Why does ASP.NET webforms need the Runat="Server" attribute?

Why do I have to specify runat="server" on all my ASP.NET controls when it is a mandatory attribute and server is the only option available in my limited knowledge of ASP.NET, and I get an error if I don't use it?

I do understand that I can optionally use it on my HTML tags, and I do understand the client/server paradigm and what it is actually specifying.

Is it a redundant tag that could just be implied by the control being an ASP.NET control, or is there an underlying reason?

Solution 1:

I've always believed it was there more for the understanding that you can mix ASP.NET tags and HTML Tags, and HTML Tags have the option of either being runat="server" or not. It doesn't hurt anything to leave the tag in, and it causes a compiler error to take it out. The more things you imply about web language, the less easy it is for a budding programmer to come in and learn it. That's as good a reason as any to be verbose about tag attributes.

This conversation was had on Mike Schinkel's Blog between himself and Talbot Crowell of Microsoft National Services. The relevant information is below (first paragraph paraphrased due to grammatical errors in source):

[...] but the importance of <runat="server"> is more for consistency and extensibility.

If the developer has to mark some tags (viz. <asp: />) for the ASP.NET Engine to ignore, then there's also the potential issue of namespace collisions among tags and future enhancements. By requiring the <runat="server"> attribute, this is negated.

It continues:

If <runat=client> was required for all client-side tags, the parser would need to parse all tags and strip out the <runat=client> part.

He continues:

Currently, If my guess is correct, the parser simply ignores all text (tags or no tags) unless it is a tag with the runat=server attribute or a “<%” prefix or ssi “<!– #include… (...) Also, since ASP.NET is designed to allow separation of the web designers (foo.aspx) from the web developers (foo.aspx.vb), the web designers can use their own web designer tools to place HTML and client-side JavaScript without having to know about ASP.NET specific tags or attributes.

Solution 2:

I usually don't like to guess, but I'm going to on this one...

If you remember Microsoft's .NET marketing hype back in the day (2001?), it was hard to tell what .NET even was. Was it a server? a programming platform? a language? something new entirely? Given the ads, it was ambiguously anything you wanted it to be - it just solved any problem you might have.

So, my guess is there was a hidden grand vision that ASP.NET code could run anywhere - server side OR client side, in a copy of Internet Explorer tied to the .NET runtime. runat="server" is just a vestigial remnant, left behind because it's client-side equivalent never made it to production.

Remember those weird ads?

Related: Article from The Register with some .NET history.

Solution 3:

Not all controls that can be included in a page must be run at the server. For example:

<INPUT type="submit" runat=server />

This is essentially the same as:

<asp:Button runat=server />

Remove the runat=server tag from the first one and you have a standard HTML button that runs in the browser. There are reasons for and against running a particular control at the server, and there is no way for ASP.NET to "assume" what you want based on the HTML markup you include. It might be possible to "infer" the runat=server for the <asp:XXX /> family of controls, but my guess is that Microsoft would consider that a hack to the markup syntax and ASP.NET engine.