Create CheckboxFor MVC helper with title attribute from model description

Question

I\'ve created a text box helper to add a title (tooltip) taken from the description attribute for the field in a model:

 public static MvcHtmlString TextBoxF         


        

Answer 1

You current implementations are not taking into account model binding and ModelState, do not generate the attributes necessary for unobtrusive validation and can generate incorrect id attributes.

Make use of the existing html helper methods in your own helpers so you generate the correct html. Your TextBoxForWithTitle() method need only be

public static MvcHtmlString TextBoxForWithTitle(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, Expression> expression, object htmlAttributes = null)
{
    var metaData = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, htmlHelper.ViewData);
    IDictionary attributes = HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(htmlAttributes);
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(metaData.Description))
    {
        attributes.Add("title", metaData.Description);
    }
    return htmlHelper.TextBoxFor(expression, attributes);
}

and similarly the CheckBoxForWithTitle() would be the same except

return htmlHelper.CheckBoxFor(expression, attributes);

Side note: To see how the existing helpers actually work, you can view the source code here