Get [DisplayName] attribute of a property in strongly-typed way

Question

Good day!

I\'ve such method to get [DisplayName] attribute value of a property (which is attached directly or using [MetadataType] attribut

Answer 1

Late to the game, but...

I created a helper method using ModelMetadata like @Daniel mentioned and I thought I'd share it:

public static string GetDisplayName<TModel, TProperty>(
      this TModel model
    , Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression)
{
    return ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression<TModel, TProperty>(
        expression,
        new ViewDataDictionary<TModel>(model)
        ).DisplayName;
}

Example Usage:

Models:

public class MySubObject
{
    [DisplayName("Sub-Awesome!")]
    public string Sub { get; set; }
}

public class MyObject
{
    [DisplayName("Awesome!")]
    public MySubObject Prop { get; set; }
}

Use:

HelperNamespace.GetDisplayName(Model, m => m.Prop) // "Awesome!"
HelperNamespace.GetDisplayName(Model, m => m.Prop.Sub) // "Sub-Awesome!"

Answer 2

Another code snippet with code .Net uses itself to perform this

public static class WebModelExtensions
{
    public static string GetDisplayName<TModel, TProperty>(
      this HtmlHelper<TModel> html, 
      Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression)
    {
        // Taken from LabelExtensions
        var metadata = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, html.ViewData);

        string displayName = metadata.DisplayName;
        if (displayName == null)
        {
            string propertyName = metadata.PropertyName;
            if (propertyName == null)
            {
                var htmlFieldName = ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression);
                displayName = ((IEnumerable<string>) htmlFieldName.Split('.')).Last<string>();
            }
            else
                displayName = propertyName;
        }

        return displayName;
    }
}
// Usage
Html.GetDisplayName(model => model.Password)