ASP.NET MVC 3: Override "name" attribute with TextBoxFor

Question

Is it possible when using Html.TextBoxFor to override the name attribute?

I have tried with no success. I need to use TextBoxFor to get client side validation to work, however for reasons I won't go into I need the name of the textbox to be different from the generated one.

I have tried the following:

@Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Data, new { name = Model.Key + "_Data", id = Model.Key + "_Data" })

Which works for ID but not name. Is this possible?

Update: Looking into the code for TextBoxFor. It doesn't look like there is an easy way. Hopefully someone can prove me wrong.

Duplicate of http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6920935/control-name-in-textboxfor-in-mvc3 and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6064363/mvc2-impossible-to-change-the-name-with-textboxfor — Fernando Correia, Aug 20 '12 at 14:23
Those questions are asking something slightly different. Also - this is the older of the three, so I think you mean duplicated by. — Rob Stevenson-Leggett, Aug 20 '12 at 20:34

anar khalilov · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-14T14:52:03.180

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Rob, actually there is a much simpler way. Instead of name, use Name:

@Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Data, new { Name = Model.Key + "_Data", id = Model.Key + "_Data" })

edited Mar 14 '14 at 14:52

answered Jul 14 '13 at 09:36

anar khalilov

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Case-sensitive it is @highwingers, this tiny detail has the potential to save hours. – anar khalilov Nov 11 '13 at 08:41
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Overkill.. Name but id X_X – Vladimirs Jan 24 '14 at 13:56
@Vladimirs, sorry, what do you mean? – anar khalilov Jan 24 '14 at 14:28
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Weird, "id" is not case-sensitive (works fine with Id and id) but "name" isn't. – Vladimirs Jan 24 '14 at 15:01
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With ASP.NET 4, providing `Name` results in two attributes, `Name` and `name`, and the model binder uses the `name`. – GSerg Mar 16 '14 at 15:08
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But handling two different properties whose names differ only by case is a recipe for a maintenance nightmare..... – James McCormack Mar 17 '14 at 18:31
+1 bc this worked. still looking for a way to tell Chrome to put last name in a field instead of email. – Brad May 15 '14 at 18:50
@Brad, can you describe the problem you are facing? Maybe create a new question here on stackoverflow? – anar khalilov May 15 '14 at 19:05
@Anar, building a register form, put in the `name` attributes, but Chrome is still putting email in the `email` AND `lname` fields. I might get around to it, but right now, I'm just working on the stuff that's quick to fix or flat out broken. Deadlines and all :-\ – Brad May 15 '14 at 19:26
@Brad, maybe Chrome is overwriting the last name field by using the autofill feature of the browser. Good luck anyway. – anar khalilov May 16 '14 at 14:17
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You don't know how much time I've been troubleshooting MVC Model Binding, just to see tutorial after tutorial of using the brackets but not being able to put them in. This finally solved my problem. Thank you sir! – Markus May 15 '15 at 14:39
@Markus, I know that feeling, so I'm glad I could help. – anar khalilov May 15 '15 at 15:46
Works, but isn't documented, so it's liable to change... I'm afraid to use this "feature" unless someone has an official reference? – h bob Sep 11 '15 at 14:32
Thanks, saved me a lot of time. – Suraj Singh Oct 19 '15 at 08:56
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Winner winner, chicken dinner. – Jason Cidras Mar 22 '17 at 13:36
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I think this should be replaced as the answer. – RickWeb Nov 02 '17 at 13:45
I've replaced the answer. – Rob Stevenson-Leggett Jan 07 '18 at 19:44
Really old, may help someone, to make the validation to work @Html.ValidationMessageFor(x => x.Data, string.Empty, new { data_valmsg_for = Model.Key + "_Data" }). – KleberBH Aug 02 '18 at 20:16

James McCormack · Answer 2 · 2017-01-09T18:01:37.890

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Are you asking this because you want to apply a prefix to the name? If so, you can do this by setting ViewData.TemplateInfo.HtmlFieldPrefix in your Controller.

