Summary

This chapter has covered many data-related topics. You have learned that entities and properties are the core units of data used in LightSwitch. Entities are synonymous with rows from a database table, and properties can be thought of as fields or columns from a table.

By default, you can use LightSwitch to attach to SQL Server, SharePoint, or RIA service data sources. You can attach to any data source as long as a compatible entity framework provider for that data source is available.

If using SQL Server, try to ensure that all tables have primary keys and correct relationships set up. Tables without primary keys cannot be attached to LightSwitch. Relationships cannot be defined in LightSwitch if they haven't been set up at the SQL Server level. This makes it very difficult to use the AutoCompleteBox on screens to select related records. A workaround to resolve this problem is to use two separate data sources.