Runat="server" Meaning

Hi,

First client side and server side.

Back in time when world wide web and internet started we had web programming with HTML.

Even today what ever is rendered in browser is all HTML.

So HTML don't have state, and these web sites were static website as no state.

So .NET came into picture (also classic ASP, PHP, Java).

That made web sites dynamic, interactive with users, these could maintain state of a users.

Example sessions (Each user have diferent sesion so we have dynamic interactive websites for different users).

Your browser is client side (Anything that runs on client machine is client side) -

All code that s renders i.e. HTML is client side.

Query string in browser is client side.

cookies are stroed in client computer so are client side.

Server side -: Code that runs on server is server side. Or any object on server is server side.

Example Sessions/ session variables are server side.

Code in your asp.net code behind file runs on .NET Framewrok, whichis on your webserver which hosts the website.

So what ever compiled code you want to write on code behind (.cs/.vb) runs on webserver it is server side.

Client machine don't need to have .NET framework to access asp.net website.

This was revolutionary when they came up with this .NET code behind model. Much like Angular2 today.

runat="server" : This enables asp.net control to be available at server side. Thus making it a server control.

This means; on your button click event in code behind file you can read text box value.

Or set lable text on web page from code behind file. And this code is executing on web server.

In HTML you have input control of type text box.

You have server control in asp.net of type text box. Whic will hav inbuild viewstate to manage values durign postback.

Thanks,

Tushar

1 Reply

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Tushar Dikshit8y ago
Accepted answer
Hi,
First client side and server side.
Back in time when world wide web and internet started we had web programming with HTML.
Even today what ever is rendered in browser is all HTML.
So HTML don't have state, and these web sites were static website as no state.
So .NET came into picture (also classic ASP, PHP, Java).

That made web sites dynamic, interactive with users, these could maintain state of a users.
Example sessions (Each user have diferent sesion so we have dynamic interactive websites for different users).

Your browser is client side (Anything that runs on client machine is client side) -
All code that s renders i.e. HTML is client side.
Query string in browser is client side.
cookies are stroed in client computer so are client side.
Server side -: Code that runs on server is server side. Or any object on server is server side.

Example Sessions/ session variables are server side.
Code in your asp.net code behind file runs on .NET Framewrok, whichis on your webserver which hosts the website.
So what ever compiled code you want to write on code behind (.cs/.vb) runs on webserver it is server side.
Client machine don't need to have .NET framework to access asp.net website.

This was revolutionary when they came up with this .NET code behind model. Much like Angular2 today.

runat="server" : This enables asp.net control to be available at server side. Thus making it a server control.
This means; on your button click event in code behind file you can read text box value.
Or set lable text on web page from code behind file. And this code is executing on web server.

In HTML you have input control of type text box.
You have server control in asp.net of type text box. Whic will hav inbuild viewstate to manage values durign postback.

Thanks,
Tushar