Lightswitch Job Hunter Application

• Download source (zip)- 25 MB (link to my website)
• Download program (zip) - 9 MB (link to my website)

Introduction

Prove to us that LightSwitch was the best tool for the job! You must answer the following questions in order to qualify:

1. What does your application/extension do? What business problem does it solve?

   The application allows those who are searching for work to track job applications. Those of us who are unemployed might need to track dozens of job applications and ensure we are following up on our applications. Ensuring timely follow-ups will separate you from the pack.

2. How many screens and entities does this application have?

   The Job Hunter application has 10 screens, 3 entities, and 4 queries.

Additionally, answer as many questions below to improve your chances to win.

1. Did LightSwitch save your business money? How?

   It is not a business application, but a get yourself back to business application. It will save your bank account, by helping get back to work sooner.

2. Would this application still be built if you didn’t have LightSwitch? If yes, with what?

   Yes, I would have built it with WinForms, WPF, and an Access database or maybe Excel.

3. How many users does this application support?

   It is set for one user, but the source code is available for expanding.

4. How long did this application take to actually build using LightSwitch?

   The program took about 15 hours to build, but I was learning Lightswitch at the time. I could build it in as little as three hours now.

5. Does this application use any LightSwitch extensions? If so, which ones? Did you write any of these extensions yourself? If so, is it available to the public? Where?

   The application uses the freely available controls; including Bing Maps Lightswitch control, Web Address Type by Alessandro Del Sole, and the Office Black and Silver Theme by Cromanty. All controls are available from the Visual Studio Gallery

6. How did LightSwitch make your developer life better? Was it faster to build compared to other options you considered?

   Using Lightswitch made building the application dramatically faster. I could experiment and find the best way to build the application. It also allowed me to try several variations of deployment, before beginning use.

   There is one part that I hope to finish in the near future. A complete installer as described by Vincent at kartones.net (Lightswitch Installer). This would be optimal to help someone who knows little about installing a DB.

Links, Screenshots, Videos

Demo video of application can be viewed here.

Screenshots

Home Screen

Company List Detail - Company Information

Company List Detail - Job Application and Follow-Up Information

Company List Detail - Bing Map of Where Company Is Located

Follow-Up Screen - "Active" Job Applications That Have Not Been Updated (Modified) in More Than 7 Days

Applications this Week - For US unemployment, you need to fill out who you've applied to

Other screens are search - All, Active, and Inactive.

A neat little bit of code I had to learn to create the LINQ query to look up active jobs that have not been modified in over 7 days.

' Preprocess Query to select only active jobs that have not been modified in over 7 days.
Private Sub FollowUpDue_PreprocessQuery(ByRef query As System.Linq.IQueryable_
             (Of LightSwitchApplication.JobAppliedFor))
    ' Today minus 7 days
    Dim DatePlus = Date.Now.AddDays(-7D)
    '  query jobAppliedFors Table that are active and last modified over 7 days ago.
    query = From jobAppliedFors In query
            Where jobAppliedFors.Active = True
            Where jobAppliedFors.DateModified < DatePlus
            Order By jobAppliedFors.DateModified
End Sub

Points of Interest

One thing I learned is how to create basic LINQ queries and how to better create a database. Building this application really has helped me understand how to better understand development. LightSwitch reduces the initial learning curve of database development and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about software development. It should be used in school as a learning tool!