In this article I will explain with an example, how to perform AlphaNumeric TextBox Validation i.e. allow only Alphabet and Number characters validation on Server Side using Data Annotation in ASP.Net MVC.
The AlphaNumeric TextBox Validation i.e. allow only Upper Case and Lower Case Alphabet and Number (Digits) characters validation will be performed on Server Side using Model class and Data Annotation attributes in ASP.Net MVC.
Model
The following Model class consists of one property UserName. The property is decorated with the following Data Annotation attributes for performing validations.
1. Required Data Annotation attribute.
2. RegularExpression Data Annotation attribute.
Note: The Data Annotations attributes can be used with the Entity Data Model (EDM), LINQ to SQL, and other data models.
The Required Data Annotation and the RegularExpression Data Annotation attributes have been specified with a property Error Message with a string value. As the name suggests, this string value will be displayed to the user when the respective validation fails.
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
namespace Alphanumeric_Validation_ServerSide_MVC.Models
{
public class PersonModel
{
[Display(Name = "Username")]
[Required(ErrorMessage = "Username is required.")]
[RegularExpression("^[a-zA-Z0-9]*$", ErrorMessage = "Only Alphabets and Numbers allowed.")]
public string UserName { get; set; }
}
}
Controller
The Controller consists of following two Action methods.
Action method for handling GET operation
Inside this Action method, simply the View is returned.
Action method for handling POST operation
This Action method handles the POST operation and when the form is submitted, the object of the PersonModel class is sent to this method.
The state of the submitted Model is checked using ModelState.IsValid property.
Note: ModelState.IsValid property is an inbuilt property which verifies two things:
1. Whether the Form values are bound to the Model.
2. All the validations specified inside Model class using Data annotations have been passed.
public class HomeController : Controller
{
// GET: Home
public ActionResult Index()
{
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(PersonModel person)
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
// Validation success.
}
return View();
}
}
View
Inside the View, in the very first line the PersonModel class is declared as Model for the View.
The Form
The View consists of an HTML Form which has been created using the Html.BeginForm method with the following parameters.
ActionName – Name of the Action. In this case the name is Index.
ControllerName – Name of the Controller. In this case the name is Home.
FormMethod – It specifies the Form Method i.e. GET or POST. In this case it will be set to POST.
Implementing Validation
The Form consists of the following three HTML Helper functions:-
1. Html.LabelFor - Displaying the Model property name.
2. Html.TextBoxFor – Creating a TextBox for the Model property.
3. Html.ValidationMessageFor – Displaying the Validation message for the property.
There is also a Submit button which when clicked, the Form gets submitted and the UserName value is sent to the Controller.
@model Alphanumeric_Validation_ServerSide_MVC.Models.PersonModel
@{
Layout = null;
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" />
<title>Index</title>
<style type="text/css">
body { font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt; }
.error { color: red; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
@using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Home", FormMethod.Post))
{
<table>
<tr>
<td>@Html.LabelFor(m => m.UserName)</td>
<td>@Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.UserName)</td>
<td>@Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.UserName, "", new { @class = "error" })</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td><input type="submit" value="Submit" /></td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</table>
}
</body>
</html>
Screenshot
![ASP.Net MVC: Server Side AlphaNumeric TextBox Validation (Alphabets and Numbers) characters using Data Annotations]()
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