MVC View Textbox string input to TimeSpan to Time in Seconds Integer

Question

I have got a LINQ to SQL entity class with an nullable int property called sTime which I am using to record number of seconds scheduled in for a task. e.g. database field 120000

I tried adding a property to the Task class but how do I initially set this property when I am using a LINQ to SQL entity.

public TimeSpan ScheduledTimeSpan {get; private set;}

int seconds = sTime ?? 0;
TimeSpan ts = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, seconds, 0);
ScheduledTimeSpan = ts;

I would do this in my View

<td><%= Html.Encode(task.ScheduledTimeSpan.TotalSeconds.ToString("hh:mm:ss")) %></td>

With MVC I am unsure on how and where to set and get sTime correctly when I am using UpdateModel(task); in my task controller. I was thinking I need to create a TimeSpan inside the controller action when doing the Get but that does not seem right to me, also where I should be setting this property? Anyone who can help?

Answer 1

This is the input textbox on my view

            <p>
            <label for="sTime">sTime:</label>
            <%= Html.TextBox("sTime", Model.Task.sTime)%>
            <%= Html.ValidationMessage("sTime", "*") %>
        </p>

This is the code in my .dbml designer.cs behind.

     [Column(Storage="_sTime", DbType="Int")]
 public System.Nullable<int> sTime
 {
  get
  {
   return this._sTime;
  }
  set
  {
   if ((this._sTime != value))
   {
    this.OnsTimeChanging(value);
    this.SendPropertyChanging();
    this._sTime = value;
    this.SendPropertyChanged("sTime");
    this.OnsTimeChanged();
   }
  }
 }

Here is the code from my task controller for the edit action.

//
// GET: /Tasks/Edit/5

public ActionResult Edit(int id)
{
    Task task = taskRepo.GetTask(id);

    return View(new TaskViewModel(task));
}

//
// POST: /Tasks/Edit/5

[AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
public ActionResult Edit(int id, FormCollection collection)
{
    Task task = taskRepo.GetTask(id);

    try
    {
        UpdateModel(task);

        taskRepo.Save();

        return RedirectToAction("Details", new { id = task.taskId });
    }
    catch
    {

 ModelState.AddRuleViolations(task.GetRuleViolations());
        return View(new TaskViewModel(task));
    }
}

sTime is an Integer (time in seconds) and it needs to be that when it goes into the database field.. but the interface for this value needs to be a string of HH:MM:SS.

Which is why I am trying to use a TimeSpan, however I dont know where or how to set this up.

Does that make it clearer at all?

Answer 2

Yep, that makes sense now. :-)

This is how I would approach it...

Partial class for your TaskClass

public partial class Task
{
    public TimeSpan ScheduledTimeSpan
    {
        get
        {
            int seconds = sTime ?? 0;
            return new TimeSpan(0, 0, seconds);
        }

        set
        {
            if (value != null)
                sTime = (int)value.TotalSeconds;
        }
    }
}

Then change your view to have

<p>
    <label for="ScheduledTimeSpan">Scheduled Time:</label>
    <%= Html.TextBox("ScheduledTimeSpan", Model.Task.ScheduledTimeSpan.ToString("hh:mm:ss"))%>
    <%= Html.ValidationMessage("ScheduledTimeSpan", "*") %>
</p>

That should work all fine and dandy assuming that the model binder has no problem binding a "hh:mm:ss" string to a timespan.

If it does have problems, let me know.

HTHs, Charles