[AccessD] LightSwitch (was: Automating web page entry (was: Scrollbutton))

Gustav Brock gustav at cactus.dk
Fri Sep 10 15:59:52 CDT 2010


Hi Shamil

Well, I'm working my way through the tutorial that's for download as well and I'm impressed.

Please note the target applications: small business apps with no other purpose than "getting work done". Such apps often have no special requirements for design or features, yet they must be reliable and consistent to use - yet fast to develop or you simply don't have the budget.

Most data is collected in a local lsml (LightSwitchML) file but it connects via the EF to nearly everything just like that. It is so flexible, and validation, error messages and so on is ready at hand with zero or extremely little code. Importantly, the EF let's you "remodel" any data source making it very easy to adapt and connect/relate different data sources - again with zero code; this feature alone is worth studying.

The default design of screens (forms) is very neat (using Silverlight) and so far from what you can handcraft otherwise (even using hours) with VS.

Of course, like Access, this is a dangerous tool for those not knowing relational databases - but for you and I and our fellow list members who know about databases, this could be a very strong tool - mastering this could make you very competitive for small projects.

Just today we were assigned a new straight-forward project (controlling projects/employees/contracts/salaries for a small TV production company) where we will put it to use to check it out.

/gustav


>>> shamil at smsconsulting.spb.ru 10-09-2010 21:33 >>>
Hi Gustav --

Thank you for your note.
Starting from your link I have got to this August VSLive's KeyNote "A
Glimpse of the Future..." dedicated to LightSwitch. 
And I have watched that almost one hour long video recording. 
But I'm still not convinced about going to play with this tool.
IMO it's now:

- a good prototyping tool;
- a good MS marketing tool;

I will wait for release.
Maybe even for version #2 release.

Do you know how metadata of this tool are organized?
Is there technical documentation describing that metadata?

Thank you.

-- Shamil

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com 
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2010 4:15 PM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com 
Subject: [AccessD] LightSwitch (was: Automating web page entry (was:
Scrollbutton))

Hi John (et al)

It's about time you spend some hours with the beta of LightSwitch, the new
rapid development "shell" to Visual Studio 2010:

  http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/lightswitch 

and watch the tutorial videos. It is an amazing piece of software - kind of
what Access could have been, had the Access team primarily had the developer
in mind.

The way controls of screens (= forms) are organized is so clever that you
wonder why no one has figured this out before. Note too how you can change
"skin" from a normal desktop app to a highly optimized touch-screen app, and
how - by flipping a switch - you change the resulting app from a desktop app
to a web app. And everything behind the scene you can customize and expand
in C# or VB.NET.

/gustav





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