ASP.Net MVC3 Email/Phone Data Annotations don't work

Question

I have the following properties in my Model

    [Required]
    [DataType(DataType.PhoneNumber, ErrorMessage = "Invalid Phone Number")]
    public string PhoneNumber
    {
        get;
        set;

    }

    [Required]
    [DataType(DataType.EmailAddress, ErrorMessage = "Invalid Email Address")]
    public string EmailAddress
    {
        get;
        set;

    }

The corresponding View is

 <td>
                    Email
                </td>
                <td>
                    @Html.EditorFor(model => model.EmailAddress)
                    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.EmailAddress, "*")
                </td>
            </tr>
            <tr>
                <td>
                    Phone #
                </td>
                <td>
                    @Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.PhoneNumber)
                    @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.PhoneNumber, "*")
                </td>

When I render this page I see the Required attribute getting triggered. But the DataType attribute is not getting fired if I key in Invalid data.I see the source html and don't see any code being emitted for these validations. I have the following as a part of my view too

<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.min.js")" type="text/javascript"/>
<script src="@Url.Content("~/Scripts/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.min.js")" type="text/javascript"/>

Answer 1

You could consider using ASP.NET MVC 3 Futures. Here is a nice article describing validations there:

public class UserInformation
{
    [Required]
    public string Name { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [EmailAddress]
    public string Email { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [Url]
    public string Website { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [CreditCard]
    public string CreditCard { get; set; }

    [Required]
    [FileExtensions(Extensions = "jpg,jpeg")]
    public string Image { get; set; }
}

Answer 2

See this post:

Is the DataTypeAttribute validation working in MVC2?

It's important to note that the DataType Attribute is usually used for formatting purposes, not for validation. Technically there are a wide range of email formats and phone number formats (see here for email: http://www.regular-expressions.info/email.html).

Also, custom converters can be made to convert seemingly non-email strings into emails (me at domain dot com = [email protected]), and thus having default validation regexs flies out the window. It is left up to the developer to use the correct regex for their specific purpose, and to ensure they only accept address they believe are accurate.