Adding html class tag under <option> in Html.DropDownList

Question

I've been looking for answers on how to add an HTML class tag on my html.dropdownlist. here is the code

<%: Html.DropDownList("PackageId", new SelectList(ViewData["Packages"] as IEnumerable, "PackageId", "Name", Model.PackageId))%>

I want to add classes for options under the select element so that I can use this chained select :

<select id="category">
  <option value="1">One</option>
  <option value="2">Two</option>
</select>
<select id="package">
  <option value="1" class="1">One - package1</option>
  <option value="2" class="1">One - package2</option>
  <option value="3" class="2">Two - package1</option>
  <option value="4" class="2">Two - package2</option>
</select>

$("#series").chained("#mark");

Answer 1

I've done this for the DropDownlistFor extension method, not the DropDownList you use, but you can probably figure that out yourself. This stuff is mostly copy/paste from the MVC sources. You can find the sources here.

public class ExtendedSelectListItem : SelectListItem
{
    public object htmlAttributes { get; set; }
}

public static partial class HtmlHelperExtensions
{
    public static MvcHtmlString ExtendedDropDownListFor<TModel, TProperty>(this HtmlHelper<TModel> htmlHelper, Expression<Func<TModel, TProperty>> expression, IEnumerable<ExtendedSelectListItem> selectList, string optionLabel, object htmlAttributes)
    {
        return SelectInternal(htmlHelper, optionLabel, ExpressionHelper.GetExpressionText(expression), selectList, false /* allowMultiple */, HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(htmlAttributes));
    }

    private static MvcHtmlString SelectInternal(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string optionLabel, string name, IEnumerable<ExtendedSelectListItem> selectList, bool allowMultiple, IDictionary<string, object> htmlAttributes)
    {
        string fullName = htmlHelper.ViewContext.ViewData.TemplateInfo.GetFullHtmlFieldName(name);
        if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(fullName))
            throw new ArgumentException("No name");

        if (selectList == null)
            throw new ArgumentException("No selectlist");

        object defaultValue = (allowMultiple) ? GetModelStateValue(htmlHelper, fullName, typeof(string[])) : GetModelStateValue(htmlHelper, fullName, typeof(string));

        // If we haven't already used ViewData to get the entire list of items then we need to
        // use the ViewData-supplied value before using the parameter-supplied value.
        if (defaultValue == null)
            defaultValue = htmlHelper.ViewData.Eval(fullName);

        if (defaultValue != null)
        {
            IEnumerable defaultValues = (allowMultiple) ? defaultValue as IEnumerable : new[] { defaultValue };
            IEnumerable<string> values = from object value in defaultValues select Convert.ToString(value, CultureInfo.CurrentCulture);
            HashSet<string> selectedValues = new HashSet<string>(values, StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase);
            List<ExtendedSelectListItem> newSelectList = new List<ExtendedSelectListItem>();

            foreach (ExtendedSelectListItem item in selectList)
            {
                item.Selected = (item.Value != null) ? selectedValues.Contains(item.Value) : selectedValues.Contains(item.Text);
                newSelectList.Add(item);
            }
            selectList = newSelectList;
        }

        // Convert each ListItem to an <option> tag
        StringBuilder listItemBuilder = new StringBuilder();

        // Make optionLabel the first item that gets rendered.
        if (optionLabel != null)
            listItemBuilder.Append(ListItemToOption(new ExtendedSelectListItem() { Text = optionLabel, Value = String.Empty, Selected = false }));

        foreach (ExtendedSelectListItem item in selectList)
        {
            listItemBuilder.Append(ListItemToOption(item));
        }

        TagBuilder tagBuilder = new TagBuilder("select")
        {
            InnerHtml = listItemBuilder.ToString()
        };
        tagBuilder.MergeAttributes(htmlAttributes);
        tagBuilder.MergeAttribute("name", fullName, true /* replaceExisting */);
        tagBuilder.GenerateId(fullName);
        if (allowMultiple)
            tagBuilder.MergeAttribute("multiple", "multiple");

        // If there are any errors for a named field, we add the css attribute.
        ModelState modelState;
        if (htmlHelper.ViewData.ModelState.TryGetValue(fullName, out modelState))
        {
            if (modelState.Errors.Count > 0)
            {
                tagBuilder.AddCssClass(HtmlHelper.ValidationInputCssClassName);
            }
        }

        tagBuilder.MergeAttributes(htmlHelper.GetUnobtrusiveValidationAttributes(name));

        return MvcHtmlString.Create(tagBuilder.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal));
    }

    internal static string ListItemToOption(ExtendedSelectListItem item)
    {
        TagBuilder builder = new TagBuilder("option")
        {
            InnerHtml = HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(item.Text)
        };
        if (item.Value != null)
        {
            builder.Attributes["value"] = item.Value;
        }
        if (item.Selected)
        {
            builder.Attributes["selected"] = "selected";
        }
        builder.MergeAttributes(HtmlHelper.AnonymousObjectToHtmlAttributes(item.htmlAttributes));
        return builder.ToString(TagRenderMode.Normal);
    }
}