What is the proper method for coding, then retrieving business rules static error (NOT exception messages) messages in an ASP.NET web application?

Question

I've skinned this cat a few different ways over the last 6 years.. hardcoded strings, static classes with consts, and resource files. What approach do you use, and why? Bonus points for integrating with client-side error messages!

Answer 1

i use a business-object layer that includes a validation method

public bool ValidateData(IList<string> errs)

the error messages are added to the collection as strings formatted from program constant templates (globalization is not a concern obviously), e.g. "{0} cannot be empty, please enter a value for the {0}" where {0} is the field name

the same business layer works for web and desktop apps

EDIT: the error message collection is passed back to the winform in an error-message lable, or to the webform in an error-message label. (no javascript is required)

i have also used a variant of this that takes an IDictionary where the first string is the field name and the second string is the error message, and a helper function finds the form element bound to the named field for highlighting

in general, i use approximately the same pattern in most application systems, depending on the customer needs