SUMMARY

ASP.NET brings control-based programming to Web application development with Web forms. Borrowing from the familiar desktop application control model, ASP.NET defines a number of control classes to represent elements on a Web form. These controls render themselves as HTML as part of a response to an HTTP request. Any modification made to the state of these controls on the server is reflected in the subsequent rendering to the client, letting the developer focus more on structuring the application and less on the details of rendering to a browser. To make this control-based programming model work for all elements on a page, ASP.NET introduces ViewState as a means of transferring the state of controls that are not propagated as part of a standard POST request. Server-side events complete the control model.

Two sets of server-side control classes are available: HtmlControls and WebControls . The HtmlControl classes closely mirror their HTML tag counterparts and are convenient to use when converting an existing HTML page to ASP.NET. The WebControls provide a more uniform programmatic interface and will be used by most developers building ASP.NET pages from scratch.