How to: Host a LightSwitch HTML Client Application on Sharepoint
For the latest documentation on Visual Studio 2017, see Visual Studio 2017 Documentation.
By using LightSwitch, you can create SharePoint apps that are hosted in the SharePoint Store or in your organization's private app catalog. By enabling SharePoint debugging, you can also host your app on SharePoint to test it during development.
You can publish your app as a provider-hosted SharePoint app. This gives you the flexibility of deploying your web app and database to an on-premises SharePoint site, to Microsoft Azure, or to a third-party hosting site. After you publish your app, others can run it from SharePoint on their computers and mobile devices.
You can publish your app directly to a site by using Web Deploy, or you can create a Web Deploy package for your app that can be deployed to multiple servers.
To enable SharePoint debugging
Create an app by using either the LightSwitch HTML Application (Visual Basic) or LightSwitch HTML Application (Visual C#) template.
In Solution Explorer, choose the top-level node for your app.
.jpeg "The top-level application node")
On the menu bar, choose Project, Enable SharePoint.
The Enabling SharePoint wizard opens.
In the What SharePoint site do you want to use for debugging your app? box, enter the URL for your SharePoint site, and then choose the Finish button.
If you’re prompted for credentials, enter your SharePoint credentials.
The next time you run your app, it will be hosted on SharePoint instead of in your browser.
To publish a SharePoint app
In Solution Explorer, open the shortcut menu for the top-level node for your app, and then choose Publish.
In the LightSwitch Publish Application Wizard, on the SharePoint Options page, choose the Provider-hosted option, and then choose Next.
On the Application Server Configuration page, choose the IIS Server option, and then choose Next.
Note
If you have a publish settings (.publishsettings or .pubxml) file that was created for another app, you can use that file to provide the rest of the information that you need for publishing. If so, choose the Import Settings button in the wizard.
On the Publish Output page, choose the Publish directly to a server now option, and then choose Next.
On the Publish Settings page, in the Service URL text box, enter the URL for the server where you want to publish your app.
If you’re publishing to a hosting company, the company provides this value. It can be in any of the following formats:
HostingCompanyURL (for example,
contoso.com)https://HostingCompanyURL (for example,https://contoso.com)https://HostingCompanyURL:8172/msdeploy.axd(for example,https://contoso.com:8172/msdeploy.axd)
If you’re publishing to Internet Information Services (IIS) on your own computer for testing, enter
localhostor the name of your computer.If you’re publishing to a server on your own network, enter one of these URLs:
https://ServerNamehttps://ServerName/msdeployagentservice
Note
If you’re publishing through a firewall, you might have to open port 8172.
In the Site/application box, enter the names of the IIS website and your app.
If you’re publishing to a hosting company, the company provides this value. It's typically either a domain name (for example,
contoso.com) or a domain and app name (for example,contoso.com/MyApp).If you’re publishing to IIS on your own computer for testing, or you're publishing to a server on your internal network, enter the site and app name as they appear in IIS Manager. For example, if you’re publishing the app MyApp to the default website in IIS, enter
Default Web Site/MyApp.Note
If you're publishing to an existing web folder and want to remove any existing content, select the Remove additional files at destination check box.
In the User Name and Password boxes, enter credentials for an account that has sufficient authority to perform deployment tasks on the destination web server, and then choose Next.
If you’re publishing to a hosting company, the company provides these values.
On the Security Settings page, choose the Yes, users must connect using HTTPS option, and then choose Next.
On the Data connections page, on the Database Connections tab, enter the administrator and user connection strings for the database server where you want to publish your app's database.
Note
The database doesn’t have to be located on the server where you are publishing the app.
On the Attached Data Sources tab, update the connection strings for any additional connections as needed, and then choose Next.
On the Provider Hosting page, in the Where is your LightSwitch application hosted box, enter the full URL for your app.
In most cases this URL will be the same as the Service URL and Site/application values that you entered earlier (for example,
https://contoso.com/MyApp).Enter the Client ID and Client Secret values for your app.
You can get these values from the appregnew page of your SharePoint site or from the Seller dashboard. See Guidelines for registering apps for SharePoint 2013.
Choose Publish to publish your app.
When your app is published, File Explorer opens and displays the Publish directory for your project.
To package a SharePoint app for later deployment
In Solution Explorer, open the shortcut menu for the top-level node for your app, and then choose Publish.
In the LightSwitch Publish Application Wizard, on the SharePoint Options page, choose the Provider-hosted option, and then choose Next.
On the Application Server Configuration page, choose the IIS Server option, and then choose Next.
Note
If you have a publish settings (.publishsettings or .pubxml) file that was created for another app, you can use that file to provide the rest of the information that you need for publishing. If so, choose the Import Settings button in the wizard.
On the Publish Output page, choose the Create a package on disk option, and then choose Next.
On the Publish Settings page, in the What should the website be named? box, enter a name for the website.
The default name is the app name.
In the Where should the package be created? box, enter the path for the location where you want to save the package, and then choose Next.
The default location is the Publish subdirectory under your project directory.
On the Security Settings page, choose the Yes, users must connect using HTTPS option, and then choose Next.
On the Database Configuration page, choose the Generate a new database called option and enter your app's name as the database name.
On the Attached Data Sources tab, update the connection strings for any additional connections as needed, and then choose Next.
On the Provider Hosting page, in the Where is your LightSwitch application hosted box, enter the full URL for your app.
In most cases, this URL will be the same as the Service URL and Site/application values that you entered earlier (for example,
https://contoso.com/MyApp).Enter the Client ID and Client Secret for your app.
You can get these values from the appregnew page of your SharePoint site or from the Seller dashboard. See Guidelines for registering apps for SharePoint 2013.
Choose Publish to create the package.
When your app is published, a .zip file that contains the package is placed in the directory that you specified in step 6. After this package has been created, a server administrator can use the MSDeploy tool to deploy your app to servers that are running IIS and SQL Server.