How do I edit the CSS of the Html.DisplayFor method in MVC 3?

Question

I am using the following code to display text from my view model in my view:

@Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Name)

When I look at the HTML details in IE9 (which I have to use at work) there is no class associated with the name, it just uses the Body CSS styling instead of the display-field class styling. Does anyone know what might be causing this issue or how I might edit the CSS for the text created?

Answer 1

if it is a label, use proper helper for it as Nataka526 suggests

otherwise put it in a span with a class and update css for that class:

your html:

<span class="name">
    @Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Name)
</span>

your css:

.name {
    //custom css
}

UPDATE

Another option: Update your Display Templates to handle a specific ViewData key:

in Views > Shared > DisplayTemplate (create this folder if you don't have it already):

add file String.cshtml:

@model string

@{
    string myClass = ViewData["class"]
}

@if(string.IsNullOrEmpty(myClass))
{
    @:@Model
}
else
{
    <span class="@myClass">@Model</span>
}

you may need to add DisplayTemplates for other tipes as well besides string.

In the view you will write something like this:

@Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Name, new { @class= "name" })

This will add spans around it automatically.

UPDATE

Explanation:

There is an overload on Html.DisplayFor which accepts two parameters: expression and object additionalViewData. So the second parameter that I pass is that anonymous object additionalViewData. I create this object with property called class

Inside of the html helper I then check if there is a ViewData with a key class and if there is, I put output inside a span with that class value.

** updated variable name from class to myClass since "class" is not appropriate variable name.

Answer 2

DisplayFor is used for templating reasons. If you aren't using a template, then you should just use the item like so: @Model.Name If you want to give it a class or id, then you need to wrap it in a span or div.

Your problem is that you're using the wrong method to output data, and expecting it to do something else. There is no built-in way to output raw data with class names.

So your choices are, wrap the raw item in a container that you can apply the css to, or create a template to use for these, then specify the template name in the DisplayFor like so:

 @Html.DisplayFor(m => m.Name, "NameTemplate")