asp.net mvc - MVC4 input field placeholder

Question

Does MVC4 by default support placeholders for generated input fields? I didn't found anything so I am trying to implement my own but unfortunately Prompt = "E-Mail" is not passed to ViewData.ModelMetadata.Watermark while generating control. Why?

Model

public class LogOnModel
{
    [Required]
    [Display(Name = "E-Mail", Prompt = "E-Mail")]
    [DataType(DataType.EmailAddress)]
    public string Email { get; set; }
}

@Html.TextBoxFor(m => m.Email, new { placeholder = ViewData.ModelMetadata.Watermark })

I get html code where placeholder tag do not has any text

<input data-val="true" data-val-regex="Please enter a valid e-mail address" data-val-required="The E-Mail field is required." id="Email" name="Email" placeholder="" type="text" value="" class="valid">

Answer 1

An alternative to using a plugin is using an editor template. What you need to do is to create a template file in SharedEditorTemplates folder and call it String.cshtml. Then put this in that file:

@Html.TextBox("",ViewData.TemplateInfo.FormattedModelValue, 
    new { placeholder = ViewData.ModelMetadata.Watermark })

Then use it in your view like this:

@Html.EditorFor(m=>Model.UnitPercent)

The downside, this works for properties of type string, and you will have to create a template for each type that you want support for a watermark.