Model Binding With Disabled Textbox

Question

I have a textbox that I am defining as

<%= Html.TextBox("Username", Model.Form.Username, 
        new { @class = "textbox", @disabled = "disabled" })%>

The action is defined as

    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
    [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
    public ActionResult EditLogin(LoginForm post) {

        ...

        return View(model);
    }

When I POST to this, Username will be blank. All other properties bind correctly, but if I change @disabled="disabled" to @readonly="readonly" the username binds properly and everything works.

It looks like model binding ignores values in disabled fields. Is there a way around this? I still need the field's value to bind to the model. I can use readonly but would prefer to use disabled so it is visually apparent to the user that they cannot edit the value of the field.

Answer 1

I believe a form field that is disabled does not submit anything. If you have a form and disable the foo field in that form, when you post the post will not have the value for the foo field. This is simply the nature of disabling a field in HTML and is not a MVC issue.

Answer 2

use readonly - will disable input but you'll still have it in the binding. You could apply a style on the div to make it looked greyed out maybe?

<div class="editor-label">
  @Html.LabelFor(model => model.FileName)
</div>
<div class="editor-field-greyed-out">
  @Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.FileName, new { @readonly = true })
  @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FileName)
</div>

Answer 3

If you want the value to be sent back, but not be editable, consider placing it in a hidden field. Obviously, don't do this for anything that requires a degree of security, since a user can tamper with it.

Answer 4

You can do a workaround by adding a hidden field with the same value ;)

<%= Html.Hidden("Username", Model.Form.Username)%>

Answer 5

As suggested in the comments, readonly instead of disabled can be an option but it will not work for select boxes. Instead of creating a hidden input, you can keep the inputs or selects as disabled and still pass the data by changing the disabled property with JavaScript at the submit.

Using jQuery it'd look like this:

$('form').on('submit', function(){
    $('input, select').prop('disabled',false);
    return true;
});

Answer 6

Easiest way to submit disabled fields is to copy them over to an invisible, non disabled control before submit. Some people create those controls manually and hook up to the on change event in jQuery to copy them on demand, but this solution below is generic, easy and less chatty - although one rule: you must create (render) a clean page after postback (so

$('#submitBtn').closest('form').one('submit', function() {

    var $form = $(this);

    // input, textarea, select, option, ----- button, datalist, keygen, output, optgroup
    $form.find('input:disabled, textarea:disabled, select:disabled, option:disabled').each(function () {

        var $item = $(this);

        var hiddenItem = $item.clone();
        hiddenItem.removeAttr('id');
        hiddenItem.removeAttr('disabled');
        hiddenItem.attr('style', 'display: none');

        $item.after(hiddenItem);
    });

});