Build an issue tracking application for your IT helpdesk—coding optional

This starter kit allows the entry and management of issues and any associated work performed to resolve issues. Issues are organized according to a lightweight employee–manager hierarchy, where managers are given increased control over the issues of their assigned employees. A simple category management feature allows issues to be easily organized and sorted by all users. The application you build is ready to use for basic needs and can be easily extended to enable customized scenarios.

Easy setup for end users

Users can be added to the application either manually using the ManageEmployees task, or automatically the first time they open the application. Employees opening the application for the first time will be prompted to enter just a few basic fields. The application integrates with Windows to pull the employee’s user name, ensuring that the user name created in the application matches the user name in the host system. Once the employee has been added as a user, the application will start up in the My Reported Issues screen on any future launch.

Clear and simple interface

Employees using the application will appreciate how easily they can report new issues, see the issues that have been assigned to them, and manage the data stored in the application. The Report New Issue screen allows a user to record new issues in a straightforward way. After details are completed and saved, the new issue report will be shown and work log items can be added, edited, or removed using the toolbar in the Work Logs grid. The My Assigned Issues screen allows employees to see the issues that are assigned to them. Administrators can use the Manage Categories screen and the Manage Employees screen to easily manage the data in these tables. They can also add, edit, or delete any issue in the system, regardless of its status, in the Manage All Issues screen.

User roles and permissions

LightSwitch has a built-in security model based on Windows authentication. Every LightSwitch application, by default, has two screens—Users and Roles—that make it easy to manage the mapping of user identities in Windows to the users of the LightSwitch application and to manage the roles and permissions that a user may be associated with. The LightSwitch demo applications currently do not make use of roles and permissions, but the screens have been included so that you can implement them if necessary. The Users screen allows administrators to map Windows User Identities to a user of a LightSwitch application. The Roles Screen allows an administrator to create different roles and assign different permissions to them.