I got past this problem by using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations, I am using a feature in Dynamic Data to achieve this (http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/noam/archive...) lucky find, but working well!

I had to update my last posted example with a few bigger changes to support this. My last code still stands if you can add attributes to your model, as said I couldn't as mine was code generated. I have just outlined the approach I took in my blog (http://goneale.wordpress.com/2009/01/19/aspnet-...) rather than spamming yours. :)

Emad, I hope you don't mind but I have proposed a change to your code at this point:

signature declaration:

public static string ClientSideValidation(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper,
string formName,
object modelToValidate,
bool prefixWithModelName)


and string builder:

This caters for typical Model Binding scenarios where you include the model name as a prefix with a dot “.” and as a jquery validator plugin requirement, we need double quotes ” ” as seen here: http://docs.jquery.com/Plugins/Validation/Refer...


rules.AppendLine();
messages.AppendLine();

string field = (prefixWithModelName ? """ + modelToValidate.GetType().Name + "." + prop.Name + """ : prop.Name);
rules.AppendFormat("{0}: {1}", field, "{");
messages.AppendFormat("{0}: {1}", field, "{");

rules.AppendLine();
messages.AppendLine();


I also made a change to leave fields as is without ToLower() to comply with my forms and class naming standard.
I suppose to remove complexity entirely, all names could just be wrapped in double quotes though. Shrug.

This is working well for me.

Great work. I have a similiar issue to Jeremy's, but I am also doing what you are doing and abstracting the L2S data layer out and upkeeping my own model's. However I cannot set an attribute on the model to declare the validation rules as my model classes are being generated from CodeSmith…. yikes. What can I do so I can set this rules? Any ideas?

I use POCO classes for models but I write conversion functions that convert
and from my POCO to my LINQ to SQL entities. Some grunt work but works
well.