How to concisely create optional HTML attributes with razor view engine?

Question

I'm looking for a way to write the following code with less lines of code (maybe 5). I suppose I could do the same thing as the selected class but this razor syntax isn't looking pretty.

<ul>
@foreach (var mi in Model.MenuItems) {
  <li@(mi.Selected?" class=\"selected\"":null)>
  @if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(mi.Title)) {
    <a href="@mi.Href">@mi.Text</a>
  } else {
    <a href="@mi.Href" title="@mi.Title">@mi.Text</a>
  }
  </li>
}
</ul>

Answer 1

Fixed in ASP.NET MVC 4

see http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2012/02/16/asp-net-4-beta-released.aspx

Conditional attribute rendering

If you have an attribute that might be null, in the past you've needed to do a null check to avoid writing out an empty attribute, like this:

<div @{if (myClass != null) { <text>class="@myClass"</text> } }>Content</div>

Now Razor is able to handle that automatically, so you can just write out the attribute. If it's null, the attribute isn't written:

<div class="@myClass">Content</div>

So if @myClass is null, the output is just this:

<div>Content</div>

Answer 2

I've come up with a chainable HtmlAttribute class and some Html Extension methods to allow the Razor syntax below:

<ul> 
    @foreach (var mi in items) { 
    <li @Html.Css("selected", mi.Selected)> 
        <a href="@mi.Href" @Html.Attr("title", mi.Title)>@mi.Text</a> 
    </li> 
    } 
</ul> 

Here is the HtmlAttribute class:

public class HtmlAttribute : IHtmlString     
{
    private string _InternalValue = String.Empty;
    private string _Seperator;

    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Value { get; set; }
    public bool Condition { get; set; }

    public HtmlAttribute(string name)
        : this(name, null)
    {
    }

    public HtmlAttribute( string name, string seperator )
    {
        Name = name;
        _Seperator = seperator ?? " ";
    }

    public HtmlAttribute Add(string value)
    {
        return Add(value, true);
    }

    public HtmlAttribute Add(string value, bool condition)
    {
        if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(value) && condition)
            _InternalValue += value + _Seperator;

        return this;
    }

    public string ToHtmlString()
    {
        if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_InternalValue))
            _InternalValue = String.Format("{0}=\"{1}\"", Name, _InternalValue.Substring(0, _InternalValue.Length - _Seperator.Length));
        return _InternalValue;
    }
}

Extra info: The "seperator" is used to chain together multiple values for an attribute. This can be useful for multiple css class names (use a space) or perhaps use String.Empty to build an value dependant on multiple conditions (by using the .Add() method)

And here are the Html Extension helper methods:

public static class Extensions
{
    public static HtmlAttribute Css(this HtmlHelper html, string value)
    {
        return Css(html, value, true);
    }

    public static HtmlAttribute Css(this HtmlHelper html, string value, bool condition)
    {
        return Css(html, null, value, condition);
    }

    public static HtmlAttribute Css(this HtmlHelper html, string seperator, string value, bool condition)
    {
        return new HtmlAttribute("class", seperator).Add(value, condition);
    }

    public static HtmlAttribute Attr(this HtmlHelper html, string name, string value)
    {
        return Attr(html, name, value, true);
    }

    public static HtmlAttribute Attr(this HtmlHelper html, string name, string value, bool condition)
    {
        return Attr(html, name, null, value, condition);
    }

    public static HtmlAttribute Attr(this HtmlHelper html, string name, string seperator, string value, bool condition)
    {
        return new HtmlAttribute(name, seperator).Add(value, condition);
    }
}

Let me know if they are of use.

Thanks,

Lee

Answer 3

<ul>
@foreach (var mi in Model.MenuItems) {
    <li@(mi.Selected?" class=\"selected\"":null)>
        <a href="@mi.Href" @{if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(mi.Title)) { <text>title="@mi.Title"</text>} }>@mi.Text</a>
    </li>
}
</ul>

I haven't tested it but it parses correctly.

Answer 4

That would be a good candidate for custom HTML helper:

public static class HtmlExtensions
{
    public static MvcHtmlString MenuItem(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, MenuItem mi)
    {
        var li = new TagBuilder("li");
        if (mi.Selected)
        {
            li.AddCssClass("selected");
        }
        var a = new TagBuilder("a");
        a.MergeAttribute("href", mi.Href);
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(mi.Title))
        {
            a.MergeAttribute("title", mi.Title);
        }
        a.SetInnerText(mi.Text);
        return MvcHtmlString.Create(li.ToString());
    }
}

and in your view:

<ul>
@foreach (var mi in Model.MenuItems) {
    @Html.MenuItem(mi)
}
</ul>

or using DisplayTemplates you don't even need to write a loop:

<ul>
    @Html.DisplayFor(x => x.MenuItems)
</ul>

Answer 5

<ul>
@foreach (var mi in Model.MenuItems) {
  <li@(Html.Raw((mi.Selected ? " class=\"selected\"" : null))>
    <a href="@mi.Href">@mi.Text</a>
  </li>
}
</ul>

Answer 6

class attribute would not be rendered by Razor if value is null

<a href="#nolink" class="@(categoryId == null ? "submenu-active": null)">All</a>

Answer 7

For the case of multiple classes I use this simple extension method:

public static MvcHtmlString If(this string text, bool condition) {
    return new MvcHtmlString(condition ? text : string.Empty);
}

And in the view:

<div class="menuitem @("active".If(Model.Active))">

Answer 8

It's really pretty simple and clean:

<p @(cssClass != null) ? { class="@cssClass" }> Stuff and whatnot... </p>