript? Since the above code is all server side, it won't work for the client side.

ten5peed Over a year ago

@guanome Sure, you could take away the if (!html.ViewData.ModelState.IsValid) check and just hide an empty/valid validation summary using a different technique, e.g. CSS.

Çağdaş Tekin · Accepted Answer · 2009-05-28 04:34:26Z

12

What you can do is this :

<%if (!ViewData.ModelState.IsValid) { %>
<div class="validation-summary"> 
    <%= Html.ValidationSummary(
        "Login was unsuccessful. Please correct the errors and try again.") %>
</div>
<% } %>

answered May 28, 2009 at 4:34

Çağdaş Tekin

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1 Comment

FarFigNewton Over a year ago

@çağdaş This doesn't seem to have any effect on client side validation messages. It will hide the error messages if you are using jQuery Validate and Unobtrusive javascript.

Chal92 · Accepted Answer · 2010-09-09 21:53:16Z

5

For MVC 2, ValidationSummary is a extension method, you must add

using System.Web.Mvc.Html;

answered Sep 9, 2010 at 21:53

Chal92

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Comments

NoWar · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-11 20:22:07Z

1

Use this CSS for li tag for example...

.validation-summary-errors ul li {color:Red;}

answered Jun 11, 2011 at 20:22

NoWar

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