Presentation given to New York City .Net Developers on April 19, 2012. http://www.nycdotnetdev.com/EventDetail.aspx?f=list&event=4/19/2012

1. Boulos Dib
April 19, 2012
NYC .Net User Group

2. Boulos Dib - @boulosdib
 Independent Consultant – Napeague Inc.
 Software Developer since 1983
 First Commercial Personal Computer 1980 – TRS-80 III
 First Z80 based product (EPROM based Protocol Adaptor – 1984)
 First Commercial PC-DOS product (Telex on IBM PC, 50 Baud – 1985)
 Started 16-bit Windows Development using Win 3.x
 Used: 8080/Z80, 68xxx, PDP/RSX,VAX-VMS and x86 (C/C++/C#)
 Develop in: ASP.Net, SilverLight, Adobe Flex, SharePoint, SQL Server,
PowerShell, Exchange, Active Directory, Javascript, HTML, CSS and…
 Co-organizer of NYC XAML Meetup and New York Windows Phone User
Group.
 Speaker and Volunteer at local user groups .
 I also have a life not touched by Computers:
 Favorite sport – Windsurfing 
 Favorite hobby – Guitar Playing, Electric & Acoustic.

3. Agenda
 Introduction to Visual Studio LightSwitch.
 Create Simple Out-of-the-box LightSwitch Application
 Survey Extensibility Model and Options
 Demos
 Consume Silverlight Custom Control
 Consume LightSwitch Custom Control
 Consume LightSwitch Extension
 Create a LightSwitch Extension(s)
 Wrap-up

4. Assumptions
 Familiarity with .Net Development.
 You can develop a simple application in C# (or VB.Net)
using Visual Studio (Demo with C#).
 Have some understanding of Silverlight.

5. What is Visual Studio LightSwitch
 Simplest Development Environment for creating Line
Of Business Applications (LOB).
 Yeah, we heard that before, didn’t we?
 Microsoft Access, VB, C# etc…

6. Line of Business Applications
 Wikipedia says:
 "line-of-business application" is one of the set of critical
computer applications perceived as vital to running an
enterprise.
 I say:
 Line of Business application is one of the set of unique,
custom and potentially critical computer applications
perceived as vital to running an enterprise.

7. Are all LOB applications built by
developers?
 Based on my experience: NOT!!!
 Introducing: Citizen Developers
Gartner Says *
Citizen Developers Will Build at Least
25 Percent of New Business
Applications by 2014
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1744514

8. What is Visual Studio LightSwitch
 Simplest Development Environment for creating Line
Of Business Applications .
 Able to consume data from Databases, SharePoint,
Clouds, WCF RIA Services and OData (VS-11 Beta).
 Can run as a web or desktop application
 LightSwitch Web Applications can be deployed on
local or remote IIS, as well as in Windows Azure
WebRole.

9. 2 Types of LightSwitch Developers
 Development IN LightSwitch - Superset of Citizen Devs
 Uses Visual Studio LightSwitch 2010
 Write Data Driven LightSwitch Applications
 Uses Silverlight and LightSwitch Controls Written by Microsoft, 3rd
Party Vendors and the community.
 Development FOR LightSwitch- Professional Developers
 Visual Studio Professional 2010 or greater
 Visual Studio LightSwitch 2010
 Write Silverlight Custom Controls
 Write LightSwitch Controls and Extensions

10. Why LightSwitch?
 Simple(r) development tool.
 Silverlight/Windows based infrastructure
 Advanced development skills not required to build
simple data-driven applications.
 Easy deployment to IIS and Azure
 Connectivity to SharePoint
 Consumer of SQL Server and Other Databases
 Consumer of almost any data source via custom WCF
RIA Services (and with VS2011, OData)

11. LightSwitch Development
Start Refine Extend
Describe your data Author business logic Explore ecosystem
Create screens for Customize screen Create Custom
common tasks layouts Silverlight Controls
Integrate With Custom
Define custom queries
Data Sources

12. LightSwitch Architecture
Screens Methods Controls Submit Pipeline Queries
Data Workspace Data Workspace
Client Tier Middle Tier Data Access

13. LightSwitch Building Blocks
LightSwitch VS Pro Ecosystem

14. Application Structure
Folder Use
Client Screens and Client Code
Common Code Common to Client
and Server
Data Data Model
Server Server specific code

15. Demo – Simple LightSwitch Application
 Data and Screens
 Screens are automatically generated based on entities.
 Queries for both Entities and Screens
 Business Logic
 Demo
 Simple LightSwitch Application

