Model Binding With Disabled Textbox

I have a textbox that I am defining as

<%= Html.TextBox("Username", Model.Form.Username, 
        new { @class = "textbox", @disabled = "disabled" })%>

The action is defined as

    [AcceptVerbs(HttpVerbs.Post)]
    [ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
    public ActionResult EditLogin(LoginForm post) {

        ...

        return View(model);
    }

When I POST to this, Username will be blank. All other properties bind correctly, but if I change @disabled="disabled" to @readonly="readonly" the username binds properly and everything works.

It looks like model binding ignores values in disabled fields. Is there a way around this? I still need the field's value to bind to the model. I can use readonly but would prefer to use disabled so it is visually apparent to the user that they cannot edit the value of the field.

Solution 1:

I believe a form field that is disabled does not submit anything. If you have a form and disable the foo field in that form, when you post the post will not have the value for the foo field. This is simply the nature of disabling a field in HTML and is not a MVC issue.

Solution 2:

use readonly - will disable input but you'll still have it in the binding. You could apply a style on the div to make it looked greyed out maybe?

<div class="editor-label">
  @Html.LabelFor(model => model.FileName)
</div>
<div class="editor-field-greyed-out">
  @Html.TextBoxFor(model => model.FileName, new { @readonly = true })
  @Html.ValidationMessageFor(model => model.FileName)
</div>

Solution 3:

If you want the value to be sent back, but not be editable, consider placing it in a hidden field. Obviously, don't do this for anything that requires a degree of security, since a user can tamper with it.

Solution 4:

You can do a workaround by adding a hidden field with the same value ;)

<%= Html.Hidden("Username", Model.Form.Username)%>