Reference: Screen Designer Properties

Article
03/27/2017

For the latest documentation on Visual Studio 2017, see Visual Studio 2017 Documentation.

You can modify the appearance and behavior of a screen by setting the value of properties in the Properties window. The following tables describe each property.

General Properties

Name	Description
Data Binding	The source of data for the control.
Use Read-only Controls	Indicates whether the sub controls that are contained within the control can be edited by the user. For example, if you select Use Read-only Controls for a data grid control, users will not be able to edit the fields that appear in the data grid.
Description	The text that appears as a tooltip when users point to the control by using the mouse.
Display Name	The name that appears in the screen.
Query Source	Applies to collections on a screen only. The data source of a collection on the screen.
Is Visible	Indicates whether the control appears in the screen.
Name	The name used by LightSwitch, and that you use to refer to this control in custom code.
Control Type	The type of control that you want to use. For more information about each control type, see the following sections: - Control Types for a Group - Control Types for a Field
Property Type	The type of data that appears in the control.
Auto Execute Query	Applies to collections on a screen only. Indicates whether the query that populates the collection runs when the screen that contains the collection is opened.
Support Paging	Indicates whether the data in a collection appears as pages of information. If you select this property, set the number of items that appear in a page by setting the No. of items to display per page property.
No. of items to display per page	Applies to collections on a screen only. The number of items you want a page of information to contain.
Support Sorting	Applies to collections on a screen only. Indicates whether you want users to be able to sort information in a collection by clicking column headings in the control that displays the collection.
Support Search	Applies to collections on a screen only. Indicates whether you want the search box to appear above a collection in a screen.

Appearance Properties

Name	Description
Label Position	The location of the label of the control relative to the control. For more information about each label position setting, see Label Position Settings.
Rows	The number of rows that appears in the control.
Text Alignment	The position of the text within a control.
Use Small Button	Indicates whether to use small buttons for screen commands (For example: the Save button).
Show as Link	Indicates whether to make a label a hyperlink. Users can click the link to open a page.
Target Screen	The screen that opens when the user clicks a label that is formatted as a hyperlink.
Font Style	The font style of a label.
Disable Export to Excel	Indicates whether to enable users to export the data that appears in a collection. If you select this property, the Export to Excel button will not appear above the collection in the running application.
Horizontal Scroll Enabled	Specifies whether horizontal scrollbars can appear for the selected group.
Vertical Scroll Enabled	Specifies whether vertical scrollbars can appear for the selected group.
Maximum Label Width	Specifies the maximum width.
Image	Specifies a .png or .jpg file to display as a static image.
Stretch	Specifies how an image should be stretched to fit in the available space.
Show Border	Specifies whether a border should appear around an image.
Text	Specifies the text to appear in a Static Label.
Border Mode	Specifies how borders will appear in a Group Box.
Show Display Name	Specifies whether the Display Name appears in a Group Box.

Control Types for a Group

Name	Description
Summary	Displays the data that you specify in rows. Only one field of data is displayed in each row. You can specify which field appears by setting the Summary Property property of the entity or table in the data designer. For more information, see Reference: Data Designer Properties.
Modal Window	Adds a button to the screen that opens a modal window when clicked.
Rows Layout	Displays the data you specify in rows.
Columns Layout	Displays the data you specify in columns.
Table Layout	Displays the data that you specify in a table. Apply the TableColumn Layout to groups in a Table Layout.
TableColumn Layout	Displays data in a group within a Table Layout.
Tabs Layout	Displays the data you specify in tabs.
Picture and Text	Displays a picture on the left, and a title, subtitle, and description to the right of the picture.
Text and Picture	Displays a title, subtitle, and description on the left, and a picture to the right of the text.
Address Viewer	Displays a street address.
Address Editor	Displays a street address that is editable.
Group Box	Displays a frame around a group of controls with an optional caption.

Control Types for a Field

Name	Description
Text Box	A rectangular box in which the user can type text. If the box already contains text, the user can select that default text or delete it and type new text.
Label	Text that the user cannot edit.
Static Label	Displays text that isn’t bound to a data source.
Custom Control	A control created outside of the LightSwitch development environment. For more information, see How to: Add a Custom Control to a Silverlight Screen.
Date Time Picker	Enables the user to select a date and time.
Date Picker	Enables the user to select a date
Date Time Viewer	Provides a read-only control that displays the date and time.
Date Viewer	Provides a read-only control that displays the date.
Image Editor	Enables the user to remove an image or select a new image.
Image Viewer	Provides a read-only control that displays an image.
Static Image	Displays an image that isn’t bound to a data source.

Label Position Settings

Label position	Description
Left-aligned	The label appears to the left of the control.
Right-aligned	The label appears to the right of the control.
Top	The label appears above the control.
Bottom	The label appears below the control.
None	No label appears for the selected data field.
Collapsed	The label appears as collapsed.

Sizing Settings

Content size	Description
Horizontal Alignment	The position of the control within the horizontal space that is allocated for the control. Note: When Alignment is set to Stretch, Width settings are ignored. You can still specify a maximum and minimum size.
Vertical Alignment	The position of the control within the vertical space that is allocated for the control. Note: When Alignment is set to Stretch, Height settings are ignored. You can still specify a maximum and minimum size.
Width	The width of the control. You can specify the width in terms of the number of pixels or the number of characters. You can also enable LightSwitch to use an optimal size by selecting Auto. If you select Auto, you can provide a maximum and minimum size.
Height	The height of the control. You can specify the height in terms of the number of pixels or the number of lines. You can also enable LightSwitch to use an optimal size by selecting Auto. If you select Auto, you can provide a maximum and minimum size.