Projects: The Container for Your Application

You store and organize the pieces of your application by using projects in Visual Studio LightSwitch. Each application that you create has its own project, which contains the data entities, screens, queries, and resources that are required to build the application.

All these pieces are stored in files, but you don't have to think of a project in terms of files. In fact, the default view of a project in Solution Explorer provides a logical view of the application.

Project Types

You can create the following types of projects by using LightSwitch in Visual Studio 2012 Update 2:

Project Template	Description	Uses New Solution Model
LightSwitch Application (Visual Basic)	Creates an application with a Silverlight client, using Visual Basic code for both the server and client components.	No
LightSwitch Application (Visual C#)	Creates an application with a Silverlight client, using C# code for both the server and client components.	No
LightSwitch HTML Application (Visual Basic)	Creates an application with an HTML 5 client, using Visual Basic code for the server component and JavaScript code for the client component.	Yes
LightSwitch HTML Application (Visual C#)	Creates an application with an HTML 5 client, using C# code for the server component and JavaScript code for the client component.	Yes

The project template that you choose is just a starting point. You can add an HTML client to a LightSwitch Application project, and you can add a Silverlight client to a Lightswitch HTML Application project. The server code and entity model are shared between clients, and you can’t change the language. If you add an HTML client to a LightSwitch Application project, the project is upgraded to use the new solution model.

Note

If you haven’t installed Visual Studio 2012 Update 2, you can't choose the Lightswitch HTML Application templates or add an HTML client to a project.

Solution Models

A LightSwitch project uses one of two solution models, or Solution Explorer views, depending on the types of clients that the project contains. A LightSwitch Application project uses the same model as earlier versions of LightSwitch, with Data Sources and Screen nodes in Solution Explorer.

A Lightswitch HTML Application project uses a new model, which has Server and HTML Client nodes.

When you add an HTML client to a LightSwitch Application project, the solution is upgraded to the new model, and the HTML client becomes the default startup project. After the upgrade, you must have Visual Studio 2012 Update 2 installed to open the project.

Related Topics

Title	Description
How to: Create, Open, Save, or Delete a Project	Describes common tasks for working with projects.
Managing Settings in LightSwitch	Contains links to topics about how to set project properties.
Security Considerations for LightSwitch	Describes security features and considerations.
LightSwitch Authentication and Authorization	Describes how to create an application that implements authentication and authorization.
Walkthrough: Localizing a LightSwitch Application	Demonstrates how to create an application that supports multiple languages.
Exporting Data to Microsoft Excel	Describes how to export data from an application.
Upgrading Projects Created in Earlier Versions of LightSwitch	Provides information about compatibility between versions of LightSwitch.

See Also

Concepts

Visual Studio LightSwitch