Building business applications can come in two extremes, very easy and very hard. If you need a sophisticated application, you may have to use the .Net Framework and have programmers code in C# or Visual Basic. You may even use programmers for SQL Server, and develop scripts and queries for database operations. That is if you need a complex application.
On the other hand, if your business application does not need a level 5 programmer, but you can use one of your employees, IT or otherwise, with an intuitive grasp of your business, then Microsoft LightSwitch may be the tool for you.
What is Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch?
This simplified self-service development tool enables you to build business applications quickly and easily for the desktop and the cloud.
Microsoft offers downloadable starter kits and flexible deployment options to help you create and easily release custom business apps that look professional and polished, and even non-programmers can use it because no coding is required.
As I mentioned before, someone with a grasp of the business operation could do the job as well as a seasoned programmer. Here,with LightSwitch, the operation of collecting, analyzing, and reusing business information from a variety of sources is available. Your developer can work through a series of steps to import and also export data. For example, one way of sharing and reporting data is to push it out to Excel.
To make the work easy for non-programmers, LightSwitch includes customizable templates and enables you to write custom business logic that applies to your organization’s specific needs.
And if the business or developer feels that the application’s functionality has to be modified and extended, then by adding extensions and components from third-party vendors this process is possible.
How does Light Switch Work…The Data Model
LightSwitch works on the familiar principle of helping developers specify a data model and then build screens around it. Within that structured paradigm, this allows LightSwitch developers to work in an innovative manner, allowing so much detail to be expressed within the data model itself that a fully functional UI can be interpreted and generated automatically. LightSwitch, moreover, allows for customizations by the developer, over a custom code event model and a wide range of extensibility points.
In the end, LightSwitch is an easy alternative. Think of it as a precursor to more sophisticated programming. If the LightSwitch application does what the business needs, there is no need to design more sophisticated operations. On the other hand, if the application model has gaps, and it requires the effort of a seasoned programmer, you’ll have a foundation app to build upon.
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