How do I reference/access a Strongly Typed Html Helper in jquery?

Question

I've mostly worked in MVC1. I'm now working with some MVC2 code. I have fields with Strongly Typed Html Helpers like:

        <div class="editor-field">
            <%: Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.Contract.client_name)%>
            <%: Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.Contract.client_name) %>
        </div>

How do I access this field in jquery? I previously would have:

$('#client_name').val();

or in jquery .validate:

$('form').validate({
            rules: {
                client_name: "required"
            },
            messages: {
                client_name: "Client Name is required"
            }
});

Answer 1

You have a couple of options here:

Use a class selector.

For the .validate you could try this:

$('form').validate({
    rules: {
        'Contract.client_name': "required"
    },
    messages: {
        'Contract.client_name': "Client Name is required"
    }
});

or simply override the id:

<%: Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.Contract.client_name, new { id = "client_name" })%>

Answer 2

Darin's answer works, but there is better way to do it. in MVC Futures assembly there's HtmlHelper extension method for just that.

$('#<%: Html.IdFor(m => m.Contract.client_name) %>').val();

Update for validate:

$('form').validate({
    rules: {
        '<%:Html.IdFor(m => m.Contract.client_name) %>': { required : true }
    },
    messages: {
        '<%:Html.IdFor(m => m.Contract.client_name) %>': { required: "Client Name is required" }
    }
});

I never used this, and I'm not sure whether it wants id or name of the element. If it's name, use Html.NameFor() instead.