Getting Started with ASP.NET MVC TextBox Control

8 Nov 20237 minutes to read

This section briefly explains about how to include ASP.NET MVC TextBox 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.

Package Manager
Install-Package Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC5 -Version 25.1.35

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.

NOTE

If you create ASP.NET MVC application with MVC4 package, search for Syncfusion.EJ2.MVC4 and then install it.

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,

~/_Layout.cshtml
<head>
    ...
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls styles -->
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/25.1.35/fluent.css" />
    <!-- Syncfusion ASP.NET MVC controls scripts -->
    <script src="https://cdn.syncfusion.com/ej2/25.1.35/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.

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

Add ASP.NET MVC TextBox control

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

CSHTML
<div class="control-section">
    <div class="control_wrapper textbox-control-section">
        @Html.EJS().TextBox("firstname").Placeholder("First Name").Render()
    </div>
</div>

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

ASP.NET MVC TextBox Control

Adding icons to the TextBox

You can create a TextBox with icon as a group by creating the parent div element with the class e-input-group and add the icon element as span with the class e-input-group-icon. For detailed information, refer to the Groups section.

CSHTML
<div class="control-section">
    <div class="control_wrapper textbox-control-section">
        <div class="e-input-group">
            <input class="e-input" name='input' type="text" placeholder="Enter Date" />
            <span class="e-input-group-icon e-input-popup-date"></span>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>
<script>
    ej.base.enableRipple(true);
    var inputObject = {};
    var input = document.querySelectorAll('.e-input-group .e-input,.e-float-input.e-input-group input');
    var inputIcon = document.querySelectorAll('.e-input-group-icon');
    var focusFn = function (index) {
        return function () {
            getParentNode(input[index]).classList.add('e-input-focus');
        };
    };
    var blurFn = function (index) {
        return function () { getParentNode(input[index]).classList.remove('e-input-focus'); };
    };
    var mouseupFn = function () {
        var ele = this; setTimeout(function () {
            ele.classList.remove('e-input-btn-ripple');
        }, 500);
    };
    for (var i = 0; i < input.length; i++) {
        input[i].addEventListener('focus', focusFn(i));
        input[i].addEventListener('blur', blurFn(i));
    }
    for (var j = 0; j < inputIcon.length; j++) {
        inputIcon[j].addEventListener('mousedown', function () {
            this.classList.add('e-input-btn-ripple');
        });
        inputIcon[j].addEventListener('mouseup', mouseupFn);
    }
    function getParentNode(element) {
        var parentNode = element.parentNode;
        if (parentNode.classList.contains('e-input-in-wrap')) {
            return parentNode.parentNode;
        }
        return parentNode;
    }
</script>
<style>
    .e-input-group-icon:before {
        font-family: e-icons;
    }

    .e-input-group .e-input-group-icon.e-input-popup-date { /* csslint allow: adjoining-classes */
        font-size: 16px;
    }

    .e-input-group-icon.e-input-popup-date:before { /* csslint allow: adjoining-classes */
        content: "";
    }

    .e-input-group-icon.e-input-up:before { /* csslint allow: adjoining-classes */
        content: '\e85e';
    }

</style>

Floating label

The floating label TextBox floats the label above the TextBox after focusing, or filled with value in the TextBox. You can create the floating label TextBox by using the FloatLabelType property.

CSHTML
<div class="control-section">
    <div class="control_wrapper textbox-control-section">
        @Html.EJS().TextBox("firstname").Placeholder("First Name").FloatLabelType(Syncfusion.EJ2.Inputs.FloatLabelType.Auto).Render()
    </div>
</div>

ASP.NET MVC TextBox with Floating Label

NOTE

View Sample in GitHub.