Web Forms is one of the key new technologies in the .NET Framework. It defines a scalable server-side programming model that is used to dynamically generate and process Web pages.
Web Forms enable developers to easily create cross-platform, cross-browser programmable Web applications, using the same techniques employed to build “forms-based” desktop applications.
The Web Forms Page Framework has been specifically designed to address a number of key deficiencies in previous Web development models. In particular:
- All Web Forms page elements, including those that do not require user input ( such as controls used for rendering and document layout ), expose an object model that is fully programmable.
- Every property, method and event of every object is readily accessible, greatly simplifying manipulation of member elements within a Web document.
- Aside from the standard HTML input controls, Web Forms can utilize programmable ASP.NET server controls to provide the interface for collecting, processing, and displaying user input.
- Because these controls already encapsulate logic for most of the commonly needed functionalities, the task of processing information in a Web Form is greatly simplified.
- Web Forms are compiled into executable code, providing fast runtime performance. The compiled Web Forms page instance executes on the server, where it generates HTML-compliant documents that can be viewed on any platform, using any browser.
- This also simplifies the development process appreciably, as coding errors are detected at compile-time.
NOTE: To avail of the server-side functionalities in the Web Forms Page Framework, all ASP.NET server controls, including the containing <form>...</form> control, must include the attribute runat="server".