Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 Platform, Fifth Edition

34.3. Understanding the Role of ASP.NET View State

The term view state has been thrown out a few times here and in the previous two chapters without a formal definition, so let's demystify this term once and for all. Under classic (COM-based) ASP, web developers were required to manually repopulate the values of the incoming form widgets during the process of constructing the outgoing HTTP response. For example, if the incoming HTTP request contained five text boxes with specific values, the *.asp file required script code to extract the current values (via the Form or QueryString collections of the Request object) and manually place them back into the HTTP response stream. Needless to say, this was a drag. If the developer failed to do so, ...