Fluent Validation for complex child objects by setting different RuleSet

Question

I have a complex class structure as below.

public class Account
{ 
   public List<Name> Person {get;set;}
   public List<Address> Address {get;set;}
   public string Email   {get;set;}
   public string ConfirmEmail {get;set;}
}

public class Name 
{
  public string FirstName {get; set;}
  public string LastName {get;set;}
  public string DateOfBirth {get;set;}
  public string SSN {get;Set;}
}

public class Address 
{
  public string AddressLine1 {get;set;}
  public string AddressLine2 {get;set;}
  public string City {get;set;}
  public string State {get;set;}
}

Here are the Validators

public class AccountValidator : AbstractValidator<Account>
{
  public AccountValidator()
  {
    RuleSet("Account", () =>
    { 
     RuleFor(account => account.Person).SetCollectionValidator(new NameValidator());
     RuleFor(account => account.Address).SetCollectionValidator(new AddressValidator());
   });
     }
   }
  }


public class NameValidator : AbstractValidator<Name>
 {
    public NameValidator()
     {
        RuleSet("Account", () =>
        {
            SharedRules();
        });

        RuleSet("Name_DateOfBirth", () =>
        {
          SharedRules();
          RuleFor(name => name.DateOfBirth).NotEmpty());
        });
    }

     void SharedRules()
    {
      RuleFor(name => name.FirstName).NotEmpty());
      RuleFor(name => name.FirstName).Length(1, 20));
      RuleFor(name => name.LastName).NotEmpty());
      RuleFor(name => name.LastName).Length(1, 20));
      }
 }
public class AddressValidator : AbstractValidator<Address>
{
  public AddressValidator()
  {
    RuleSet("Account", () =>
    {
      SharedRules();
     });
  }

    void SharedRules()
    {

        RuleFor(address => address.AddressLine1).NotEmpty());
        ... 
        .... etc..
    }
 }

I have [HttpPost] ActionMethod as below :-

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Register([CustomizeValidator(RuleSet="Account")] Account model)
 {
    if(MoelState.IsValid)
    {
        //blah blah
    }
    else 
    {
      //blah blah
    }
 }

I have view For Register as follows :-

@using (Html.BeginForm(null, null, FormMethod.Post, new { id = "Register" }))
{
   @Html.AntiForgeryToken();   
   <h1>Register</h1>    
   @Html.ValidationSummary(false)
   <div id="divName">   
     @Html.EditorFor(m => m.Person[0])
   </div>
      for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++)
     {
        if (i == 0)
       {  
        <div id="divHomeAdd">
            @Html.EditorFor(m => m.Address[0])
        </div>       
       <input type="checkbox"/>   
       <label for="nohomeaddress"> Do not Have Home Address </label>
       }
        if (i == 1)
      { 
        <div id="divMailingAdd">
            @Html.EditorFor(m => m.Address[1])
        </div>
        }
      }

    @Html.TextBoxCustomFor(m => m.Email)   
    @Html.TextBoxCustomFor(m => m.ConfirmEmail) 
    <input type="submit" value="Register" id="btnRegister" name="Register" />
 }

I have to display EditorFor() Name , but only FirstName and LastName is required i.e. need to fire RuelSet for "Account" in NameValidator.

For some Other View I need to fire "Name_DateOfBirth" RuleSet becausethat screen needs Date of Birth as required field along with normal First Name and Last Name. How to do that in MVC ?

I have to display Validation for Home Address if checkbox for "No Home Address" is checked then only need to validate the Mailing Address property.

How can i make use of RuleSets in such scenario ? Do we need to have same Rule Name in Parent and Child ? i.e. "Account" Rule should exist both in AccountValidator as well as NameValidator so that it fires ?

Jay Jay · Accepted Answer · 2013-06-18T21:52:02

What you have so far looks like a good start. Using the view name as the ruleset name is a good idea as you will have a good relationship between which fields are on the view, and which ones get validated.

The only thing I noticed is you are missing the ValidatorAttribute decorations on your model classes.

Here is some good documentation if you haven't seen it already.

Fluent Validation for complex child objects by setting different RuleSet

1 Answers