How to validate one field related to another’s value in ASP .NET MVC 3

One possibility is to write a custom validation attribute:

public class RequiredIfOtherFieldIsNullAttribute : ValidationAttribute, IClientValidatable
{
    private readonly string _otherProperty;
    public RequiredIfOtherFieldIsNullAttribute(string otherProperty)
    {
        _otherProperty = otherProperty;
    }

    protected override ValidationResult IsValid(object value, ValidationContext validationContext)
    {
        var property = validationContext.ObjectType.GetProperty(_otherProperty);
        if (property == null)
        {
            return new ValidationResult(string.Format(
                CultureInfo.CurrentCulture, 
                "Unknown property {0}", 
                new[] { _otherProperty }
            ));
        }
        var otherPropertyValue = property.GetValue(validationContext.ObjectInstance, null);

        if (otherPropertyValue == null || otherPropertyValue as string == string.Empty)
        {
            if (value == null || value as string == string.Empty)
            {
                return new ValidationResult(string.Format(
                    CultureInfo.CurrentCulture,
                    FormatErrorMessage(validationContext.DisplayName),
                    new[] { _otherProperty }
                ));
            }
        }

        return null;
    }

    public IEnumerable<ModelClientValidationRule> GetClientValidationRules(ModelMetadata metadata, ControllerContext context)
    {
        var rule = new ModelClientValidationRule
        {
            ErrorMessage = FormatErrorMessage(metadata.GetDisplayName()),
            ValidationType = "requiredif",
        };
        rule.ValidationParameters.Add("other", _otherProperty);
        yield return rule;
    }
}

which you would apply to one of the properties of your view model:

public class MyViewModel
{
    [RequiredIfOtherFieldIsNull("Mobile")]
    public string Phone { get; set; }

    public string Mobile { get; set; }
}

then you could have a controller:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        return View(new MyViewModel());
    }

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(MyViewModel model)
    {
        return View(model);
    }
}

and finally a view in which you will register an adapter to wire the client side validation for this custom rule:

@model MyViewModel

<script src="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8906228/@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8906228/@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.js")" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    jQuery.validator.unobtrusive.adapters.add(
        'requiredif', ['other'], function (options) {

            var getModelPrefix = function (fieldName) {
                return fieldName.substr(0, fieldName.lastIndexOf('.') + 1);
            }

            var appendModelPrefix = function (value, prefix) {
                if (value.indexOf('*.') === 0) {
                    value = value.replace('*.', prefix);
                }
                return value;
            }

            var prefix = getModelPrefix(options.element.name),
                other = options.params.other,
                fullOtherName = appendModelPrefix(other, prefix),
                element = $(options.form).find(':input[name="' + fullOtherName + '"]')[0];

            options.rules['requiredif'] = element;
            if (options.message) {
                options.messages['requiredif'] = options.message;
            }
        }
    );

    jQuery.validator.addMethod('requiredif', function (value, element, params) {
        var otherValue = $(params).val();
        if (otherValue != null && otherValue != '') {
            return true;
        }
        return value != null && value != '';
    }, '');
</script>

@using (Html.BeginForm())
{
    <div>
        @Html.LabelFor(x => x.Phone)
        @Html.EditorFor(x => x.Phone)
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(x => x.Phone)
    </div>

    <div>
        @Html.LabelFor(x => x.Mobile)
        @Html.EditorFor(x => x.Mobile)
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(x => x.Mobile)
    </div>

    <button type="submit">OK</button>
}

Pretty sick stuff for something so extremely easy as validation rule that we encounter in our everyday lives. I don’t know what the designers of ASP.NET MVC have been thinking when they decided to pick a declarative approach for validation instead of imperative.

Anyway, that’s why I use FluentValidation.NET instead of data annotations to perform validations on my models. Implementing such simple validation scenarios is implemented in a way that it should be – simple.