Question

I am new to asp.net and i need to know

whats the differences between a button with response.redirect behind it

and a hyper link ? they get you both to the page but one is server side while the other is not

is it the only difference

and when it is best to use either one of them

Answer 1

A hyperlink render a link to the given NavigateUrl in the browser. When the user clicks on it, the browser directly goes to the destination.

A button with redirect renders a button which does a postback using javascript. When the user clicks on it, a postback is done to the same page and the browser is instructed to go to another URL using Response.Redirect.

The main difference is that the second solution loads the same page again, while the first solution goes directly to the destination. With a button you can run some code before redirecting, or redirect to a different URL based on the information in the postback. Because it loads the original page before loading the destination page, it is a bit slower.

With a hyperlink, the visitor will see where the hyperlink leads to. With a button you can not see this. A hyperlink is thus better for search engines, because they will follow a hyperlink and will not follow a button.

If you know the URL in advance and you do not want to run extra code when the user clicks on something, use a hyperlink. Else, use a button.