ViewModel Implementation in ASP.NET MVC - Is this code best practice?

Question

I've just started to get into using ViewModels. Can you guys check out this code to see if I'm following best practice? Is there anything out of the ordinary? Would you do the validation differently?

Sorry if code is lengthy (there's so many parts to it). I've tried to make it as easy to understand as possible.

Thanks!

Model

  public class CustomerModel
  {
    [Required(ErrorMessage="Primer nombre!")]
    public string FirstName { get; set; }

    [Required(ErrorMessage="Segundo nombre!")]
    public string LastName { get; set; }

    [Required(ErrorMessage="Edad")]
    public int? Age { get; set; }

    public string State { get; set; }
    public string CountryID { get; set; }

    [Required(ErrorMessage="Phone Number")]
    public string PhoneNumber { get; set; }
  }

ViewModel

  public class CustomerViewModel
  {
    public CustomerModel Customer { get; set; }

    public string Phone1a { get; set; }
    public string Phone1b { get; set; }
    public string Phone1c { get; set; }
  }

Controller

    public ActionResult Index()
    {
      CustomerViewModel Customer = new CustomerViewModel()
      {
        Customer = new CustomerModel(),
      };


      return View(Customer);
    }


    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Index(CustomerViewModel c)
    {

      //ModelState.Add("Customer.PhoneNumber", ModelState["Phone1a"]);

      // Let's manually bind the phone number fields to the PhoneNumber properties in
      // Customer object. 
      c.Customer.PhoneNumber = c.Phone1a + c.Phone1b + c.Phone1c;

      // Let's check that it's not empty and that it's a valid phone number (logic not listed here)
      if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(c.Customer.PhoneNumber))
      {
        // Let's remove the fact that there was an error! 
        ModelState["Customer.PhoneNumber"].Errors.Clear();
      } // Else keep the error there. 

      if (ModelState.IsValid)
      {
        Response.Write("<H1 style'background-color:white;color:black'>VALIDATED</H1>");
      }
      return View("Index", c);
    }

  }

View

@model MVVM1.Models.CustomerViewModel

@using (Html.BeginForm("Index", "Detail"))
{  
  <table border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1">
    <tr>
      <td>@Html.LabelFor(m => m.Customer.FirstName)</td>
      <td>
        @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Customer.FirstName)
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.Customer.FirstName)
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>@Html.LabelFor(m => m.Customer.LastName)</td>
      <td>
        @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Customer.LastName)
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.Customer.LastName)
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>@Html.LabelFor(m => m.Customer.Age)</td>
      <td>
        @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Customer.Age)
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.Customer.Age)
      </td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
      <td>@Html.LabelFor(m => m.Customer.PhoneNumber)</td>
      <td width="350">
        @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Phone1a, new { size="4", maxlength="3" })
        @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Phone1b)
        @Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Phone1c)
        <div>
        @Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.Customer.PhoneNumber)
        </div>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td></td>
      <td>
        <input type="submit" value="Submit" /></td>
    </tr>
  </table>
}

Answer 1

One thing that jumps out at me is this:

  if (ModelState.IsValid) 
  { 
    Response.Write("<H1 style'background-color:white;color:black'>VALIDATED</H1>"); 
  } 
  return View("Index", c); 

Remember that view models are good for passing data to your controller AND back to your model. I recommend you add an IsValid property to your view model and then setting that to true instead of calling Response.Write. Then simply add this to the top of your partial view:

@if (Model.IsValid)
{
    <H1 style'background-color:white;color:black'>VALIDATED</H1>
}

You can also get to ModelState in your view but some would argue that isn't a best practice. However, if you don't want to add a property to your model for something you can just see in your view you can just do this:

@if (ViewData.ModelState.IsValid)

Another nitpicky thing is that MVC validation attributes are typically used for validation on the UI. This validation can be reused in other areas but in some cases is sub-optimal. Also, you may not always be able to modify your domain models. Therefore, to keep all of my UI validation in one place I usually wrap my domain models in my view models so you get something like this:

public class CustomerViewModel                      
{                      
    public CustomerModel Customer { get; set; }

    [Required(ErrorMessage="Primer nombre!")]                        
    public string FirstName
    {
        get { return Customer.FirstName; } 
        set { Customer.FirstName = value; }
    }
...

This may seem redundant and isn't always worth the effort but it is a good practice to consider when using Entity Framework domain models or other classes which are difficult or impossible to modify.