Apply Twitter Bootstrap Validation Style and Message to ASP.NET MVC validation

Question

How can I integrate ASP.NET MVC unobtrusive validation and Twitter Bootstrap? I want to have all those validation messages and styles appropria

Answer 1

The following worked for me:

$(function () {
    // any validation summary items should be encapsulated by a class alert and alert-danger
    $('.validation-summary-errors').each(function () {
        $(this).addClass('alert');
        $(this).addClass('alert-danger');
    });

    // update validation fields on submission of form
    $('form').submit(function () {
        if ($(this).valid()) {
            $(this).find('div.control-group').each(function () {
                if ($(this).find('span.field-validation-error').length == 0) {
                    $(this).removeClass('has-error');
                    $(this).addClass('has-success');
                }
            });
        }
        else {
            $(this).find('div.control-group').each(function () {
                if ($(this).find('span.field-validation-error').length > 0) {
                    $(this).removeClass('has-success');
                    $(this).addClass('has-error');
                }
            });
            $('.validation-summary-errors').each(function () {
                if ($(this).hasClass('alert-danger') == false) {
                    $(this).addClass('alert');
                    $(this).addClass('alert-danger');
                }
            });
        }
    });

    // check each form-group for errors on ready
    $('form').each(function () {
        $(this).find('div.form-group').each(function () {
            if ($(this).find('span.field-validation-error').length > 0) {
                $(this).addClass('has-error');
            }
        });
    });
});

var page = function () {
    //Update the validator
    $.validator.setDefaults({
        highlight: function (element) {
            $(element).closest(".form-group").addClass("has-error");
            $(element).closest(".form-group").removeClass("has-success");
        },
        unhighlight: function (element) {
            $(element).closest(".form-group").removeClass("has-error");
            $(element).closest(".form-group").addClass("has-success");
        }
    });
}();

Taken from http://www.benripley.com/development/javascript/asp-mvc-4-validation-with-bootstrap-3.

Answer 2

A nice way of handling this if you're using Bootstrap 2 is...

Add this to your _Layout.cshtml:

<script type="text/javascript">

jQuery.validator.setDefaults({
    highlight: function (element, errorClass, validClass) {
        if (element.type === 'radio') {
            this.findByName(element.name).addClass(errorClass).removeClass(validClass);
        } else {
            $(element).addClass(errorClass).removeClass(validClass);
            $(element).closest('.control-group').removeClass('success').addClass('error');
        }
    },
    unhighlight: function (element, errorClass, validClass) {
        if (element.type === 'radio') {
            this.findByName(element.name).removeClass(errorClass).addClass(validClass);
        } else {
            $(element).removeClass(errorClass).addClass(validClass);
            $(element).closest('.control-group').removeClass('error').addClass('success');
        }
    }
});

$(function () {

    $("span.field-validation-valid, span.field-validation-error").addClass('help-inline');
    $("div.control-group").has("span.field-validation-error").addClass('error');
    $("div.validation-summary-errors").has("li:visible").addClass("alert alert-block alert-error");

});

</script>

These are the posts where I found the code pieces above:

Integrating Bootstrap Error styling with MVC’s Unobtrusive Error Validation

Twitter Bootstrap validation styles with ASP.NET MVC

MVC Twitter Bootstrap unobtrusive error handling

---

UPDATE

Right now I needed to do the same when using Bootstrap 3. Here's the modifications necessary since the class names changed:

<script type="text/javascript">

    jQuery.validator.setDefaults({
        highlight: function (element, errorClass, validClass)
        {
            if (element.type === 'radio')
            {
                this.findByName(element.name).addClass(errorClass).removeClass(validClass);
            } else
            {
                $(element).addClass(errorClass).removeClass(validClass);
                $(element).closest('.form-group').removeClass('has-success').addClass('has-error');
            }
        },
        unhighlight: function (element, errorClass, validClass)
        {
            if (element.type === 'radio')
            {
                this.findByName(element.name).removeClass(errorClass).addClass(validClass);
            } else
            {
                $(element).removeClass(errorClass).addClass(validClass);
                $(element).closest('.form-group').removeClass('has-error').addClass('has-success');
            }
        }
    });

$(function () {

    $("span.field-validation-valid, span.field-validation-error").addClass('help-block');
    $("div.form-group").has("span.field-validation-error").addClass('has-error');
    $("div.validation-summary-errors").has("li:visible").addClass("alert alert-block alert-danger");

});

</script>

Answer 3

Why not just use css !important and call it a day:

/* Styles for validation helpers
-----------------------------------------------------------*/
.field-validation-error {
    color: #f00 !important;
}

.field-validation-valid {
    display: none;
}

.input-validation-error {
    border: 1px solid #f00 !important;
    background-color: #fee !important;
}

.validation-summary-errors {
    font-weight: bold;
    color: #f00;
}

.validation-summary-valid {
    display: none;
}

Answer 4

This is a neat solution that gives you more control over how the ValidationSummary renders errors to the view. The Unordered List it produced did not look right inside the alert. Therefore, I simply looped through the errors and rendered them how I wanted - using paragraphs in this case. For example:

@if (ViewData.ModelState.Any(x => x.Value.Errors.Any()))
{
    <div class="alert alert-danger" role="alert">
        <a class="close" data-dismiss="alert">×</a>
        @foreach (var modelError in Html.ViewData.ModelState.SelectMany(keyValuePair => keyValuePair.Value.Errors))
        {
            <p>@modelError.ErrorMessage</p>
        }
    </div>
}

Which results in a neat Validation Summary Alert:

Answer 5

For the ValidationSummary, you can use the overload that allows you to specify htmlAttributes. This allows you to set it to use the Twitter Bootstrap alert css styles.

@Html.ValidationSummary(string.Empty, new { @class = "alert alert-danger" })

A similar overload exists for the ValidationMessage and ValidationMessageFor helper methods.

Answer 6

On Bootstrap 3 you have to add:

.validation-summary-errors
{
    .alert();
    .alert-danger();
}
.field-validation-error 
{
    .label();
    .label-danger();
}

you'll see something like that: