Getting Started with Visual Studio LightSwitch

UPDATE 12/15/2011 –
This blog post is based on Beta 2. Now that Visual Studio LightSwitch has released please head on over to this Getting Started series of tutorials: Beginning LightSwitch: Getting Started --------------------------------

Now that we’ve had Beta 2 released for over a month we’re seeing a LOT more people asking questions in our forums and visiting our developer center which is awesome! Sometimes people don’t know where to start, especially as more and more people start posting more advanced LightSwitch content out there on the web. So here’s where you start:

LightSwitch Developer Center - https://msdn.com/lightswitch

There on the home page you will see clear steps to get started.

Download Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2

Watch the instructional LightSwitch "How Do I?" videos

Get essential training

Ask questions in the LightSwitch forums

If you click on “Get essential training” then you will be taken to the Learn page which is broken down into the sections, Getting Started, Essential Topics, Advanced Topics. The getting started section is what you want to start with (I guess we named the section appropriately )

Getting Started

Are you completely new to Visual Studio LightSwitch? This information will help you get started using LightSwitch to develop business applications for the desktop or the cloud. Be sure to check out the step-by-step “How Do I”videos.

Create Your First LightSwitch Application

 Watch the LightSwitch How Do I Videos

Download the Visual Studio LightSwitch Training Kit

I’ll also recommend watching the following video of my session from Dev Days a couple weeks ago to give you an idea of what LightSwitch can do and how to quickly build a business application:

  Video Presentation: Introduction to Visual Studio LightSwitch

When you’ve worked yourself through the getting started section, move into the Essential Topic areas to drill in more. We add content here often so if you’re learning LightSwitch, you’ll want to bookmark this page.

Have fun and Enjoy!

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 17, 2011
  Hi Beth, Is there a way to use the Enter key instead of TAB to move between  textboxes on screen in LightSwitch? Thank You.

• Anonymous
  May 23, 2011
  I have not yet used light switch but basically you should be able to catch the return key and assign the tab function.

• Anonymous
  May 24, 2011
  het is heel goed voor je pc .ze helpen u silverlicht om u pc beter de doen gaan maar je kunt het vertalen op nederlands . zo kunt je er beter aan uit groetjes jan

• Anonymous
  August 31, 2011
  Beth: I thank you for your great LightSwitch Videos. I am currently working in video #7. I am prgramming in C# instead of VB.Net though. And I've run into a build error: First here is my code:        partial void OpenOrders_Changed(global::System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)        {            if (e.Action == System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add)            {                foreach (OrderHeader o in e.NewItems)                    o.Customer = this.Customer;            }        } Now the error: Error 1 No defining declaration found for implementing declaration of partial method 'LightSwitchApplication.OpenOrdersListDetail.OpenOrders_Changed(System.Collections.Specialized.NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs)' Can you help me figure out what is wrong here?

• Anonymous
  September 06, 2011
  Hi Alan, I'm not sure what is wrong. Did you make sure you named the Query "OpenOrders"? You should see the name of the screen query in the left hand side of the screen designer. HTH, -Beth

• Anonymous
  September 20, 2011
  Not sure how I did it, but I eventually was able to enter the code as required. Just another example of the Duuuhhhh principle (As in: Duh, I don't know) at work I guess. Still great videos. It's help me explore some key concepts in LightSwitch. Alan

• Anonymous
  October 22, 2011
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  October 27, 2011
  The comment has been removed