MVC Validation Lower/Higher than other value

Question

How is the best way to validate a model in MVC.Net where I want to accept a minimum/maximum.

Not individual min/max values for a field. But separate fields for a user to specify a minimum/maximum.

public class FinanceModel{
   public int MinimumCost {get;set;}
   public int MaximumCost {get;set;}
}

So I need to ensure that MinimumCost is always less than Maximum cost.

Answer 1

There is a NuGet package called Foolproof which provides these annotations for you. That said - writing a custom attribute is both pretty easy and good practice.

Using Foolproof would look like:

public class FinanceModel{
   public int MinimumCost {get;set;}

   [GreaterThan("MinimumCost")]
   public int MaximumCost {get;set;}
}

Answer 2

You can use a custom validation attribute here is my example with dates. But you can use it with ints too.

First, here is the model :

public DateTime Beggining { get; set; }

[IsDateAfterAttribute("Beggining", true, ErrorMessageResourceType = typeof(LocalizationHelper), ErrorMessageResourceName = "PeriodErrorMessage")]
public DateTime End { get; set; }

And here is the attribute itself :

public sealed class IsDateAfterAttribute : ValidationAttribute, IClientValidatable
{
    private readonly string testedPropertyName;
    private readonly bool allowEqualDates;

    public IsDateAfterAttribute(string testedPropertyName, bool allowEqualDates = false)
    {
        this.testedPropertyName = testedPropertyName;
        this.allowEqualDates = allowEqualDates;
    }

    protected override ValidationResult IsValid(object value, ValidationContext validationContext)
    {
        var propertyTestedInfo = validationContext.ObjectType.GetProperty(this.testedPropertyName);
        if (propertyTestedInfo == null)
        {
            return new ValidationResult(string.Format("unknown property {0}", this.testedPropertyName));
        }

        var propertyTestedValue = propertyTestedInfo.GetValue(validationContext.ObjectInstance, null);

        if (value == null || !(value is DateTime))
        {
            return ValidationResult.Success;
        }

        if (propertyTestedValue == null || !(propertyTestedValue is DateTime))
        {
            return ValidationResult.Success;
        }

        // Compare values
        if ((DateTime)value >= (DateTime)propertyTestedValue)
        {
            if (this.allowEqualDates && value == propertyTestedValue)
            {
                return ValidationResult.Success;
            }
            else if ((DateTime)value > (DateTime)propertyTestedValue)
            {
                return ValidationResult.Success;
            }
        }

        return new ValidationResult(FormatErrorMessage(validationContext.DisplayName));
    }

    public IEnumerable<ModelClientValidationRule> GetClientValidationRules(ModelMetadata metadata, ControllerContext context)
    {
        var rule = new ModelClientValidationRule
        {
            ErrorMessage = this.ErrorMessageString,
            ValidationType = "isdateafter"
        };
        rule.ValidationParameters["propertytested"] = this.testedPropertyName;
        rule.ValidationParameters["allowequaldates"] = this.allowEqualDates;
        yield return rule;
    }