ValidationMessage for MVC3 collection

Question

Our MVC3 model includes a collection of strings like this

[CannotBeEmpty(ErrorMessageResourceName = "ColorCodes", ErrorMessageResourceType = typeof(Resources.Strings))]
[Display(ResourceType = typeof(Resources.Strings), Name = "ColorCodes")]
public List<string> ColorCodes { get; set; }

I display this model in my View using

<div class="editor-field colors">
     @Html.EditorFor(model => model.ColorCodes)
     @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.ColorCodes)
</div>

My problem is that myValidationMessageFor only renders 1 row while in the example below, the EditorFor reders 3 input fields.

 <input class="text-box single-line" id="ColorCodes_0_" name="ColorCodes[0]" type="text" value="#d6c0d6">
 <input class="text-box single-line" id="ColorCodes_1_" name="ColorCodes[1]" type="text" value="">
 <input class="text-box single-line" id="ColorCodes_2_" name="ColorCodes[2]" type="text" value="#fcfcfc">
 <span class="field-validation-valid" data-valmsg-for="ColorCodes" data-valmsg-replace="true"></span>

As you can see data-valmsg-for contains "ColorCodes" which is wrong. It should contain ColorCodes_0_, ColorCodes_1_ and ColorCodes_2_. How should I use the ValidationMessageFor when the model contains a Collection.

Answer 1

You can iterate model in for loop and receive expected result.

@for(int i = 0; i < Model.ColorCodes.Count; i++)
{
   @Html.EditorFor(model => model.ColorCodes[i])
   @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.ColorCodes[i])
}