Is there a way of making a property Required but only for front end and not database?

Question

Imagine I have a property:

class Test
{
    [Required]
    public string Toot { get; set; }
}

having Required makes a migration for not allowing null in my database. I actually don't want that restriction and yet I do not want it to ever be null from now on...

Is there a way to only make it Required for front end input?

I realise I could do this:

class Test
{
    [Required]
    public string Toot { get; set; }        

    [Required]
    [Display( Name = "Toot" )]
    public string TootForView 
    {
        get
        {
            return this.Toot ;
        }
        set
        {
            if(this.Toot != value)
            {
                this.Toot = value;
            }
        }
    }
}

Just curious: why do you need a required property you are not going to save? — Andrea Scarcella, Jul 01 '15 at 15:36
It's an issue with old data... We want future Toots to be required, but for old data.. we don't care. — Jimmyt1988, Jul 01 '15 at 15:38
Have you got a viewmodel or do you use EF Entities directly in your views? — Andrea Scarcella, Jul 01 '15 at 15:41
Directly in the views. I was worried re-mapping all the time would cause too much work and also slow processes down. I followed it from that Professional ASP net MVC book. — Jimmyt1988, Jul 01 '15 at 15:42
Have you considered tackling it from the [database](http://stackoverflow.com/a/3186949/465495)? — yazanpro, Jul 01 '15 at 15:44

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 01 '15 at 15:39

3

try tell EF to allow the column to be null:

protected override void OnModelCreating(DbModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
        modelBuilder.Entity<SomeObject>().Property(m => m.somefield).IsOptional();            
        base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);
}

this is code should be in the object that inherits from DbContext.

answered Jul 01 '15 at 15:39

Ali Adlavaran

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Is there a way to do this when attaching these existing models to new models. For example, I have a `TooToo` class and need to relate it to a `Test ` class... but when running `savechanges` it revalidates on the `Toot ` property and will not allow me to attach and thus save the new `TooToo` class – Jimmyt1988 Jul 02 '15 at 12:30

Is there a way of making a property Required but only for front end and not database?

1 Answers1