How to make a default editor template for enums?

Question

How can I make a default editor template for enums? By which I mean: can I do something like this:

<%@ Control Language=\"C#\" Inherits=\"System.Web.Mvc.V         


        

Answer 1

Yes

Almost sure this works out of the box.

---

Try naming your template the same name as your enum.

Answer 2

I made the dropdownlistfor method a bit easier and now you can give a selectedValue with it:

public static MvcHtmlString DropDownListFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression, Type enumType)
{
    return DropDownListFor(htmlHelper, expression, enumType, null);
}

public static MvcHtmlString DropDownListFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression, Type enumType, object selectedValue)
{
    Dictionary<string, string> enumItems = enumType.GetDisplayNames(htmlHelper.ViewContext.HttpContext);
    return htmlHelper.DropDownListFor(expression, new SelectList(enumItems, "Key", "Value", selectedValue));
}

Use it like this in your View:

@Html.DropDownListFor(m => m.Gender, typeof(Gender), Model.Gender)

Model is my MVC Model and its property Gender contains the selectedValue for the DropDownListFor.

Answer 3

Late to answer but I hope this helps others. Ideally you want all enums to use your Enum template by convention, not by specifying a UIHint each time, and you can accomplish that by creating a custom model metadata provider like this:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Web.Mvc;

public class CustomMetadataProvider : DataAnnotationsModelMetadataProvider
{
    protected override ModelMetadata CreateMetadata(IEnumerable<Attribute> attributes, Type containerType, Func<object> modelAccessor, Type modelType, string propertyName) {
        var mm = base.CreateMetadata(attributes, containerType, modelAccessor, modelType, propertyName);
        if (modelType.IsEnum && mm.TemplateHint == null) {
            mm.TemplateHint = "Enum";
        }
        return mm;
    }
}

Then simply register it in the Application_Start method of Global.asax.cs:

ModelMetadataProviders.Current = new CustomMetadataProvider();

Now all your enum properties will use your Enum template by default.

Answer 4

I don't think there is a default way to define an editor for all enum types because you could want different behavior depending on the situation. For example, maybe you have a [Flags] enum and want multi select, or you want a dropdownlist, or you want radio buttons.

Plus, generally you are going to want some sort of meaningful display string beyond what you can accomplish in the variable naming limitations.

Certainly assigning to a property of type enum works out of the box but how you get that value is going to be up to you.

Answer 5

Nour Sabony, I modified your version to also support localization with resources. Therefore I changed the DescriptionAttribute to the DisplayAttribute of the DataAnnotations namespace

    public static MvcHtmlString DropDownListFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression, Type enumType)
    {
        List<SelectListItem> list = new List<SelectListItem>();
        Dictionary<string, string> enumItems = enumType.GetDisplayNames(htmlHelper.ViewContext.HttpContext);
        foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> pair in enumItems)
            list.Add(new SelectListItem() { Value = pair.Key, Text = pair.Value });
        return htmlHelper.DropDownListFor(expression, list);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// return the items of enum paired with its DisplayName.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="enumeration">enumeration type to be processed.</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static Dictionary<string, string> GetDisplayNames(this Type enumeration, HttpContextBase httpContext)
    {
        if (!enumeration.IsEnum)
        {
            throw new ArgumentException("passed type must be of Enum type", "enumerationValue");
        }

        Dictionary<string, string> displayNames = new Dictionary<string, string>();
        var members = enumeration.GetMembers().Where(m => m.MemberType == MemberTypes.Field);

        foreach (MemberInfo member in members)
        {
            var attrs = member.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DisplayAttribute), false);
            if (attrs.Count() != 0)
                if (((DisplayAttribute)attrs[0]).ResourceType != null)
                {
                    displayNames.Add(member.Name, ((DisplayAttribute)attrs[0]).GetName(););
                }
                else
                {
                    displayNames.Add(member.Name, ((DisplayAttribute)attrs[0]).Name);
                }
        }
        return displayNames;
    }

The definition of an enum has to look like this now:

public enum Gender
{
    [Display(Name = "Male", ResourceType = typeof(mynamespace.App_LocalResources.Shared))]
    Male = 1,

    [Display(Name = "Female", ResourceType = typeof(mynamespace.App_LocalResources.Shared))]
    Female = 2,

}

it can be used in a View in the same way, e.g. (Razor):

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Gender, typeof(Gender))

Hope this helps someone!

Answer 6

Thank you all for your contributions
Yngvebn, i tried your solution (in your last comment) before, but the only thing i didn't do is the <dynamic>, i used instead <Enum> in generic type.

at last the solution is :
create a template named Enum.acsx and put it under the Views\Shared\EditorTemplates

<%@ Control Language="C#" Inherits="System.Web.Mvc.ViewUserControl<dynamic>" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="the extension methods namespace" %>
<% Enum model = (Enum)Model; %>
<%=Html.DropDownList(model.GetType().Name,model.GetType())%>

and in your Entity:

public class Person
{
  [UIHint("Enum")]
  public GenderEnum Gender{get;set;}
}

public Enum GenderEnum
{
 [Description("Male Person")]
 Male,
 [Description("Female Person")]
 Female
}

and again there is Extention Methods:

public static class HtmlHelperExtension
    {
        public static MvcHtmlString DropDownListFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression, Type enumType)
        {
            List<SelectListItem> list = new List<SelectListItem>();
            Dictionary<string, string> enumItems = enumType.GetDescription();
            foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> pair in enumItems)
                list.Add(new SelectListItem() { Value = pair.Key, Text = pair.Value });
            return htmlHelper.DropDownListFor(expression, list);
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// return the items of enum paired with its descrtioption.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="enumeration">enumeration type to be processed.</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        public static Dictionary<string, string> GetDescription(this Type enumeration)
        {
            if (!enumeration.IsEnum)
            {
                throw new ArgumentException("passed type must be of Enum type", "enumerationValue");
            }

            Dictionary<string, string> descriptions = new Dictionary<string, string>();
            var members = enumeration.GetMembers().Where(m => m.MemberType == MemberTypes.Field);

            foreach (MemberInfo member in members)
            {
                var attrs = member.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute), false);
                if (attrs.Count() != 0)
                    descriptions.Add(member.Name, ((DescriptionAttribute)attrs[0]).Description);
            }
            return descriptions;
        }

    }