1. Integrating SharePoint
2010 and Visual Studio
LightSwitch
Rob Windsor
rwindsor@allin.com
@robwindsor #spsvb

2. Sponsors

3. About Me
• Lead SharePoint Consultant with Allin Consulting
• Technical Contributor to the Pluralsight On-Demand Library
• Microsoft MVP, MCPD, MCT
• Founder and Past-President of the North Toronto .NET UG
• Co-author of Prof. Visual Basic 2010 and .NET 4 (Wrox)

4. Disclaimers
• I am just learning LightSwitch
 That is, I’m not an expert on the subject
 I want to understand what it is and how it works
 Most of this content is “borrowed” from a TechEd talk by Robert Green
 http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/TechEd/NorthAmerica/2011/DEV211
• This session is about sharing what I’ve learned
 I’m not making judgments about whether LightSwitch is better or
worse than any other available technologies
• Additional disclaimers
 Attending this session may cause: blurred vision, headache, or
nausea

5. What is Visual Studio LightSwitch?
• According to Microsoft
Visual Studio LightSwitch is the simplest way
to create business applications for the
desktop and the cloud
• Learn more at the LightSwitch Developer Center
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lightswitch/default.aspx

6. Motivation for LightSwitch
• LightSwitch is a development tool that
 Is designed to be used by business users
 In the same way they are using Excel and Access today
 Is designed to be used by developers
 Apps can be transitioned to devs if they grow beyond the workgroup
 Has built-in “plumbing” to handle common application requirements
 Uses the latest Microsoft technologies
 Silverlight, Entity Framework, WCF, SQL Server
 Uses well-known architectural patters
 Builds scalable applications
 Is extensible
 Supports Wizard driven deployment

7. LightSwitch Simplifies Development
• Data
 Multiple sources / kinds (including SharePoint)
 Entity model
• Screens
 No markup solution
 Extensible controls
 Extensible layouts
• Rules and validation
 Write once, execute everywhere

8. The LightSwitch Development Experience

9. DEMO
Introduction to Visual Studio
LightSwitch

10. LightSwitch Application Overview
Client Tier
Middle Tier
Data Access
Data Workspace Data Workspace
WCF RIA WCF RIA
SQL Server
SharePoint
SQL Azure
Other …
Services Services
Silverlight 4.0 ASP.NET 4.0
Browser Desktop IIS 7.0
Host Host Windows Azure

11. Entities
• Can be local (SQL Server Express) or attached (SQL
Server, SQL Azure, SharePoint, WCF RIA service)
• Can create relationships within and across data sources
• Custom business types
 Provide validation and formatting
• Calculated properties
 Write code to generate value
• Can validate at the entity or property level

12. Screens
• Variety of built in screens
 New, search, details, editable grid, list and details
• Can use auto-generated screens for adding/editing or
create your own
• Developers can modify screens at design-time and runtime
• Always based on queries
• Generated screens do not expose XAML
 You can use Silverlight controls you create yourself
 You can add UI elements packaged as extensions

13. Queries
• LightSwitch creates queries automatically
 Select * query is a collection, eg. CustomerCollection
 Select where query is a detail, eg. CustomerDetail
• You can edit existing queries
 Filter, sort, add parameters
• You can create new queries
• You can base queries on other queries

14. The LightSwitch Development Experience

15. DEMO
Entities, Screens, Queries,
and Code

16. Access Control
• Authentication
 LightSwitch supports Windows and Forms authentication
• Authorization
 Check if the user is allowed to do something
 Define permissions and check them in code at entity
and property level
 Permissions are granted through administration screens

17. Access Control
• Permissions are defined by the developer
• The application’s administrator(s) define(s) users and roles
• Permissions are assigned to roles
• Users are assigned to roles
• A user’s effective permissions are the combined
permissions assigned to their roles

18. Deployment Options
• 2-tier desktop application
 Application runs entirely on user’s computer
• 3-tier desktop application
 User interface runs on user’s computer
 Middle-tier components run on Internet Information
Services (IIS) or Windows Azure
• 3-tier web application
 User interface is browser based
 Middle-tier components run on IIS or Windows Azure

19. DEMO
Access control and
deployment

20. Thank You
• Big thanks to the organizers, sponsors and you for making
this event possible
• Please fill out your evaluation
• Please keep in touch
rwindsor@allin.com
@robwindsor
msmvps.com/blogs/windsor