The valid way is:
disabled="disabled"
Browsers also might accept disabled=""
but I would recommend you the first approach.
Now this being said I would recommend you writing a custom HTML helper in order to encapsulate this disabling functionality into a reusable piece of code:
using System;
using System.Linq.Expressions;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using System.Web.Mvc.Html;
using System.Web.Routing;
public static class HtmlExtensions
{
public static IHtmlString MyTextBoxFor<TModel, TProperty>(
this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression,
object htmlAttributes,
bool disabled
)
{
var attributes = new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes);
if (disabled)
{
attributes["disabled"] = "disabled";
}
return htmlHelper.TextBoxFor(expression, attributes);
}
}
which you could use like this:
@Html.MyTextBoxFor(
model => model.ExpireDate,
new {
style = "width: 70px;",
maxlength = "10",
id = "expire-date"
},
Model.ExpireDate == null
)
and you could bring even more intelligence into this helper:
public static class HtmlExtensions
{
public static IHtmlString MyTextBoxFor<TModel, TProperty>(
this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper,
Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression,
object htmlAttributes
)
{
var attributes = new RouteValueDictionary(htmlAttributes);
var metaData = ModelMetadata.FromLambdaExpression(expression, htmlHelper.ViewData);
if (metaData.Model == null)
{
attributes["disabled"] = "disabled";
}
return htmlHelper.TextBoxFor(expression, attributes);
}
}
so that now you no longer need to specify the disabled condition:
@Html.MyTextBoxFor(
model => model.ExpireDate,
new {
style = "width: 70px;",
maxlength = "10",
id = "expire-date"
}
)