Appendix B. Useful Resources

The official documentation that ships with LightSwitch is a good starting point to find learning resources, but there is also a great ecosystem made of additional resources created by Microsoft and by the developer community. This appendix identifies the most important websites and learning resources across the globe.

MSDN Resources

Traditionally, Microsoft produces a lot of learning material when they release a new or updated product. This is true in the case of LightSwitch, as well. This section identifies the most important resources from Microsoft that will help you get the most out of Visual Studio LightSwitch, for both the beginner and the expert.

LightSwitch Developer Center

The main point where you start finding resources for Visual Studio LightSwitch is the LightSwitch Developer Center, available at http://msdn.com/LightSwitch. The Developer Center provides quick access to a lot of learning resources and materials, such as blog posts, videos, articles, forums, and useful downloads. Bookmark the Developer Center in your favorite websites and subscribe to the RSS feeds so that you can easily stay up to date with the official news about LightSwitch.

LightSwitch How-Do-I Videos

“How-do-I” videos are short, topic-specific instructional videos that show how to accomplish a specific task. The formula of the how-do-I videos has been extended to LightSwitch, so you can watch or download a number of videos that cover the most common and important development scenarios, everything from creating and filtering data to application deployment. How-do-I videos are available from the Developer Center, at http://bit.ly/LightSwitchVideos.

LightSwitch Blogs

The Visual Studio LightSwitch team maintains a blog where members discuss interesting topics about LightSwitch. Some team members also have personal blogs. Here is a list of blogs managed by members of the LightSwitch team:

• The LightSwitch Team: http://blogs.msdn.com/LightSwitch

• Beth Massi: www.BethMassi.com

• Matt Sampson: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/rmattsampson/

• Matt Thalman: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mthalman/

• Nicole Haugen: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/lightswitch_rocks1/

LightSwitch Forums

Forums are where you can ask for answers from the large community of LightSwitch users. The MSDN platform offers the following two forums:

• General questions: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/lightswitch/threads

• Extensibility: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/lsextensibility/threads

Remember: Forums are attended by volunteers who donate their free time to the community. If you do not receive a prompt reply, be patient. There is also a quick link to forums: http://bit.ly/LightSwitchForums.

Training Kit and Starter Kits

Other important resources are the Visual Studio LightSwitch Training Kit (http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9741442) and starter kits, which are ready-to-use project templates that enable you to quickly build specific types of business applications (www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/lightswitch/starterkits). These are also available from the Learning Center (in the Getting Started section of the LightSwitch Developer Center). The LightSwitch Developer Center (http://bit.ly/LearnLightSwitch) is an important resource because the LightSwitch team updates content often.

Extensibility Center

The Extensibility section in the Developer Center provides shortcuts to the documentation about extensibility in LightSwitch and to code examples. It also provides links to popular extensions from the Visual Studio Gallery and other resources related to extensibility. It is available at http://bit.ly/ExtendLightSwitch.

The Visual Studio Gallery

The Visual Studio Gallery is the web portal from Microsoft where you can find extensions for Visual Studio 2010, including the LightSwitch Edition. Here you will find a huge number of contributions from Microsoft, partners, and the community. Visit the gallery at http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com.

Code Samples

A few years ago, Microsoft launched the MSDN Code Gallery website, a place where you could publish some free code samples to be shared with the community. Recently, Microsoft reorganized the Code Gallery and made it easier to browse. You can download or share code samples from the Code Gallery, starting from http://bit.ly/kGjptj. Visiting the MSDN Code Gallery is really useful because you can find a variety of LightSwitch application examples, including simulations of real-world applications and applications that perform specific tasks. Also, samples are organized on the Samples page of the LightSwitch Developer Center (http://bit.ly/LightSwitchExamples).

Social Networks

Because of the importance of social networks today, the LightSwitch team also manages a Twitter account. You can follow them by adding @VSLightSwitch to the list of people you follow. They also manage a Facebook page, available at www.Facebook.com/VSLightSwitch.

Community Resources

Resources created by the developer community are very important today because in most cases, developers share their everyday experience with real-world applications. In this section, you find the most important community resources managed by Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals or community leaders.

