Disable data annotation for specific DTO

Question

I would like to disable data annotation validation for some case. You assume that we have two DTO and two endpoint

public class CreateBulkProductDto 
{
        [Required]
        public List<CreateProductDto> Products { get; set; }
 }

public class CreateProductDto {
    [Required]
    [StringLength(100)]
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [Required]
    public List<CreateProductCategoryDto> Categories { get; set; }
    [Required]
    public List<string> Barcodes { get; set; }

}

Endpoints;

public virtual async Task<List<CreateOrUpdateBulkProductResultDto>> CreateBulkAsync(CreateBulkProductDto input){.....}
public virtual async Task<string> CreateAsync(CreateProductDto input){....} 

When the request comes to CreateBulkAsync, I want to disable validations, but when the request comes to CreateAsync, I want validations to work. How can I solve this problem

Answer 1

I have written an extension method for this. It currently only works on a single key value. But I imagine you are able to extend on this yourself.

This code will only work if you explicitly check the ModelState.IsValid.

If (!ModelState.IsValid) { return; }

Make sure you do not over use this, since skipping your validation isn't recommended by any means.

public static bool MarkFieldsValid(this ModelStateDictionary modelState, string key)
{
    if (string.IsNullOrWhitespace(key)) { return false; }
    
    var modelStates = modelState.FindKeysWithPrefix(key);

    foreach (var state in modelStates)
    {
        modelState.ClearValidationState(state.Key);
        modelState.MarkFieldValid(state.Key);
    }

    return true;
}

Then you could implement it like this:

ModelState.MarkFieldsValid("key");

If (!ModelState.IsValid) { return; }