How to get a property from a Model when writing a display template

Question

I have a model...

public class PatientACOModel
{
    public int EncounterId { get; set; }
    public int PatientId { get; set; }
    public int EMPIID { get; set; }
    public int PopulationPatientID { get; set; }
    public string EditAddOrEditCurrent { get; set; }
    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public DateTime? DateOfBirth { get; set; }
    //[UIHint("_PhoneNumFormatter")]
    public string Phone { get; set; }
 }

I want to specifically format my phone numbers. I just want to put a UIHint over my phone number and possibly other phone numbers. I don't want all strings to be formatted.

I am trying things like this...

@Model String
@if (Model != null) {
    String.Format("{0: (###) ###-####}", double.Parse(Model.ModelMetadata.Get));
}

That would be the display template referenced in my UIHint that is commented out. When I do that, none of my strings show up. What am I doing wrong?

In my display template how do I get the string to parse and then Format?

MonkeyCoder · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-13T20:15:22.250

1

First I would check if the _PhoneNumFormatter is defined in one of the following locations:

~/Views/Shared/DisplayTemplates/_PhoneNumFormatter.cshtml
~/Views/<Controller>/DisplayTemplates/_PhoneNumFormatter.cshtml

Next I think you wanted to format the string value directly from the Model property:

@model String

@if (!String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(Model)) 
{
    @String.Format("{0: (###) ###-####}", Convert.ToInt64(Model))
}

This should work fine with the UIHint attribute, I've just checked in a sample application.

Code assumes that numbers in your region don't start with a leading 0 and that the Model property will contain strings containing only numeric characters, if not you should improve the Convert.ToInt64 part.

Hope it helps.

edited Feb 13 '13 at 20:15

answered Feb 13 '13 at 19:51

MonkeyCoder

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This is what I am getting when I try that. '4124880798 String' – SoftwareSavant Feb 13 '13 at 19:55
IE it is not formatted and I just have String at the end of the phone number... I have this in display templates by the way – SoftwareSavant Feb 13 '13 at 19:56
It seems like it still does not hit the _PhoneNumFormatter template. Could you try and add a `phone:` just before the `@String.Format` part to see if it actually tries to format the Model? – MonkeyCoder Feb 13 '13 at 20:06
Forgot my @ in front of my @String.Format – SoftwareSavant Feb 13 '13 at 20:12
dumb question... Sometimes I get () - and other times a get empty strings... Any idea why that happens? Maybe I should check for String.Empy – SoftwareSavant Feb 13 '13 at 20:13
I've updated the answer for completeness, the code will also fail for strings containing non-numeric characters. You could check that as well. – MonkeyCoder Feb 13 '13 at 20:18

How to get a property from a Model when writing a display template

1 Answers1