ASP.NET MVC How to convert ModelState errors to json

Question

How do you get a list of all ModelState error messages? I found this code to get all the keys: ( Returning a list of keys with ModelState errors)

var errorK         


        

Answer 1

Simple way achieve this by using built-in functionality

[HttpPost]
public IActionResult Post([FromBody]CreateDoctorInput createDoctorInput) {
    if (!ModelState.IsValid) {
        return BadRequest(ModelState);
    }

    //do something
}

JSON result will be

Answer 2

I made and extension that returns string with seperator " " (you can use your own):

   public static string GetFullErrorMessage(this ModelStateDictionary modelState) {
        var messages = new List<string>();

        foreach (var entry in modelState) {
            foreach (var error in entry.Value.Errors)
                messages.Add(error.ErrorMessage);
        }

        return String.Join(" ", messages);
    }

Answer 3

I like to use Hashtable here, so that I get JSON object with properties as keys and errors as value in form of string array.

var errors = new Hashtable();
foreach (var pair in ModelState)
{
    if (pair.Value.Errors.Count > 0)
    {
        errors[pair.Key] = pair.Value.Errors.Select(error => error.ErrorMessage).ToList();
    }
}
return Json(new { success = false, errors });

This way you get following response:

{
   "success":false,
   "errors":{
      "Phone":[
         "The Phone field is required."
      ]
   }
}

Answer 4

Here is the full implementation with all the pieces put together:

First create an extension method:

public static class ModelStateHelper
{
    public static IEnumerable Errors(this ModelStateDictionary modelState)
    {
        if (!modelState.IsValid)
        {
            return modelState.ToDictionary(kvp => kvp.Key,
                kvp => kvp.Value.Errors
                                .Select(e => e.ErrorMessage).ToArray())
                                .Where(m => m.Value.Any());
        }
        return null;
    }
}

Then call that extension method and return the errors from the controller action (if any) as json:

if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
    return Json(new { Errors = ModelState.Errors() }, JsonRequestBehavior.AllowGet);
}

And then finally, show those errors on the clientside (in jquery.validation style, but can be easily changed to any other style)

function DisplayErrors(errors) {
    for (var i = 0; i < errors.length; i++) {
        $("<label for='" + errors[i].Key + "' class='error'></label>")
        .html(errors[i].Value[0]).appendTo($("input#" + errors[i].Key).parent());
    }
}

Answer 5

@JK it helped me a lot but why not:

 public class ErrorDetail {

        public string fieldName = "";
        public string[] messageList = null;
 }

---

        if (!modelState.IsValid)
        {
            var errorListAux = (from m in modelState 
                     where m.Value.Errors.Count() > 0 
                     select
                        new ErrorDetail
                        { 
                                fieldName = m.Key, 
                                errorList = (from msg in m.Value.Errors 
                                             select msg.ErrorMessage).ToArray() 
                        })
                     .AsEnumerable()
                     .ToDictionary(v => v.fieldName, v => v);
            return errorListAux;
        }

Answer 6

The easiest way to do this is to just return a BadRequest with the ModelState itself:

For example on a PUT:

[HttpPut]
public async Task<IHttpActionResult> UpdateAsync(Update update)
{
    if (!ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        return BadRequest(ModelState);
    }

    // perform the update

    return StatusCode(HttpStatusCode.NoContent);
}

If we use data annotations on e.g. a mobile number, like this, in the Update class:

public class Update {
    [StringLength(22, MinimumLength = 8)]
    [RegularExpression(@"^\d{8}$|^00\d{6,20}$|^\+\d{6,20}$")]
    public string MobileNumber { get; set; }
}

This will return the following on an invalid request:

{
  "Message": "The request is invalid.",
  "ModelState": {
    "update.MobileNumber": [
      "The field MobileNumber must match the regular expression '^\\d{8}$|^00\\d{6,20}$|^\\+\\d{6,20}$'.",
      "The field MobileNumber must be a string with a minimum length of 8 and a maximum length of 22."
    ]
  }
}