LightSwitch 2011Simple on the outside – rich on the

inside

circles of insightmicrosoft

lightswitch 2011rich on the inside, simple on the

outside…

paul van bladel – october 2011

who am i ?paul van bladel

• IT technophile @KBC with strong emphasis on Microsoft .NET

• educated as :• musician (royal conservatory brussels)• economist (kuleuven)

• no-nonsense IT• works for competence center of  .net development

department: internal head-quarter non core-banking apps

• paul.vanbladel@gmail.com

overviewpart 1: what is lightswitch? a demo is worth a thousand slides...part 2: key success factors for a LOB frameworkpart 3: build/deploy something

part 1what is lightswitch?

show me the money...

quick introbrand new microsoft framework/RAD tool for building LOB apps

• history : I’m involved in lightswitch as early adopter from

• beta 1: august 2010 • Version 2011: 28 July 2011

• quick demo of a canonical example• architectural overview:

full blown 3 tier: silverlight client (in and out of browser) IIS sql server (or other persistence store)

extension framework

part 2key success factors for a

LOB framework

is lightswitch ok?

 enterprise apps• what is an enterprise application (a LOB app), a

software factory approach? predictability

better cost/benefit ratio uncovering/canalizing the hidden cost of 'creativity'

separation of duties: building software / building framework.

assures that certain patterns are followed assures that a certain security implementation is in

place. takes care of cross-cutting concerns

build your own framework

Good luck ...

Entity Framework  - Ria Services - MVVM - MVC3 - Dependency Injection - Boiler plate code - Code

generation - T4 - Transaction Management - State Management - Authentication - Identity – Authorization –

Unity – MEF - PRISM ...

is lightswitch something for you?

• when is lightswitch definitely nothing for you?• observe the two sides of the spectrum:

• access/Excel (mind hidden cost : macros/vb/convention)

• full blown DDD/CQRS (see martin fowler:  http://martinfowler.com/articles/lmax.html

• how much room is left ?• probably a lot• generates more business.

how does it fit in ALM?

scrum customers get already a working software in a very

early analysis phase the customer can test, enter data, play… very early. V1 has some alm limitations:

no test driven development possible using TFS is possible, but working with more than 3

people on same software is cumbersome. (one big model file)

adopt ithow do you like to think about a strategy for adopting a LOB framework?• taking into account only the view of software architects

does not necessarily leads to a good cost/benefit ratio.• some architects tend to choose for over-

engineered frameworks. (bazooka mosquito)• I like:

• value chain approach: mind the value-adding to the customers of your customers (Michael Porter)

• eco-system thinking (stakeholders-approach) recognizes strong dynamic relations between

stakeholders

a framework should...• make things as simple as possible but no simpler

…albert einstein

• similarities between scientific model and software (both model of reality)

time dilatationthe twin paradox

E

Castor: stays home 100 year olderPollux: travels at 0,999 c 4,5 year older

faster than ctachyons travel faster than c

particles with imaginary mass m

albert is greatE

{make things as simple as possible...}F {... but no simpler} Newtonian Paradigm

a framework should...be simple and transparent on the outside and rich on the inside

simple things should be possible in a simple way, more complicated requirements must be possible

but... making possible complex requirements should never hinder simple things in a simple manner

convention over configuration it should exhibit "evolutionary disclosure"

a framework should...

be friendly

part 3build something.... now !

features• 3 key words: Data - Querying - Screens ("naked object"

approach)• Web deploy• explore some extensions

query filter extension excel importer extension bing map control extension (show how it is hooked up) http://demo.componentone.com/LightSwitch/OLAP/

• LightSwitch future: the future is bright The under-the-hood design could allow other application

types as well: Metro style - Htlm5