Getting Started with ASP.NET MVC TextArea Control

9 Dec 20245 minutes to read

This section briefly explains about how to include ASP.NET MVC TextArea control in your ASP.NET MVC application using Visual Studio.

Prerequisites

System requirements for ASP.NET MVC controls

Create ASP.NET MVC application with HTML helper

Install ASP.NET MVC package in the application

To add ASP.NET MVC controls in the application, open the NuGet package manager in Visual Studio (Tools → NuGet Package Manager → Manage NuGet Packages for Solution), search for Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 and then install it.

Install-Package Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 -Version 29.1.33

NOTE

Syncfusion® ASP.NET MVC controls are available in nuget.org. Refer to NuGet packages topic to learn more about installing NuGet packages in various OS environments. The Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 NuGet package has dependencies, Newtonsoft.Json for JSON serialization and Syncfusion.Licensing for validating Syncfusion® license key.

Add namespace

Add Syncfusion.EJ2 namespace reference in Web.config under Views folder.

<namespaces>
    <add namespace="Syncfusion.EJ2"/>
</namespaces>

Add stylesheet and script resources

Here, the theme and script is referred using CDN inside the <head> of ~/Pages/Shared/_Layout.cshtml file as follows,

<head>
    ...
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls styles -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.1.33/fluent.css" />
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls scripts -->
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/29.1.33/dist/ej2.min.js"></script>
</head>

NOTE

Checkout the Themes topic to learn different ways (CDN, NPM package, and CRG) to refer styles in ASP.NET MVC application, and to have the expected appearance for Syncfusion® ASP.NET MVC controls. Checkout the Adding Script Reference topic to learn different approaches for adding script references in your ASP.NET MVC application.

Register Syncfusion® script manager

Also, register the script manager EJS().ScriptManager() at the end of <body> in the ~/Pages/Shared/_Layout.cshtml file as follows.

<body>
...
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC Script Manager -->
    @Html.EJS().ScriptManager()
</body>

Add ASP.NET MVC TextArea control

Now, add the Syncfusion® ASP.NET MVC TextArea control in ~/Views/Home/Index.cshtml page.

<div class="control-section">
    <div class="control_wrapper textarea-control-section">
        @Html.EJS().TextArea("comments").Render()
    </div>
</div>

Press Ctrl+F5 (Windows) or ⌘+F5 (macOS) to run the app. Then, the Syncfusion® ASP.NET MVC TextArea control will be rendered in the default web browser.

ASP.NET MVC TextArea Control

Getting and setting values

To set the initial value of the TextArea control, you can utilize the value property. Here’s how you can achieve it:

<div class="control-section">
    <div class="control_wrapper textarea-control-section">
        @Html.EJS().TextArea("default").Value("Comments").Render()
    </div>
</div>
public ActionResult SetValue1()
{
    return View();
}
  • Alternatively, you can set the value to the textarea element by assigning text to the value property using the textarea instance.
<div class="control-section">
    <div class="control_wrapper textarea-control-section">
        @Html.EJS().TextArea("default").Render()
    </div>
</div>

<script>
    var textareaObj = document.getElementById("default").ej2_instances[0];
    textareaObj.value = "Comments";
</script>
public ActionResult SetValue2()
{
    return View();
}
  • You can dynamically retrieve the value of the TextArea control using the value property from the TextArea control instance.
<div class="control-section">
    <div class="control_wrapper textarea-control-section">
        @Html.EJS().TextArea("comments").Value("Comments").Render()
        <button id="valuebtn">Get Value</button>
    </div>
</div>

<script>
    var textareaObj = document.getElementById("comments").ej2_instances[0];
    document.getElementById('valuebtn').onclick = () => {
        // get the TextArea value
        let textareaValue = textareaObj.value;
    }
</script>
public ActionResult GetValue1()
{
    return View();
}
  • You can retrieve the value of the TextArea by accessing it as an argument from the change event.
<div class="control-section">
    <div class="control_wrapper textarea-control-section">
        @Html.EJS().TextArea("comments").Value("Comments").Change("ChangeHandler").Render()
    </div>
</div>

<script>
    function ChangeHandler(args) {
        // get textarea value from the arguments
        let textareaValue = args.value;
    }
</script>
public ActionResult GetValue2()
{
    return View();
}