MVC model validation for date

Solution 1:

There is no need to disable jQuery date validation (and that is likely to cause other issues). You just need to override the range method of the $.validator.

By default, it works with numeric values (and then falls back to a string comparison), so you can add the following script (after jquery.validate.js and jquery.validate.unobtrusive.js, but not wrapped in $(document).ready

$.validator.methods.range = function(value, element, param) {
    if ($(element).attr('data-val-date')) {
        var min = $(element).attr('data-val-range-min');
        var max = $(element).attr('data-val-range-max');
        var date = new Date(value).getTime();
        var minDate = new Date(min).getTime();
        var maxDate = new Date(max).getTime();
        return this.optional(element) || (date >= minDate && date <= maxDate);
    }
    // use the default method
    return this.optional( element ) || ( value >= param[ 0 ] && value <= param[ 1 ] );
};

Then you can use the RangeAttribute on your property

[Range(typeof(DateTime), "1/1/1966", "1/1/2020")]
public DateTime Date { get; set; }

Solution 2:

I'd do this with the IValidatableObject interface from System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations, which allows you to add extra validation rules where you can do a lot more checking. Add the interface to your class, and then implement the Validate method, where you can compare the StartDateTime against the current date/time, and also compare the EndDateTime with the StartDateTime, e.g.

public class MyClass : IValidatableObject
{               
    [Required(ErrorMessage="Start date and time cannot be empty")]
    //validate:Must be greater than current date
    [DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
    public DateTime StartDateTime { get; set; }

    [Required(ErrorMessage="End date and time cannot be empty")]
    //validate:must be greater than StartDate
    [DataType(DataType.DateTime)]
    public DateTime EndDateTime { get; set; }       

    public IEnumerable<ValidationResult> Validate(ValidationContext validationContext)
    {
        List<ValidationResult> results = new List<ValidationResult>();

        if (StartDateTime < DateTime.Now)
        {
            results.Add(new ValidationResult("Start date and time must be greater than current time", new []{"StartDateTime"}));
        }

        if (EndDateTime <= StartDateTime)
        {
            results.Add(new ValidationResult("EndDateTime must be greater that StartDateTime", new [] {"EndDateTime"}));
        }

        return results;
    }     
}

The only potential drawback to this is that Validate runs server-side, not in jQuery validation.