The ASP.NET Capsule #12: ASP.NET Web Server Controls

When you create ASP.NET Web pages, you can use these types of controls:

• HTML server controls: HTML elements exposed to the server so you can program them. HTML server controls expose an object model that maps very closely to the HTML elements that they render.

• Web server controls: Controls with more built-in features than HTML server controls. Web server controls include not only form controls such as buttons and text boxes, but also special-purpose controls such as a calendar, menus, and a tree view control. Web server controls are more abstract than HTML server controls in that their object model does not necessarily reflect HTML syntax.

• Validation controls: Controls that incorporate logic to enable you to what users enter for input controls such as the TextBox control. Validation controls enable you to check for a required field, to test against a specific value or pattern of characters, to verify that a value lies within a range, and so on. For more information, see Validation ASP.NET Controls.

• User controls: Controls that you create as ASP.NET Web pages. You can embed ASP.NET user controls in other ASP.NET Web pages, which is an easy way to create toolbars and other reusable elements. For more information, see ASP.NET User Controls.

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