How to validate DropDownListFor for values bound with list

Question

I want to validate values in DropDownListFor but its not working. I have included required script files for client side validation too.

In ViewModel:

public class SearchViewModel
{
    public List<MarriageProfile> Profiles { get; set; }
    public SearchProfile SearchProfile { get; set; }
}

public class SearchProfile
{
    [Required(ErrorMessage="*")]
    public SelectList Ages { get; set; }
    public string Age { get; set; }
}

In Controller:

var ages = AgeList
           .Select(p => new SelectListItem()
           {
               Text = p.ToString(),
               Value = p.ToString()
           }).ToList();

SearchViewModel.SearchProfile.Ages = new SelectList(ages, "Text", "Value");

static List<string> AgeList = new List<string>()
{        
    "18-23",
    "23-28",
    "28-33",
    "33-38",
    "38-43",
    "43-48"
};

In View:

@Html.DropDownListFor(model => model.Age, Model.Ages, "--Select One--", new { @class = "form-control" })
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(m => m.Age)

On submitting the form, no client or server side validation is working for the dropdownlist above. What could be wrong with the code?

Answer 1

It appears you need to tag the Age property with the Required attribute and not the Ages list. Check out this answer: ASP.NET MVC 3 and validation attribute for dropdownlist with default value of 0