16. Beyond Simple LightSwitch Development
 Even with LightSwitch, developers can access
LightSwitch APIs, Silverlight and the .Net Framework
 Including
 Custom Screen Layouts
 Save Pipeline, Validation & Access Control Hooks
 Customize Complex and Composite LINQ Queries (i.e.
EntityName_All EntityName_Single)
 Client and Server Project Code
 COM Interop
 Publish to IIS or Windows Azure

17. Extending LightSwitch
 Utilize .Net Assemblies
 Incorporate Silverlight Controls
 Add LightSwitch Extensions
 Amazing Third Party Extensions
 Great Open Source and Community Driven Extensions
 Roll Your Sleeves and Build your own

18. Requirements for Building Extensions
 Visual Studio Pro or Ultimate + SP1
 http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-
us/products/2010-editions
 Visual Studio LightSwitch
 http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/lightswitch
 Visual Studio 2010 SP1 SDK (Needed to build VSIX
packages)
 http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=218
35
 LightSwitch Extensibility Toolkit
 http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/0dfaa2eb-
3951-49e7-ade7-b9343761e1d2

19. Extensions - Ecosystem
 You do not need to build extensions, there are many
available and the list is growing.
 Vendors
 ComponentOne - OLAP for LightSwitch
 DevExpress – DXEditors & XtraReports for LightSwitch
 FirstFloor – Document Toolkit for LightSwitch
 Infragistics – NetAdvantage for Visual Studio LightSwitch
 Telerik – Rad Controls for Silverlight
 RSSBus – Data Providers for: Google, PowerShell, Facebook,
Quickbooks, Salesforce, Sharepoint, Twitter
 Community Driven
 Look in the Gallery….

20. LightSwitch Extension Types
Silverlight
Controls
Custom Data Screen
Sources Templates
Business
Shell
Types
Themes

21. Extension Projects
Project Purpose​
Contains client implementations that should be deployed with a LightSwitch application but are not
Client
found in the Common project. For example, controls, shells, and themes.
Contains implementations necessary during the debugging of a LightSwitch application. For example,
Client.Design
control images or custom property editors for the runtime screen designer.
Contains ​implementations that are common to both the client and the server. For example, metadata
Common
loaders and validators.
Contains implementations for design time integrated development environment (IDE) operations. For
Design
example, a screen template.
Contains server implementations that should be deployed with a LightSwitch application but are not
Server
found in the Common project. For example, data sources.​
Project Purpose
.Lspkg .Lspkg packages the above five projects so that LightSwitch can unpack and reference them when the
package is installed
.Vsix .Vsix project packages the generated .Lspkg file into a .Vsix package so that it can be added to
LightSwitch through the Extension Manager

22. Using Extensions
 Installing Extensions
 Manually double-clicking a VSIX package.
 Extension Manager Within Visual Studio Pro ++
 Visual Studio RESTART almost always required.
 For Shell and Theme Extensions:
 Activate Extension by Opening Project Properties and
check the Extensions tab.
 To Apply a theme or a shell, Open the same Project
Properties and theme or shell in the General properties.

23. Creating a Theme Extension
 We will create a theme
 Modify few resources
 Test it against a simple application

24. Using Silverlight Custom Controls
 Easier to use than writing
 Do not know anything about LightSwitch
 There 2 possibilites
 Build a control for a specific entity (VM) and bind it to a
specific entity - less code but not re-usable. Can not be
used for any other entity or data.
 Build a control and bind the code in the LightSwitch
code – More LightSwitch code but Silverlight Control
can be re-used across screens and applications.
 Demo – based on Code Magazine article by LightSwitch
team member Karol Zadora-Przylecki

25. References - Sites
 Beth Massi
 http://blogs.msdn.com/b/bethmassi/
 Andrew Brust – Microsoft LightSwitch White Papers
 http://bit.ly/pjD6Ke
 LightSwitch Community Site – Michael Washington
 http://lightswitchhelpwebsite.com/
 Jan Van Der Haegen
 http://janvanderhaegen.wordpress.com/extensionsmadeeasy/
 Code Magazine July/August 2011
 Using Custom Controls to Enhance LightSwitch Application UI by
Karol Zadora-Przylecki
 Visual Studio Gallery
 http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/site/search

26. Books
Beginning Microsoft Visual Microsoft Visual Studio Pro Visual Studio
Studio LightSwitch LightSwitch Unleashed LightSwitch 2011
Development Alessandro Del Sole Development
Istvan Novak
Yann Duran, Tim Leung

27. Thank You and Follow-up
 Contact:
 http://blog.boulosdib.com
 @boulosdib