Display Field in ASP.NET MVC

Display Field in ASP.NET MVC

Introduction: In ASP.NET MVC, the Display attribute is used to customize how a field is displayed in the user interface. It allows developers to define the display name, format, and other properties of a field. This documentation provides an overview of how to create a display field using the Display attribute in ASP.NET MVC.

Step 1: Add the Display Attribute to the Model Property To create a display field, we first need a model class. Let's assume we have a "Person" model class with a property called "Name". To customize the display of this property, we can add the Display attribute to it.

csharp
public class Person
{
    [Display(Name = "Full Name")]
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

In the above example, we added the Display attribute to the "Name" property and set the "Name" parameter to "Full Name". This will be the display name used in the user interface.

Step 2: Use the DisplayFor Helper in the View Once the model property is decorated with the Display attribute, we can use the DisplayFor helper method in the view to render the display field.

csharp
@model Person

<div class="form-group">
    @Html.LabelFor(m => m.Name)
    @Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Name)
</div>

In the above code snippet, we first use the LabelFor helper method to generate a label for the "Name" property. Then, we use the DisplayFor helper method to render the display field for the "Name" property.

Explanation: The DisplayFor helper method renders the value of the property based on the Display attribute applied to it. In our example, it will render the "Name" property with the display name "Full Name".

The Display attribute provides various parameters that can be used to further customize the display field. For example, we can set the Format parameter to specify a custom format string for the displayed value, or we can set the NullDisplayText parameter to specify the text to be displayed when the property value is null.

csharp
public class Person
{
    [Display(Name = "Full Name", Format = "{0} Smith")]
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

In the above code snippet, we set the Format parameter to "{0} Smith", which appends "Smith" to the displayed value of the "Name" property.

By using the Display attribute and the DisplayFor helper method, developers can easily customize the display of fields in ASP.NET MVC, providing a more user-friendly and informative user interface.