I learnt a lot about this stuff from Brad Wilson's blog.

edited Jan 09 '17 at 18:01

answered May 19 '11 at 12:01

James McCormack

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This looks like the winner! Beautiful. – Rob Stevenson-Leggett May 19 '11 at 12:05
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Yeah they hid that one nicely didn't they :) – James McCormack May 19 '11 at 12:08
This just saved me some headache and code duplication. – davidXYZ Aug 26 '14 at 17:18

score 14 · Answer 3 · answered May 18 '15 at 14:57

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EditorFor has an overload where you can supply the name attribute as a parameter:

 @Html.EditorFor(expression, null, name)

answered May 18 '15 at 14:57

Protector one

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Would have saved me hours if I found this hours ago, haha – Johnie Karr May 05 '16 at 01:16
Interesting, but there is no overload for the name attribute for similar helpers like DropDownListFor, you have to specify it in the html attributes parameter (with a capital N in Name). – nmit026 May 10 '19 at 00:43

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Dec 21 '21 at 13:28

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It is called Microsoft GOTCHA...

Use the name in caps, like this

@Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Reply.Answer, new { Name = "Whatyouwant" })

edited Dec 21 '21 at 13:28

pogosama

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answered Nov 18 '17 at 02:55

Ali Adravi

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It really makes the difference, if you use @name, it will not get overridden. Very hard to figure out. Thanks – GELR Sep 28 '21 at 12:20

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered May 19 '11 at 11:55

Try EditorFor. you can pass string as template name if you want to make sure textbox is rendered even if property type is not string. If property is string already, it does not need templatename explicitly to render textbox, so you can pass null. Note that it does not require id parameter explicitly, it will infer it from element name. And all the validation things are still active with EditorFor

 @Html.EditorFor(x => x.Data, "string", Model.Key + "_Data")

score 7 · Answer 6 · answered Feb 19 '12 at 03:00

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ben's answer got me what I was looking for except you need to wrap in in Html.Raw

@Html.Raw(Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Data).ToString().Replace("Data", "NewData"))

answered Feb 19 '12 at 03:00

Rip Ryness

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benwasd · Answer 7 · 2011-05-19T12:07:01.623

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a little bit "unpretty"=), try:

@Html.TextBoxFor(x => x.Data).ToString().Replace("Data", "NewData")

edited May 19 '11 at 12:07

answered May 19 '11 at 11:43

benwasd

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Seems like a nice easy way to do it. If a little hacky :-) – Rob Stevenson-Leggett May 19 '11 at 11:51
umm, this way, wouldnt you rather just take normal Html.TexBox.. since any static typing is gone anyway after the replace – sharp johnny May 19 '11 at 19:25

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 29 '16 at 18:04

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For me, it works! I hope that help!

@Html.EditorFor(model => model.Nome, new { htmlAttributes = new { @class = "form-control", @maxlength = "80", @id = "NomeFilter", @Name = "NomeFilter" } })

answered Nov 29 '16 at 18:04

Jonas

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score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Jan 07 '18 at 14:55

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@Html.EditorFor(Model => Model.Something, "name", "name", new {@class = "form-control" })

Not sure which of those two string parameters in the middle do the work, but it worked only when I typed both of them.

edited Jan 07 '18 at 14:55

answered Jan 07 '18 at 14:47

Mr.Ajdos

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It's Id and Name. this worked for me. I went through all above answers and non of them worked, but this 1. Thanks. – Orion Jun 13 '18 at 03:46
`public static MvcHtmlString EditorFor(this HtmlHelper html, Expression> expression, string templateName, string htmlFieldName, object additionalViewData);`. No idea what `templateName` is supposed to be, so I used `null`. For `htmlFieldName` I used the name of the parameter (in my case "ipmi" instead of "IPMI"). That did the trick for me. – BCdotWEB Jun 18 '18 at 09:47

ScottLenart · Answer 10 · 2018-02-02T15:10:51.297

For this example, I was disabling form fields based on permissions, but still showing them. I had a hidden field to send the value to the controller, but wanted a different field name in the EditorFor. First param after model value represents the "name" property, second is the new name.

@Html.EditorFor(m => m.UserName, "name", "UserNameDisabled", new { htmlAttributes = new { @class = "form-control", @disabled = "disabled"} });

Results in:

<input class="form-control text-box single-line" disabled="disabled" id="UserNameDisabled" name="UserNameDisabled" type="text" value="someEnteredValue" />

TroySteven · Answer 11 · 2019-06-13T21:49:27.583

Keep it simple, your already providing the ID you should simply be able to use the method "TextBox" instead of "TextBoxFor" and it will work fine client side and server side. In addition, although the accepted answer will work but will produce duplicate Name attributes on your tag if you inspect it using a browser. The below solution does not have that problem.

MvcHtmlString Html.TextBox(string name, string value, object htmlAttributes)

@Html.TextBox(Model.Key + "_Data", Model.Key, new { id = Model.Key + "_Data" }

ASP.NET MVC 3: Override "name" attribute with TextBoxFor

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