I've been having the same issue with short date format binding to DateTime model properties. After looking at many different examples (not only concerning DateTime) I put together the follwing:
using System;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace YourNamespaceHere
{
public class CustomDateBinder : IModelBinder
{
public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
{
if (controllerContext == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("controllerContext", "controllerContext is null.");
if (bindingContext == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("bindingContext", "bindingContext is null.");
var value = bindingContext.ValueProvider.GetValue(bindingContext.ModelName);
if (value == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException(bindingContext.ModelName);
CultureInfo cultureInf = (CultureInfo)CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.Clone();
cultureInf.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern = "dd/MM/yyyy";
bindingContext.ModelState.SetModelValue(bindingContext.ModelName, value);
try
{
var date = value.ConvertTo(typeof(DateTime), cultureInf);
return date;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
bindingContext.ModelState.AddModelError(bindingContext.ModelName, ex);
return null;
}
}
}
public class NullableCustomDateBinder : IModelBinder
{
public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
{
if (controllerContext == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("controllerContext", "controllerContext is null.");
if (bindingContext == null)
throw new ArgumentNullException("bindingContext", "bindingContext is null.");
var value = bindingContext.ValueProvider.GetValue(bindingContext.ModelName);
if (value == null) return null;
CultureInfo cultureInf = (CultureInfo)CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.Clone();
cultureInf.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern = "dd/MM/yyyy";
bindingContext.ModelState.SetModelValue(bindingContext.ModelName, value);
try
{
var date = value.ConvertTo(typeof(DateTime), cultureInf);
return date;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
bindingContext.ModelState.AddModelError(bindingContext.ModelName, ex);
return null;
}
}
}
}
To keep with the way that routes etc are regiseterd in the Global ASAX file I also added a new sytatic class to the App_Start folder of my MVC4 project named CustomModelBinderConfig:
using System;
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace YourNamespaceHere
{
public static class CustomModelBindersConfig
{
public static void RegisterCustomModelBinders()
{
ModelBinders.Binders.Add(typeof(DateTime), new CustomModelBinders.CustomDateBinder());
ModelBinders.Binders.Add(typeof(DateTime?), new CustomModelBinders.NullableCustomDateBinder());
}
}
}
I then just call the static RegisterCustomModelBinders from my Global ASASX Application_Start like this:
protected void Application_Start()
{
/* bla blah bla the usual stuff and then */
CustomModelBindersConfig.RegisterCustomModelBinders();
}
An important note here is that if you write a DateTime value to a hiddenfield like this:
@Html.HiddenFor(model => model.SomeDate) // a DateTime property
@Html.Hiddenfor(model => model) // a model that is of type DateTime
I did that and the actual value on the page was in the format "MM/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt" instead of "dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt" like I wanted. This caused my model validation to either fail or return the wrong date (obviously swapping the day and month values around).
After a lot of head scratching and failed attempts the solution was to set the culture info for every request by doing this in the Global.ASAX:
protected void Application_BeginRequest()
{
CultureInfo cInf = new CultureInfo("en-ZA", false);
// NOTE: change the culture name en-ZA to whatever culture suits your needs
cInf.DateTimeFormat.DateSeparator = "/";
cInf.DateTimeFormat.ShortDatePattern = "dd/MM/yyyy";
cInf.DateTimeFormat.LongDatePattern = "dd/MM/yyyy hh:mm:ss tt";
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = cInf;
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = cInf;
}
It won't work if you stick it in Application_Start or even Session_Start since that assigns it to the current thread for the session. As you well know, web applications are stateless so the thread that serviced your request previously is ot the same thread serviceing your current request hence your culture info has gone to the great GC in the digital sky.
Thanks go to:
Ivan Zlatev - http://ivanz.com/2010/11/03/custom-model-binding-using-imodelbinder-in-asp-net-mvc-two-gotchas/
garik - https://mcmap.net/q/168301/-setting-a-date-format-in-asp-net-web-config-globalization-tag
Dmitry - https://mcmap.net/q/166239/-mvc-datetime-binding-with-incorrect-date-format
