Is it possible to use a variable for the `[Display(Name="Something")]` data annotation in MVC3 (C#)
asp.net-mvc-3, c#, data-annotations, resx
Solution
If you have your translated property names in Resource Files, that is supported out of the box... no need to extend the framework.
Just use:
[Display(Name = "Resource_Key", ResourceType = typeof(DataFieldLabels))]
public string myProperty { get; set; }
Where the "Resource_Key" is the key in your resource files... and the "DataFieldLabels" is the name of your base resource file.
EDIT:
In order to access resource files dynamically you can do:
ResourceSet resset = ResourceManager.GetResourceSet(culture, true, false);
var translated = resset.GetString("myToken")
Problem
not sure why, but the data annotation in MVC3 insist on having constant values, which i just can't understand for things like error messages and display names. I love these annotations, they are so easy to use and so powerful, but what if you need to support multiple languages? Imagine i have the following model: ``` public class Person { public string First_Name { get; set; } } ``` If i dont change anything and use the CRUD views that MVC3 will build for me I get a label next to the text fields that says "First_Name", so i add the data annotation to change the display name like so: ``` public class Person { [Display(Name="First name")] public string First_Name { get; set; } } ``` Which works just fine. But i want to supply a different display name depending on the users language, using a function i made previously `GetDisplayName(string ToGet, string Language)` which just returns the string i am interested in, but if i change my data annotation to this: ``` public class Person { [Display(Name=GetDisplayName("First_Name", "English"))] public string First_Name { get; set; } } ``` Then i get a compiler error telling me that the annotation requires a constant values, WHY???? Does anyone know a way to accomplish what i am trying to do? Thanks UPDATE Ok, it appears that the best way to do this is with `.resx` resource files as per several answers below and those in other posts. which works great for the most part. Does anyone know how i can request a resource with a variable name? not in the context of data attributes this time, but just in controllers and views. Basically at the moment i am getting at the resources with `@Resources.SomeKey` but i would like to be able to use that within a function in a `@Resources["SomeOtherKey"]` where `SomeOtherKey` is a dynamically generated string.