Sams Teach Yourself ASP.NET 2.0 in 24 Hours, Complete Starter Kit

In this hour, we will cover

• Displaying text using the Literal and Label Web controls

• Using the Literal Web control

• Using the Label Web control

• Understanding the differences between the Literal and Label Web controls

• Altering the appearance of the Label Web control

In the past three hours we examined the syntax and semantics for Visual Basic, the programming language we'll be using in the source code portion of our ASP.NET web pages. Prior to these three hours, we discussed ASP.NET fundamentals, such as how each ASP.NET web page comprises a source code portion and an HTML portion. Recall that the HTML portion can contain HTML markup as well as Web controls.

Web controls, like regular HTML markup, are placed in the HTML portion. When a browser requests an ASP.NET web page, the Web controls are converted into their associated HTML markup. However, Web controls can be accessed programmatically through the page's source code. In this manner, Web controls serve as an intermediary between the source code and HTML portions of an ASP.NET page.

In the financial calculator example in Hour 4, "Designing, Creating, and Testing ASP.NET Web Pages," our ASP.NET page had a number of Web controls. There were three TextBox Web controls, one for each of the inputs the user needed to enter; a Button Web control, which the user would click after he had entered the information and wanted the result; and a Label Web control, where the output of the calculation was displayed.

We'll be examining a variety of Web controls throughout this book. These various Web controls can be divided into a number of categories, such as Web controls that are used to display text, Web controls that are used to collect user input, Web controls that are used to display data from a database, and so on.