Summary

In this chapter, we have explored the concept of server controls in general, and concentrated on the set of HTML server controls and the validation controls that are provided with ASP.NET. Server controls are at the heart of ASP.NET development techniques, providing us with a programming model that is event-driven, and which is much closer to the way that we build traditional executable applications using environments like Visual Basic, C++, and other languages.

In conjunction with other features in ASP.NET and the .NET Framework as a whole (such as the postback architecture and the comprehensive class library), building powerful, intuitive, and attractive Web-based applications just got a lot easier.

In fact, we can summarize the advantages of using server controls. They automatically provide:

• HTML output that creates the elements to implement the control in the browser.

• An object within the page that we can program against on the server.

• Automatic maintenance of the control's value (or state).

• Simple access to the control values without having to dig into the Request object.

• The ability to react to events, and so create better structured pages.

• A common approach to building user interfaces as web pages.

• The ability to more easily address different types of client device.

In the next chapter, we look at another set of server controls that are provided with ASP.NET. These are the useful and powerful Web Form controls.