Make all form fields readonly in MVC

Question

I am displaying 3 or more versions of a form. One version is an edit form to edit all fields. A second version will be a read only version of the same form which will be used to show all the same fields but with all fields having readonly="true" on the client side so that the user cannot enter data. The readonly fields need to use a different css style. This is to display archived data. I am already hiding the submit button so they can't submit but I want the form to look like it is readonly. A third version will have some fields readonly and some editable for a particular class of users that has limited editing privileges. I am using ASP.NET MVC 1.0. How do I modify all (or a subset) of the fields displayed so they are readonly. I would like to iterate through the collection of fields in the controller and set them all to readonly and also set the correct css class. I don't want to have to put an if statement on every field in the .aspx file (there are 40-50 fields) and I'd prefer no…

Accepted Answer

Keep in mind that even if you set the tags as readonly on the server side, users can still change them through a variety of means, and whatever the value on the form is before it gets sent back to you.

Certainly the easiest way is client-side with jQuery:

```
$(function() {
  $('input, select, textarea').attr('disabled', 'disabled');
});
```

Or, you could do it in your View, but it's ugly. Off the top of my head, you would need some sort of `bool` passed into the View (via `ViewData` I suppose), and check that on each Input to see if you should add the `disabled` attribute. Not my idea of fun...

Make all form fields readonly in MVC

Solution

Problem