What is the relationship between the various validation attributes & components?

[DavidThielen]

Hi all;

So we have as various validating components:

• DataAnnotationsValidator
• ObjectGraphDataAnnotationsValidator (maybe abandoned?)
• CustomValidation
• And maybe others???

The above all work as:

<EditForm EditContext="_editContext" OnValidSubmit="HandleValidSubmitAsync" OnInvalidSubmit="HandleInvalidSubmitAsync" Context="EditFormContext">
    <ObjectGraphDataAnnotationsValidator />
 ...
    <ValidationSummary />
</EditForm>

And in the code behind:

public Profile()
{
    ProfilePageModel = new ProfilePageModel();
    _editContext = new EditContext(ProfilePageModel);
}

And then in ProfilePageModel there is ValidateComplexType.

public class ProfilePageModel : IIncludesAddressModel
{
    [ValidateComplexType]
    public AddressFormPageModel AddressModel { get; set; }
    [Required]
    public string? TimeZone { get; set; }
    [Range(0, 100000, ErrorMessage = "The maximum travel distance must be greater than or equal to 0.")]
    public int MaxTravelDistance { get; set; }
}

How do these all work together? And where is it documented? I can't find anything on ObjectGraphDataAnnotationsValidator or ValidateComplexType and there's minimal on the rest. Basically all of us are using random combinations of all this, posting what sort-of works, and then others then follow that hoping it will wotk for them now, and in future Blazor releases.

The biggest questions are:

1. How do we correctly get validation on complex properties?
2. How can we turn validation on/off on properties? (In my case, I have a bool HasAddress on one page and if that is false, then no Address validation.

thanks - dave