Use Of Visual Lightswitch

Question

Can any one explain me the features on Visual Lightswitch

Answer 1

My take would be that Lightswitch is meant for part time programmers who have specific business logic they need to use in an application. Microsoft themselves admit that you need some programming skills in certain circumstances.

Get a head start by using pre-configured screen templates that give your application a familiar look and feel. LightSwitch also provides prewritten code and other reusable components to handle routine application tasks, along with helpful step-by-step guidance. However, if you need to write custom code, you can use Visual Basic .NET or C#.

Source

Answer 2

Eric Nelson wrote a great article on what Lightswitch is - read it here

Answer 3

I'd say is a RAD tool aimed at developing Line of Business Applications (LOBs).

You have a few choices of UI patterns for designing the UI of you applications, and then you can customize it up to a point. Then you can write your business rules (coding involved).

You can create prototypes with nearly no coding. To compare it with MS Access, while access targets the development of desktop DB applications (client-server), LightSwitch produces a three-tier architecture that handles all the plumbing code binding all these layers.

You can also create LOBs, but LightSwitch is not for all types of LOBs. According to author István Novák (http://www.amazon.com/Beginning-Microsoft-LightSwitch-Development-Programmer/dp/1118021959), LightSwitch is ideal if your objective is:

• Substitute a current business application that consists of a bunch of Excel worksheets
• The application will consist of small amount of data (thousands of records) with relatively simple structure. Most operations are CRUD.
• Adding new functionality to existing applications, in the form of small satellite applications.

For doing anything beyond drag-and-drop development, you'll need coding skills. At this point, LS supports C# and VB.Net

Answer 4

Think "Forms Over Data", with all the latest technology, Silverlight, MEF, EF, RIA Services.

Almost like a kind of Access.NET on steroids.

Yann