Visual Studio LightSwitch Application Development

Kunal Chowdhury | Software Engineer, Silverlight MVP

Pune DevCon | 18-19 December 2010

Know about Visual Studio LightSwitch

Why LightSwitch Applications?

Data Providers for LightSwitch Application

LightSwitch Data Types

Building a Web Application using LightSwitch

Customizing Application UI

Publishing a LightSwitch Application

Agenda

Visual Studio LightSwitch is a new tool for building data-driven

Silverlight Application using the Visual Studio IDE

It automatically generates the User Interface for a Data Source

without writing any code

You can extend any functionality by writing some code

It is currently in its 1st Beta Stage

First public release for LightSwitch Beta 1 was on 23rd August

2010

Know about Visual Studio LightSwitch

Developers are not the only one who will build business

applications

Small IT departments want to build business applications

quickly without using Access or Excel

Small business consultants want to take more projects by

completing small data entry solutions quickly

Why LightSwitch Applications?

SQL Data Provider

SharePoint Data Provider

WCF RIA Services

Data Providers for LightSwitch Application

Data Storage Service

Data Provider Supported Features

Not Supported

• SQL Server 2005

• SQL Server 2008

• SQL Server 2008 R2

• Express Editions

• SQL Azure

SqlClient for the Entity Framework

• Referential Integrity

• Transactions• SQL

Authentication• Integrated

Windows Authentication

• SQL Server CE• Stored

Procedures• Integrated

Windows Authentication for Azure

• Azure federated authentication

SQL Data Provider

Data Storage Service

Data Provider Supported Features

Not Supported

SharePoint 2010 OData Client(Data Service Context)

• Lists• Relationships

• Attachments• Transactions

SharePoint Data Provider

WCF RIA Services

Data Storage Service

Data Provider Supported Features

Not Supported

RIA Services WCF RIA DomainService

• Default Queries

• Parameterized Queries

• Transactions

• Entity Operations

• Custom Operations

• Complex Types

• Query Includes

LightSwitch Type C# Type

Binary, Image byte[]

Boolean bool

Byte byte

Date, DateTime DateTime

Decimal, Money decimal

Double double

EmailAddress, PhoneNumber, String string

LightSwitch Data Types

LightSwitch Type C# Type

Int16 short

Int32 int

Int64 long

Sbyte SByte

Single float

TimeSpan TimeSpan

Guid Guid

LightSwitch Data Types (contd.)

Start

• Describe your Data• Create Screens for your Common Tasks

Refine

• Implement Business Logic• Customize Screen layouts• Define Custom Queries

Extend

• Explore components• Create Custom Silverlight controls and use them• Integrate Custom Data Sources

Building a Web Application using LightSwitch

Building a Web Application using LightSwitch (contd.)

To build a Silverlight Application using LightSwitch, you need:

Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio LightSwitch Tool

No need to write any XAML or C# code

Just press 1-2-3, your application is ready

If needed, write some codes to extend the functionality

Create one and deploy as Web & Desktop Application

Building a Web Application using LightSwitch (contd.)

DemoKunal Chowdhury | Software Engineer, Silverlight MVP

Create DB Table

Create Screens

Data Validation

Auto Computat

ion

Customize your Application UI from Visual Studio itself

Runtime Customization before deploy

Customizing Application UI

Publish as Desktop Application

Publish as Web Application

Publishing a LightSwitch Application

Publishing a LightSwitch Application (contd.)

Publishing a LightSwitch Application (contd.)

Visual Studio LightSwitch Team Blog

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lightswitch/

Beginners Guide to Visual Studio LightSwitch

http://www.kunal-chowdhury.com/search/label/LightSwitch

Resources

Questions & Answers

Thank you

Blog : http://www.kunal-chowdhury.com

Twitter : @kunal2383