Understanding ASP.NET Web Server Controls

ASP.NET Web Server Controls are controls that run at the web server. All ASP.NET Web Server Controls can be identified by their attribute ‘runat=”server”’. ASP.NET Web Server Controls are similar to HTML controls. The only difference is that HTML controls run at the client-side and the developers have to write the code for each type of browsers. The ASP.NET Web Server Controls run at the server-side and automatically adapt to the type of browser that request it.

ASP.NET Web Server Controls also encapsulates and generates large amount of HTML tags, thereby allowing the developers time to concentrate on coding. ASP.NET Web Server Controls makes exhaustive use of ViewState management. This makes data and values to be consistent across ASP.NET pages.

All web controls are obtained from a common base class. This ensures that the object model remains consistent across various controls. For example, in order to move the cursor consistently across a form you can specify the Web control TabIndex property. This is very difficult while using normal HTML. You can also disable a particular web control by exposing the Enabled property. This process is also difficult in HTML and ASP.

ASP.NET ASP.NET Web Server Controls consists of Web form controls, List controls, and Rich controls. All the web form controls are defined within the namespace System.Web.UI.WebControls. This namespace is a collection of classes that enables you to create new ASP.NET Web Server Controls. The controls that you can use web form controls category are button control, checkbox control, radiobutton control, table control, image control, label control, and panel control. These web form controls have a common set of properties that can be used across multiple controls.

The controls listed in the List controls category are dropdown list control, repeater control, datalist control, and datagrid control. These controls use the concept of data binding. The controls listed in the Rich controls category include calendar control and adrotator control. These controls are specifically being employed for complex tasks.