Alessandro Del Sole - Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch Unleashed

Alessandro Del Sole

800 East 96th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 USA

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch Unleashed
Copyright 2012 by Pearson Education, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. Nor is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

ISBN-13: 978-0-672-33553-2
ISBN-10: 0-672-33553-0

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Del Sole, Alessandro.
Microsoft Visual studio LightSwitch unleashed / Alessandro Del Sole.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-672-33553-2
1. Microsoft Visual studio LightSwitch. 2. Visual programming (Computer science)
Computer programs. 3. Application softwareDevelopmentComputer programs.
I. Title.
QA76.65.D45 2012
005.7'26dc23
2012002305

Printed in the United States of America
First Printing: February 2012

Editor-in-Chief
Greg Wiegand

Executive Editor
Neil Rowe

Development Editor
Mark Renfrow

Managing Editor
Sandra Schroeder

Senior Project Editor
Tonya Simpson

Copy Editor
Keith Cline

Indexer
Brad Herriman

Proofreader
Sarah Kearns

Technical Editor
Beth Massi

Publishing Coordinator
Cindy Teeters

Book Designer
Gary Adair

Compositor
Mark Shirar

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Microsoft, Visual Studio, and LightSwitch are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

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Alessandro Del Sole has been a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for Visual Basic since 2008. He is well known throughout the global Visual Basic community worldwide. He is a community leader on the Italian Visual Basic Tips & Tricks website (more than 44,100 developers) and on the LightSwitch Tips & Tricks website. He is a frequent contributor to the Visual Basic Developer Center on MSDN and the author of many articles about .NET development. The author of five technical books, Alessandro was awarded MVP of the Year for Visual Basic in 2009 and 2010.

In your whole life, there will be only two people who will never
deceive you: your mum and your daddy. This book is dedicated to
my mum and daddy, who always helped me, who sacrificed much
in their lives to help make me become a man and see me happy. No
mere thanks will ever be enough to thank you as you would really
deserve. Take care.

Who finds a real friend, finds a treasure. My treasure and friend is
Nadia. Youre the one who knows when Im happy, when Im sad,
and what I really need without me speaking a single word. Youre
the best friend one could ever have, and Im lucky to have you by
my side. I wish you all the happiness in the world.

I want to thank Neil Rowe, Brook Farling, and all at Sams Publishing for another great experience of working together. Writing a book like this is a very hard work, but working with people like you makes things easier. Thanks!

My deep, special thanks go to Beth Massi from the LightSwitch team at Microsoft. As the technical editor of this book, Beth worked with a great passion and attention through what I wrote and provided great suggestions about what readers needed to know, all the while sharing her real-world experience. From her contribution to this book, Ive learned more about LightSwitch than I could have ever learned on my own. LightSwitch developers should always remember her words: In LightSwitch, the only code you write is the only code you could write, the business logic. You are a great part of this success, Beth.

My thanks go, as well, to the whole Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch team for all the amazing and important technical discussions weve had. In particular, I want to thank John Stallo, who always answered my technical questions with great care and attention; Joe Binder, for his helpful suggestions about custom shells; Michael Eng, for important discussions about integrating LightSwitch with Team Foundation Server 2010; Karol Zadora-Przylecki and Eric Erhardt, whose explanations about threading and shells have been so important. This is a great team, and I have learned a lot from all of you.

A special mention goes to my friend Michael Washington, Silverlight MVP and one of the foremost experts on LightSwitch in the world. He never tires of helping the LightSwitch developer community. We shared many interesting technical discussions, but most important, Michael has in mind the noblest meaning of the word community. Many thanks, Michael.

Many thanks to Mei Liang and Lisa Feigenbaum at Microsoft, who are passionate about their jobs. They have been very helpful to me, especially in connecting with the right people for information.

There are moments in which you get tired of sleepless nights, and good words from a special friend are always important, no matter how many times you see or talk on the phone with them. So, Nicolle Prosser and Karin Meier, thank you!

Thanks to Alfonso Ghiraldini and Francesco Bosticco for their cordiality.

Great thanks also to the Italian subsidiary of Microsoft, which always encourages my community contributions and important works like this. My special thanks to my MVP lead Alessandro Teglia, who always does his job with an uncommon passion.

I would like to thank my everyday friends, who are always ready to encourage me and who share my happiness for my technical successes, even if they are not techies. So, thanks from the bottom of my heart to Roberto Bianchi, Alessandro Ardovini, Francesca Bongiorni, Paolo Leoni, Leonardo Amici, and Sara Gerevini. You are my second family, and I love you all.

Back in August 2010, I and some other fellow MVPs co-founded the one and only Italian community about Visual Studio LightSwitch, called LightSwitch Tips & Tricks (www.lightswitch.it). This has been an opportunity to share discussions on the product and learn something new every day. So, thanks to my fellow Microsoft MVPs Diego Cattaruzza, Renato Marzaro, and Antonio Catucci, but also to my great friend Marco Notari, and to all of you readers who trusted me by purchasing this book and who come to read my blog or my articles daily.