Microsoft Releases Visual Studio LightSwitch

Microsoft has released its latest development tool, Visual Studio LightSwitch, to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers.

Simply put, LightSwitch is a new tool aimed at business application developers who may not be versed in the art of programming. Microsoft says LightSwitch is the simplest way to build business applications for the cloud and the desktop. Users can take their LightSwitch applications to the cloud by publishing to Windows Azure directly from the LightSwitch integrated development environment (IDE).

LightSwitch provides a variety of prebuilt templates and tools to build business applications that target Windows Client or Windows Azure using as much or as little code as you want to write, said S. "Soma" Somasegar, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Developer Division, in blog post introducing the technology last year.

"You can quickly build line-of-business applications beginning with only one decision Visual Basic or C#," Somasegar said.

In a July 26 blog post, Jason Zander, corporate vice president for the Visual Studio Team at Microsoft, said LightSwitch starts with the premise that most business applications consist of data and the screens that users interact with. LightSwitch simplifies attaching to data with data source wizards or creating data tables with table designers, Zander said. It also includes screen templates for common tasks so you can create clean interfaces for your applications without being a designer. Basic applications can be written without a line of code. However, users can add custom code that is specific to their business problem without having to worry about setting up classes and methods.

To read the original eWeek article, click here: Microsoft Launches Visual Studio LightSwitch