ASP.NET MVC: Creating localized DropDownLists for enums

A collection of HTML helpers that generate DropDownlists for enums, with or without localization support.

Table of contents

• HTML Helpers Overview
• Some examples – Basic usage
  • 1. Setting the name of the element and default empty item text
  • 2. Using [Description] attribute
  • 3. Using custom HTML attributes
• More examples – Localization support
  • 1. Using [LocalizationEnum] attribute
  • 2. Specifying the resource object type
• References
• Downloads

 

HTML Helpers Overview

I’ve created a set of HTML helpers that generate a DropDownList for an enum.
Those helpers are similar to DropDownList Method and DropDownListFor Method, with the only difference being that the those helpers will populate the DropDownList with the elements of the specified enum.

 

Some examples – Basic usage

Let’s assume the following model:

public enum WeekDay
{
    Sunday,
    Monday,
    Tuesday,
    Wednesday,
    Thursday,
    Friday,
    Saturday
}

public class WeeklyEvent
{
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public WeekDay Day { get; set; }
    public WeekDay? AnotherDay { get; set; }
}

 

Setting the name of the element and default empty item text

This is the most basic usage, the generated text will be enumValue.ToString():

// name="eventDay"
@Html.EnumDropDownList<WeekDay>("eventDay", "Select an item")

// name="Day"
@Html.EnumDropDownListFor<WeeklyEvent, WeekDay>(x => x.Day, "Select an item")

Html.EnumDropDownListFor works with nullables too:

@Html.EnumDropDownListFor<WeeklyEvent, WeekDay?>(x => x.AnotherDay, "Select an item")

 

Using [Description] attribute

You can customize the text using DescriptionAttribute:

public enum WeekDay
{
    [Description("Domingo")]
    Sunday,

    [Description("Segunda")]
    Monday,

    [Description("Terça")]
    Tuesday,

    [Description("Quarta")]
    Wednesday,

    [Description("Quinta")]
    Thursday,

    [Description("Sexta")]
    Friday,

    [Description("Sábado")]
    Saturday
}

 

Using custom HTML attributes

Just like DropDownList and DropDownListFor, you can use custom HTML attributes

@Html.EnumDropDownList<WeekDay>("eventDay", "Select an item", new { @class="select"})

@Html.EnumDropDownListFor<WeeklyEvent, WeekDay>(x => x.Day, "Select an item" , new { @class="select"})