A while back I started posting a monthly rollup of interesting community happenings, content, samples and extensions popping up around Visual Studio LightSwitch. If you missed those rollups you can check them all out here: LightSwitch Community & Content Rollups.
I know this is the February rollup but I can’t leave out what we did yesterday from this one. We released an update to our Visual Studio Office Developer tools and it includes a ton of new features for LightSwitch and Cloud Business Apps!
Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2013 – March 2014 Update Available!
Yesterday the team released a free update for Visual Studio 2013 that contains a ton of new features that improves support for Office 365 Cloud Business Apps and LightSwitch projects as well as apps for Office&apps for SharePoint in Visual Studio 2013.
Download the Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2013 – March 2014 Update.
We hope you’ll love the new features in this release. We’ve got SAP support, enhanced data designers, improved HTML controls, new screen template, bookmarking, document library support, and a whole lot more. For all the details read our announcements on the LightSwitch Team Blog and the Visual Studio Team Blog.
Also see: What's New in Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2013 – March 2014 Update
Getting the New Features
- In order to get the latest tools, you’ll first need Visual Studio 2013 Professional or higher.
- Then click the download to launch the Web Platform Installer.
- Make sure you have the correct language selected that corresponds to your Visual Studio language (located at the bottom of the options dialog of the installer).
- Once the tools install, you’ll be able to create new projects with these features. If you have an existing Cloud Business App or LightSwitch solution, you’ll need to upgrade first. Right-click on the project and select “Upgrade Project…”. Keep in mind that once you do this your project files will be updated, so all members of your team will need the update installed to open the project again.
If you’re having trouble with the install or discovering issues with this release please report them in the LightSwitch MSDN Forum and the team will investigate.
New “How Do I…?” Video Series on Channel 9!![image]( "image")
I launched a new video series on Channel 9 that is all about building Cloud Business Apps for Office 365. The first one I do an end-to-end demonstration of connecting to SharePoint list data, creating a mobile-first HTML5 app, and making it available to users by deploying it to the corporate catalog. It’s a good overview to watch if you’ve never seen a Cloud Business App. Then I start drilling into more features in the rest. I plan on releasing more in the coming weeks to check back often!
Watch the Videos: Building Cloud Business Apps for Office 365 with Visual Studio 2013
Walkthroughs & Documentation
We’ve also got a new sample & walkthrough for you to try out that builds a Cloud Business App for Office 365 step-by-step. Check it out:
Incident Manager: A Cloud Business App Tutorial
And if you’re just starting out building apps for SharePoint I highly encourage you to start here: http://aka.ms/BuildSharePointApps. This page has information on how to get our tools and sign up for (or provision) an Office 365 Developer site.
More Notable Content this Month
Did I miss anything significant? Post a comment below!
Extensions & packages released this month (see over 100 extensions here and NuGet packages here):
- Microsoft.LightSwitch.Client.JavaScript.Runtime 2.5.0– This is the latest client runtime scripts. These are added to your project automatically when you upgrade to the March tools update.
- LightSwitch Twitter Feed Control 1.0.1– eerhardt
- JavaScript for LightSwitch HTML Client screens (Updated) – Alessandro Del Sole
Samples (see over 100 of them here!):
- Beginning LightSwitch in Visual Studio 2013 - Address Book HTML Sample
- Incident Manager: A Cloud Business App Tutorial
Team Articles:
- A Tour of the LightSwitch HTML Client APIs (Elizabeth Maher)
- Beginning LightSwitch in Visual Studio 2013 - Address Book HTML Sample (Beth Massi)
- Interacting with Content Items on the Screen with the LightSwitch API (Kevin Mehlhaff)
- Integrating a Twitter Feed into a LightSwitch Application (Eric Erhardt)
- Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2013 – March 2014 Update
- Promises in LightSwitch (Justin Anderson)
Community Rock Star Articles:
Thanks everyone for your awesome contributions in February! Another shout-out to Paul van Bladel who was ON FIRE this month with a whopping seven posts! WOW!
- Creating LightSwitch HTML Reports using ComponentOne Active Reports
- Design time sharing the LightSwitch database with a worker process (part 1/2)
- Design time sharing the LightSwitch database with a worker process (part 2/2)
- Ergonomically Re-Using search screen in the Lightswitch html client part 1/2
- Fetching the latest data in listviews and detail screens in the lightswitch html client
- Getting access to the current tab name in the Lightswitch html client
- Getting autocomplete “as you type” in search screens in the LightSwitch html client
- LS2013 HTML – Enhancing Table Control with Multi Column Sort and Filters
- My Recipe for a LightSwitch Demo
- One hour a day 180: Podcast on Building Mobile Apps on Lightswitch
- Progressive insight on autocomplete as you type in the Lightswitch html client
Forum Answerers
Thanks to all our LightSwitch forums contributors! Thank you for helping make the LightSwitch community a better place. It’s selfless dedication like this that makes our community rock.
Top 10 forum answerers in February:
Keep up the great work guys!
LightSwitch Team Community Sites
Become a fan of Visual Studio LightSwitch on Facebook. Have fun and interact with us on our wall. Check out the cool stories and resources. Here are some other places you can find the LightSwitch team:
LightSwitch MSDN Forums
LightSwitch Developer Center
LightSwitch Team Blog
LightSwitch on Twitter (@VSLightSwitch, #VS2013 #LightSwitch)
Enjoy!