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Html5 Object Templates for ASP.NET MVC 3.

This project adds the new html5 input types, such as email, tel, and url, to the MVC EditorTemplates.

For example, assume you have a person class:

public class Person {
    public string Name {get;set;}

    [DataType(DataType.EmailAddress)]
    public string Email {get;set;}

    [DataType(DataType.Url)]
    public string Url {get;set;}
}

By default in ASP.NET MVC, calling Html.EditorFor() on any of these properties will create a simple <input type='text' ... /> tag.

This project creates simple EditorTemplates which allow an Html.EditorFor() call to create the proper Html5 input types, such as Html.EditorFor(p=>p.Email) resulting in <input type='email' ... />.

So the relevant part of calling Html.EditorFor(Model) would give:

<input type="text" id="Name" name="Name" />
<input type="email" id="Email" name="Email" />
<input type="url" id="Url" name="Url" />

The great thing about the new Html5 input types is that old browsers have no problem displaying them (they just default to type='text'). Modern browsers, however, can use them to create a better user experience. This better experience may come from validation or styling (for example, Opera puts a small email icon inside the field), and many mobile devices (like the iPhone) will recognize these new types and display a customized keyboard.

There really isn't any downside to converting your basic <input type='text' .../> tags to new html5 input types for known data types, as the users that have modern browsers will enjoy the benefits without damaging the experience for legacy browsers.

Status:

This project currently adds Mvc Editor Templates for the following new HTML5 input types:

• search
• tel
• url
• email
• datetime
• date
• month
• week
• time
• datetime-local
• number
• range
• color

The only input type not supported is range, and that is because having a range input doesn't make any sense without being able to specify a min/max for that range.

Links:

For a list of html input types, see: http://www.whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage/the-input-element.html#attr-input-type

For a good reference on html5 form changes, see: http://diveintohtml5.org/forms.html