Understanding ASP.NET Page Life Cycle and TRULY understanding ViewState

Overview

I once thought that writing an ASP.NET page is like writing a Form in a Desktop Application, all I have to take care are just about event handlers likes "Page_Load", "Button_Click". There is no concept of persisting states in page or controls in my mind ( I am just a Noob...)

Actually I have heard of "ViewState" and used it a few times, but without understanding what a creature it is. It was until I accidentally found that one of my pages had a ViewState of 10+ KB, that I started learning about ViewState.

In order to understand ViewState, one must first have an understanding of ASP.NET Page Life Cycle. Besides, there are two excellent posts by Dave Reed and Milan Negovan that will make you TRULY Understand ViewState.

Reference

1. ASP.NET Page Life Cycle Overview - MSDN
2. TRULY Understanding ViewState - Dave Reed
3. ASP.NET State Management: ViewState - Milan Negovan
4. Understanding ASP.NET View State - MSDN