This article describes how you can upload files using LightSwitch, and store them on the server hard drive. This is different from uploading files and storing them in the server database.

If you want to upload files and store them in the database, see How Do I: Import and Store a Data File by Matt Sampson.



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WCF RIA Services are the “fix any data issue” solution. If the problem is getting data to your LightSwitch application, and the normal create or add table will not work, the answer is to use a WCF RIA Service.

The default Add and Edit screens generated by LightSwitch often don’t allow the control you need to meet the business requirements.  Consider the scenario where an entity must have a password column.  Ideally we’d want the ‘Add’ screen to look something like this:



The default Add and Edit screens are inadequate for two reasons.

No masked password text box A second password text box is required for matching, requiring a property that doesn’t...

There is no built-in reporting for LightSwitch. DevExpress provides a Free LightSwitch reporting control...

One of the greatest benefits to using LightSwitch, is that it automatically manages data integrity when multiple users are updating data. It also provides a method to resolve any errors that it detects.

The first issue is very important, and with most web applications, it is not handled. Simply, the last person to save a record overwrites any other changes, even if those other changes were made after the user initially pulled up the record. The second issue, a method to resolve this situation, is priceless, because the code to create the “conflict resolution process” is considerable.

This blog post does not contain any code examples, because there is no code for you to write to get all these features!



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