How to disable validation before calling UpdateModel in MVC3 Controller

Question

I'm looking to enable "saving" of form data prior to submission.

I want users to be able to save form progress, even when the form is in an invalid state, and then come back to it at a later time.

Now, my only problem is that I want to be able to use UpdateModel method to update my model. However, as the form is potentially invalid or just partially complete, this will throw an error.

Is there a way to annotate the following method such that validation is ignored in the SAVE instance?

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Save(Model values)
{
var model = new Model();
UpdateModel(model);
}

I want to save having to write a 1-1 mapping for the elements being saved - which is my fallback option, but isn't very maintainable.

Answer 1

Give TryUpdateModel(model) a try, should fit your needs.

This won't throw an exception, and it will update the model and then return false if there are validation errors.

If you care about the errors, you check the ModelState in the false instance.

Hence, you can use it as so to always save changes:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Save(Model values)
{
var model = new Model();
TryUpdateModel(model);

model.saveChanges();

}