Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch Alternatives

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch is a simplified self-service development tool that enables you to build business applications quickly and easily for the desktop and cloud.

Microsoft Visual Studio LightSwitch is an extension and framework specifically tailored for creating line-of-business applications built on existing .NET technologies and Microsoft platforms. The applications produced are architecturally 3-tier: the user interface runs on either Microsoft Silverlight, HTML 5 client or as a SharePoint 2013 app; the logic and data-access tier is built on WCF Data Services and exposed as an OData feed hosted[156] in ASP.NET; and the primary data storage supports Microsoft SQL Server Express, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft SQL Azure. LightSwitch also supports other data sources including Microsoft SharePoint, OData and WCF RIA Services.

LightSwitch includes graphical designers for designing entities and entity relationships, entity queries, and UI screens. Business logic may be written in either Visual Basic or Visual C#. LightSwitch is included with Visual Studio 2012 Professional and higher.

The user interface layer is now an optional component when deploying a LightSwitch solution, allowing a service only deployment.