LightSwitch Beta 2 Content Rollup

Well it’s been 10 days since we released Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2 and we’ve been working really hard to get all of our samples, “How Do I” videos, articles and blog posts updated to reflect Beta 2 changes. Yes, that’s right. We’re going through all of our blog posts and updating them so folks won’t get confused when they find the posts later down the road. You will see notes at the top of them that indicate whether the information only applies to Beta 1 or has been updated to Beta 2 (if there’s no notes, then it applies to both).  Check them out, a lot of the techniques have changed. I especially encourage you to watch the “How Do I” videos again.

So here’s a rollup of Beta 2 content that’s been done, reviewed, or completely redone from the team. You will find all this stuff categorized nicely on the new LightSwitch Learning Center into Getting Started, Essential and Advanced Topics. We add more each week!

Developer Center:

• Learning Center Redesign for Beta 2
• What's New in Beta 2
• Community Page (Started)
• "What is LightSwitch?"

How Do I Videos:

#1 - How Do I: Define My Data in a LightSwitch Application?
#2 - How Do I: Create a Search Screen in a LightSwitch Application?
#3 - How Do I: Create an Edit Details Screen in a LightSwitch Application?
#4 - How Do I: Format Data on a Screen in a LightSwitch Application?
#5 - How Do I: Sort and Filter Data on a Screen in a LightSwitch Application?
#6 - How Do I: Create a Master-Details (One-to-Many) Screen in a LightSwitch Application?
#7 - How Do I: Pass a Parameter into a Screen from the Command Bar in a LightSwitch Application?
#8 - How Do I: Write business rules for validation and calculated fields in a LightSwitch Application?
#9 - How Do I: Create a Screen that can Both Edit and Add Records in a LightSwitch Application?
#10 - How Do I: Create and Control Lookup Lists in a LightSwitch Application?
#11 - How Do I: Set up Security to Control User Access to Parts of a Visual Studio LightSwitch Application?

Blogs:

Data

• Using Both Remote and Local Data in a LightSwitch Application
• How to Create a Many-to-Many Relationship
• Getting the Most out of LightSwitch Summary Properties
• How Do I: Import and Export Data to/from a CSV file

Screens

• How to Create a Screen with Multiple Search Parameters in LightSwitch
• Creating a Custom Search Screen in Visual Studio LightSwitch
• How to Programmatically Control LightSwitch UI

Queries

• Query Reuse in Visual Studio LightSwitch
• How Do I: Create and Use Global Values In a Query
• How Do I: Filter Items in a ComboBox or Modal Window Picker in LightSwitch

Office

• How to Send Automated Appointments from a LightSwitch Application
• How To Create Outlook Appointments from a LightSwitch Application
• How To Send HTML Email from a LightSwitch Application
• Using Microsoft Word to Create Reports For LightSwitch (or Silverlight)

Deployment

• Deployment Guide: How to Configure a Web Server to Host LightSwitch Applications
• Step-by-Step: How to Publish to Windows Azure

Tips, Tricks & Gotchas

• LightSwitch Gotcha: How To Break Your LightSwitch Application in Less Than 30 Seconds
• Where Do I Put My Data Code In A LightSwitch Application?
• Validating Collections of Entities (Sets of Data) in LightSwitch

Security

• Filtering data based on current user in LightSwitch apps
• How to reference security entities in LightSwitch

Architecture

• The Anatomy of a LightSwitch Application Series Part 1 - Architecture Overview
• The Anatomy of a LightSwitch Application Series Part 2 – The Presentation Tier
• The Anatomy of a LightSwitch Application Part 3 – the Logic Tier
• The Anatomy of a LightSwitch Application Part 4 – Data Access and Storage

Customization & Extensibility

• Using Custom Controls to Enhance Your LightSwitch Application UI - Part 1
• LightSwitch Beta 2 Extensibility “Cookbook”

Samples:

• LightSwitch Course Manager End-to-End Application
• Visual Studio LightSwitch Vision Clinic Walkthrough & Sample
• LightSwitch Beta 2 Extensibility “Cookbook”

Training:

• Visual Studio LightSwitch Training Kit

Channel 9:

• Channel 9 Interview: Walkthrough of a Real-World LightSwitch Application

Enjoy! (now back to work…)

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 25, 2011
  This is great - thanks for all the hard work you and the team are putting into LightSwitch!

• Anonymous
  March 25, 2011
  This is awesome! Thanks for putting this all together in one place. Very helpful.

• Anonymous
  March 25, 2011
  Good job thanks

• Anonymous
  March 28, 2011
  The LightSwitch product website says "[...] reuse information from a variety of data sources including Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SQL Azure, SharePoint, Microsoft Office Access (post-Beta) [...]" I'm interested in using mdb databases. Is there a way, to connect mdb files using LightSwitch Beta 2? Kind regards, Daniel Schunk (danielschunk [at] live [dot] de)

• Anonymous
  April 11, 2011
  Hi Daniel, We will have a solution for connecting to MDB Access databases by the time we release. Right now you can't do this with Beta 2. Stay tuned. -Beth

• Anonymous
  August 04, 2011
  Hi, Beth, I obtained the final tryout version of VSLS 2011, but while creating a new project, I missed the possibility for connecting to mdb/accdb Access databases :( Kind regards, Daniel Schunk (danielschunk [at] live [dot] de)