Step 3: Create Screens in LightSwitch

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

In this lesson, you'll create screens to enter, display, and change data in your LightSwitch contact management application. You'll choose a screen template to create a common set of screens and specify the data to display.

Create a Screen

To create a screen for your application

  1. In Solution Explorer, open the shortcut menu for the Screens node, and then choose Add Screen.

    The Add New Screen dialog box appears.

  2. In the Select a screen template list, choose Common Screen Set.

  3. In the Screen Set Name text box, enter ContactList.

  4. In the Screen Data list, choose Contacts, and then choose the OK button.

    Three screens are added to Solution Explorer: AddEditContactList, BrowseContactLists, and ViewContactList.

    The Screen Designer opens and displays a representation of the layout and commands for the BrowseContactLists screen as the following illustration shows:

    The Screen Designer

Closer Look

You just created a set of screens for your application. The BrowseContactLists screen displays a list of contacts and is the home screen for your application. The ViewContactList screen displays the details for a contact, and as you might expect, the AddEditContactList screen lets you add or edit contacts.

LightSwitch sets up the navigation between screens without the need for any code. For example, when you choose a contact on the Browse screen, the View screen for that contact is automatically launched.

For this application, the default screen settings are appropriate, but you will usually want to customize screens in the Screen Designer. For example, you can hide fields, make fields read-only, or change the appearance and layout of data.

Next Steps

In the next lesson, you'll run your application and test its capabilities.

Next lesson: Step 4: Run and Test the Application

See Also

Step 2: Define the Data
Creating Your First LightSwitch Application
Screens: The User Interface of Your LightSwitch Application
How to: Customize a Silverlight Screen in a Running Application