What is a Web Form?

dreamstime_s_32090665A web form, web form or HTML form on a web page allows a user to enter data that are sent to a server for processing. Forms can resemble paper or database forms because web users fill out the forms using checkboxes, radio buttons, or text fields. For example, forms can be used to enter shipping or credit card data to order a product, or can be used to retrieve search results from a search engine.


A web form that is built using a web based scripting language such as html and is reachable via web browsers. It is an efficient way to organize your data. Instead of using paper, use web forms.


Typically, a Web form contains a combination of form elements such as a checkbox, submit button, text box, etc. For added interactivity, Web designers may use elements or classes such as “input” along with “action” and “method” attributes. They can also use the “GET” or “POST” method for submitting data.


Through the careful combination of programmed objects, functions and methods, Web designers can create Web forms that allow for more sophisticated transactions online. Web forms have revolutionized many fields, including real estate, medicine, high finance, retail and numerous other industries where paperwork and documentation play a vital role. Using a combination of standardized Web technologies and computer programming principles, IT professionals allow for more of what used to be done on paper to be done online.


Web Forms are the pages that your users request using their browser. These pages can be written using a combination of HTML, client-script, server controls, and server code. When users request a page, it is compiled and executed on the server by the framework, and then the framework generates the HTML markup that the browser can render. An ASP.NET Web Forms page presents information to the user in any browser or client device.


What are the challenges in programming a Web Form



  • Implementing a rich Web user interface. A user interface with a complex layout, a large amount of dynamic content, and full-featured user-interactive objects can be difficult and tedious to dreamstime_s_52517293design and implement using basic HTML facilities. It is particularly difficult to create a rich user interface for applications likely to run on many different browser and client device platforms.
  • Stateless execution. When a Web server receives a request for a page, it finds the page, processes it, sends it to the browser, and then, effectively, discards all page information. If the user requests the same page again, the server repeats the entire sequence, reprocessing the page from scratch. Put another way, a server has no memory of pages that it has processed. Therefore, if an application needs to maintain information about a page, this becomes a problem that has to be solved in application code.
  • Complications with data access. Reading from and writing to a data source in a traditional Web application can be complicated and resource-intensive.
  • Complications with scalability. In many cases Web applications designed with existing methods fail to meet scalability goals due to the lack of compatibility between the various components of the application. This is often the single failure point for applications under a heavy growth cycle.