I haven't found a clean way to achieve this using Data Annotations. One way would be to write a custom model binder but this seems like a lot of work to do for such a simple task.
Another way to achieve this is to add an App_GlobalResources
folder to your ASP.NET application. Add a resource file called Messages.resx
containing a PropertyValueRequired
string resource.
PropertyValueRequired = "Some custom error message"
In your Application_Start
register the resource class key:
protected void Application_Start()
{
RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
DefaultModelBinder.ResourceClassKey = "Messages";
}
Note that ASP.NET MVC 2 uses the PropertyValueInvalid
instead of PropertyValueRequired
resource key.
IMO using Data Annotations to perform validation logic is limited (maybe in .NET 4 this will change). If you want to have full control over the validation logic I would recommend you using a validation library such as Fluent Validation or xVal.