Visual Studio LightSwitch Help Website

You can find the Visual Studio LightSwitch Help website at http://lightswitch.adefwebserver.com. It is managed by Michael Washington, Microsoft MVP for Silverlight and one of the foremost experts on LightSwitch in the world. The website offers a lot of articles, blog posts, and an area with forums where you can ask your questions. If you are an advanced LightSwitch developer, or if you are searching for some advanced topics, especially about using custom controls, do not forget to visit this site. Michael has also released an e-book, Creating LightSwitch Custom Controls, which you can purchase from http://lightswitchhelpwebsite.com/Market/LightSwitchCustomControls.aspx.

LightSwitch Video Training on MyVBProf.com

MyVBProf.com has been a long-standing resource for Visual Basic developers of all skill levels. This site is managed by Bill Borrows, Microsoft MVP for ASP.NET, and provides several instructional videos about how to start using LightSwitch (http://bit.ly/pEedqd).

The CodeProject

The CodeProject is one of the largest and best-known websites about programming. The site offers numerous programming articles and has a specific area about LightSwitch at www.codeproject.com/KB/LightSwitch.

StackOverflow

StackOverflow is another well-known website and offers a large number of forums for community questions, including a specific area dedicated to LightSwitch at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/visual-studio-lightswitch.

Italian LightSwitch Tips & Tricks Community

If you speak Italian, check out the LightSwitch Tips & Tricks community website (www.lightswitch.it), which was created by the author of this book and fellow MVPs. The site offers forums, instructional videos, technical articles, and many other resources in Italian.

Other LightSwitch Blogs and Websites

Following is a list of useful blogs that focus on Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011:

• Paul Patterson’s blog: www.paulspatterson.com/category/technology/lightswitch/.

• Glenn Wilson (Microsoft MVP for XNA): www.virtualrealm.com.au/. Glenn’s blog will help you stay up to date with the latest LightSwitch news. He updates links monthly.

• Oakleaf Systems, managed by Roger Jennings: http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com. Here you can find a section about LightSwitch that is always current.

• Kunal Chowdhury (Microsoft MVP for Silverlight): www.kunal-chowdhury.com/search/label/LightSwitch.

Third-Party Extensions

As you learned in Chapter 7, “Customizing Applications with Buttons, COM Automation, and Extensions,” you can use the Extension Manager in Visual Studio LightSwitch or browse the Visual Studio Gallery to find additional extensions to enrich your LightSwitch development toolbox. To make your life easier, however, this section briefly describes the most useful extensions from Microsoft partners and other vendors and that were not previously mentioned in Chapter 17, “Implementing Printing and Reporting” (which covered Telerik, Infragistics, DevExpress, and ComponentOne). Most of these extensions are not free, but they are useful enhancements for your business applications.

Document Toolkit for LightSwitch

Document Toolkit for LightSwitch is an extension that enables you to embed and manage documents in your applications. The toolkit, produced by the First Floor Software company (http://firstfloorsoftware.com), enables you to easily open documents in different formats, such as PDF and Word. Check it out at http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/9c0ff6c8-9523-4e5b-96c7-543107416fbe.

RSSBus Data Providers

With RSSBus data providers, you can connect your LightSwitch applications to a number of external data sources (beyond just databases). RSSBus extensions enable you to connect to external data sources through the Attach Data Source Wizard and import data from the specified data source as if it were a database, so that you can keep the usual approach of importing data into entities. RSSBus data providers are based on the ADO.NET Entity Framework. Here is a list of the available providers:

• Google Data Provider

• Facebook Data Provider

• PowerShell Data Provider

• QuickBooks Data Provider

• Twitter Data Provider

• SharePoint Data Provider

You can find a detailed description about each data provider on the RSSBus website (www.rssbus.com), and you can download trial versions from the Visual Studio Gallery (just browse the LightSwitch technology tag).

Infragistics NetAdvantage Light Edition

In Chapter 17, when reading about reporting extensions, you learned that Infragistics has released an extension called NetAdvantage for LightSwitch. The company has also released a Light Edition of this product. It ships for free and includes the following extensions:

• Metro theme

• Office 2010 theme

• Numeric Editor control

• Mask Editor control

You can download this extension from the Infragistics website, www.infragistics.com/dotnet/netadvantage/lightswitch.aspx#Overview.