It should be working.
Are you trying to perform client-side validation (i.e. prior to the form being posted)? If so - you will need to make sure to include the necessary client-side validation libraries :
<!-- jQuery and other validation libraries --><script src="~/Scripts/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script><script src="~/Scripts/jquery.validate.min.js"></script><script src="~/Scripts/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.min.js"></script>
I've throw together a very basic example seen below that should work :
ExampleController.cs
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Mvc;
namespace WebApplication1.Controllers
{
public class ExampleController : Controller
{
public ActionResult Create(string command)
{
var list = new SelectList(new[] {
new {ID="1",Name="name1"},
new{ID="2",Name="name2"},
new{ID="3",Name="name3"},
},"ID", "Name", 1);
ViewBag.List = list;
return View();
}
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Created(ExampleModel model)
{
// Check if the model is valid
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
// Rebuild the View data
var list = new SelectList(new[] {
new {ID="1",Name="name1"},
new {ID="2",Name="name2"},
new {ID="3",Name="name3"},
},"ID", "Name", 1);
ViewBag.List = list;
// It in invalid, return the previous view
return View("Create");
}
return View();
}
}
public class ExampleModel
{
[Required]
public string List { get; set; }
}
}along with the following View (with an option added to the DropDown to have no default selection) :
@model WebApplication1.Controllers.ExampleModel<!DOCTYPE html><html><head><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width" /><title>Create</title></head><body><script src="~/Scripts/jquery-1.10.2.min.js"></script><script src="~/Scripts/jquery.validate.min.js"></script><script src="~/Scripts/jquery.validate.unobtrusive.min.js"></script><form action="@Url.Action("Created","Example")" method='post'>
@Html.AntiForgeryToken()<div class="form-horizontal"><h4>ExampleModel</h4><hr />
@Html.ValidationSummary(true, "", new { @class = "text-danger" })<div class="form-group">
@Html.LabelFor(model => model.List, htmlAttributes: new { @class = "control-label col-md-2" })<div class="col-md-10">
@Html.DropDownList("List", (ViewBag.List as SelectList),"--Select--", new { @class = "form-control" })
@Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.List, "", new { @class = "text-danger" })</div></div><div class="form-group"><div class="col-md-offset-2 col-md-10"><input type="submit" value="Create" class="btn btn-default" /></div></div></div></form></body></html>
