MVC UK Date Issues

I have recently been working on a MVC / Bootstrap project, which is UK only.

Despite adding the following code to web.config, filling out a form with a DateTime in it still failed on a parsing error.

I had to set a custom model binder, because by default MVC doesn’t look at the current ui culture when model binding:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Threading;
using System.Web.Mvc;

namespace InsuranceDataArchiver.Infrastructure.ModelBinders
{
    public class DateTimeModelBinder : IModelBinder
    {
        public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
        {
            var value = bindingContext.ValueProvider.GetValue(bindingContext.ModelName);
            Debug.Assert(value != null, "value != null");

            bindingContext.ModelState.SetModelValue(bindingContext.ModelName, value);

            try
            {
                var date = value.ConvertTo(typeof (DateTime), Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture);
                return date;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                bindingContext.ModelState.AddModelError(bindingContext.ModelName, ex);
                return null;
            }
        }
    }

    public class NullableDateTimeModelBinder : IModelBinder
    {
        public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
        {
            var value = bindingContext.ValueProvider.GetValue(bindingContext.ModelName);

            if (value == null || string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(value.AttemptedValue))
                return null;

            bindingContext.ModelState.SetModelValue(bindingContext.ModelName, value);

            try
            {
                var date = value.ConvertTo(typeof(DateTime), Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture);
                return date;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                bindingContext.ModelState.AddModelError(bindingContext.ModelName, ex);
                return null;
            }
        }
    }
}

// then in Application_Start of global.asax
            ModelBinders.Binders.Add(typeof(DateTime), new DateTimeModelBinder());
            ModelBinders.Binders.Add(typeof(DateTime?), new NullableDateTimeModelBinder());

This has implications if you are using dates in URL’s, which I am not on this project, so it will suffice for now.

I also had to change the jquery validation, I installed the Jquery.Validation.AdditionalMethods nuget package and included the additional-methods.js script in my jQueryVal bundle:

   

        @Html.LabelFor(m => m.FromDate, new { @class = "col-md-3 col-sm-6 col-xs-12 control-label" })
        

            @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.FromDate, new { @class = "form-control datepicker", id = "fromDate" })
        
    

    

        @Html.LabelFor(m => m.ToDate, new { @class = "col-md-3 col-sm-6 col-xs-12 control-label" })
        

            @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.ToDate, new { @class = "form-control datepicker", id = "toDate" })
        
    

    

        
    
}

@section Scripts {
    @Scripts.Render("~/bundles/jqueryval")

    
}

I get a feeling that this could be improved, but on my UK only site, I think its good for now. Note to self: read up on the way that URLs and model binding works. There may be a more elegant solution in there somewhere…

About Phil

I have been working as a software developer since 1983. This blog could have been called "From Fortran 77, C and Cobol to C# in 20 (not so) easy years", but it doesn't sound quite right somehow. Besides I'm talking about what's happened since 2003, not before!