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Autorefresh Lightswitch Screen In Lightswitch 2011

In this article I will explain how to auto refresh lightswitch screen.

Software Requirement

Before you start reading this tutorial you should make sure that

Visual studio 2010 is installed on your machine.
Visual Studio 2010 service pack 1 is installed on your machine.
Microsoft Visual Studio Light switch 2011 is installed on your machine.

Prerequisite Knowledge

Before you go ahead, it is required that you should know

What is lightswitch?
What are screens and entities in lightswitch?
How to create an entity in lightswitch?
How to create screens in lightswitch?

Creation Of New Project

First of all create a new project. See the screen shot below for project structure

Picture showing the project structure of the lightswitch project

Click to Enlarge

Add Employee Entity In The Project

After the project creation, add an employee entity in the project. See the screen shot below

Picture showing the schema of Employee table in lightswitch

Click to Enlarge

Add Editable Grid Screen

Once an employee entity is added, add a new editable grid screen in the project. See the project structure

Picture showing the editable grid screen added in the project

Click to Enlarge

Add Records In The Table

Run the application and insert records in the table

Picture showing records added in the lightswitch project

Click to Enlarge

Add Timer In The Screen

Add following code in code behind

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Microsoft.LightSwitch;
using System.Windows.Threading;
using Microsoft.LightSwitch.Threading;

namespace LightSwitchApplication {
	public partial class EditableEmployeesSetGrid {
		partial void EditableEmployeesSetGrid_InitializeDataWorkspace(List < IDataService > saveChangesTo) {
			Dispatchers.Main.BeginInvoke(() = >{
				Timer.Tick += new EventHandler(Each_Tick);
				Timer.Start();
			});

		}

		private static readonly DispatcherTimer Timer = new DispatcherTimer() {
			Interval = TimeSpan.FromSeconds(5) // Create a timer to refresh screen
		};

		private void Each_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e) {
			Dispatchers.Main.BeginInvoke(() = >{
				EmployeesSet.Refresh();
			});
		}
	}
}

In the code above while declaring the timer we are setting the time span equal to 5 seconds. It means that we want screen to be refreshed every 5 seconds. In the initialize event we are registering the tick event. Finally in the tick event we are writing code to refresh the current screen.

When you run the code you can see the screen gets refreshed every 5 seconds.

Posted By -	Ritesh Arya

Posted On -	Wednesday, September 19, 2012

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