title: MVC jquery datepicker for create allow nulls
body: <p>I was checking out this link:</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/b/stuartleeks/archive/2011/01/25/asp-net-mvc-3-integrating-with-the-jquery-ui-date-picker-and-adding-a-jquery-validate-date-range-validator.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://blogs.msdn.com/b/stuartleeks/archive/2011/01/25/asp-net-mvc-3-integrating-with-the-jquery-ui-date-picker-and-adding-a-jquery-validate-date-range-validator.aspx</a></p>
  
  <p>which describes creating a jquery datepicker for MVC for date selections in edits.</p>
  
  <p>Sure the tutorial works fine but only works for edits and not creates.</p>
  
  <p>It has a model of:</p>
  
  <pre><code>public class Foo
      {
          public string Name { get; set; }
          [DataType(DataType.Date)]
          public DateTime Date { get; set; }
      }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I modified its edit to create a create like:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@model DatePickerTemp.Models.FooEditModel @{
      ViewBag.Title = "Create";
      Layout = "~/Views/Shared/_Layout.cshtml"; } &lt;h2&gt;
      Create&lt;/h2&gt; 
  @Model.Message
  @using (Html.BeginForm())
  { 
      @Html.EditorFor(m =&gt; m.Foo)
      &lt;input id="submit" name="submit" type="submit" value="Save" /&gt;
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>}</p>
  
  <p>The other code uses some jquery:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$(document).ready(function () {
      $('.date').datepicker({dateFormat: "dd/mm/yy"});
  });
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>for anything with class .date:</p>
  
  <p>There is another piece of code:</p>
  
  <pre><code>@model DateTime
  @Html.TextBox("", Model.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"), new { @class = "date" })
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>which sets the class on the objects of type:</p>
  
  <pre><code>[DataType(DataType.Date)]
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>to create a jquery datepicker.</p>
  
  <p>The problem is this type is a non nullable type so when you run the create you get:</p>
  
  <pre><code>The model item passed into the dictionary is null, but this dictionary requires a non-null model item of type 'System.DateTime'.
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Does anyone know how to modify the code to make the create work?</p>