#lightning components

For some, the idea of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system is simply an embellished database to store customer information… perhaps with some reporting on the side. This mindset is likely due to the transfer of knowledge in the decades before the advent of today’s cloud-based CRM, when a database was just a database. Today’s CRM systems however carry more weight than what you may perceive and in many ways can be akin to comparing a brick phone to today’s smartphone. Many advancements and related applications that used to be add-ons (or expensive custom coding) now come standard with today’s systems, and none more so than Salesforce which since 1999 has grown to be a leader in modern database systems. Plain Jane Out of the box, Salesforce provides a number of standard applications, known as ‘Objects’ to get any organization up and running, such as Accounts (Company data), Contacts (Person / Individual data), and Opportunities (Deal data). Many of the fields have already been configured so if your business uses a basic spreadsheet to track your customer and related information, odds are that the standard scenario is enough to get started. Staying on this topic for a moment, if you are using a spreadsheet or perhaps an older CRM or even a custom-built web-application and wish to get this data into Salesforce, the process is actually quite simple. This is accomplished via a data-load of your current information right into Salesforce by way of the industry-standard CSV file which for most systems (even ones going back decades) is just an export from your existing tool. Once you have your CSV File, then you need only map the fields in Salesforce. What if there are fields however that reside in your source database that don’t exist in Salesforce? This is where custom field generation comes in, and like the data-load process, is fairly straight-forward. Depending on the license type or subscription version of Salesforce, you can create between 100 - 800 custom fields, which for most Small-Medium Businesses is more than enough. So, for example if you are loading in customer data and there is a field in your old system (i.e. Architecture Type) which needs to be entered into Salesforce before data-load, all that needs to be done is to choose the fields type (i.e. Text, or Picklist) and that’s it. Once your Object has been set-up, the fields need only be presented in the logical function you wish by way of the Page Layout, and from there you can begin visualizing your data via lists or reports as well as create new records in Salesforce just like you did in your legacy application or spreadsheets. Additional options also come on-board such as Formulas and Validation Rules to ensure your data is kept clean and on-track. Next-Level Customization On-board, Salesforce provides different options for presenting the fields in your standard or custom objects. The most common is the side-by-side (i.e. Field #1 on left, Field #2 on right (Row 1) | Field #3 on left, Field #4 on right (Row 2) and so on) but what if you wanted to go beyond this and make a truly customized layout outside of what is available in the standard layout options? Salesforce offers two solutions to enable a custom presentation layout via Visualforce or Lightning Components. Visualforce provides a tag-based format similar to HTML in which to build the pages, while the components (elements) are built using Salesforce’s native programming language called ‘Apex’. Lightning Web Components is the next-generation customization engine which also utilizes Apex as well as JavaScript and is automatically mobile responsive. The option you choose depends on various factors, which you can determine from Rabia Bajaj’s comparison post.

While the majority of use-cases for Salesforce can be done using the declarative, or native components within the Sales or Service Cloud, there are unique situations when an alternative visual element may be required. For instance, if your firm has hundreds of users who have been using a legacy application for years or decades that you wish to be ported over to Salesforce, the need to make the interface as close to the original may be of high importance for both training and saving administrative time. Other reasons to pursue a custom design of your pages may be to include specific visual images (i.e. Icons / colors) displayed in certain locations within the page or to modify the styles of Text, Borders and other visual elements to a page. Taking It To The Streets With the ability to choose various alternatives for customizing your page, Salesforce can enable a unique page not only within your Sales or Service environment, but also for your external users, allowing your customers to log-in to a website, powered by the data in Salesforce through Experience Sites (previously known as Communities). Using a modern design / development interface similar to best-of-breed CMS tools, the IDE makes developing your customer-facing portals a palatable affair compared with time-consuming, manual-coding environments. As with professional CMS systems, every aspect of your website can be changed within the Salesforce Sites environment, giving your business a unique visual experience that aligns 1:1 with your marketing team’s brand and content strategy. Examples of businesses which utilize Salesforce for their customer interaction include USPS.com, Hulu and Dreambox, each of which have a unique style that looks like a modern website and not a database. By choosing to enable your external site using Salesforce, you have the ability of utilizing the data you already have, with the added benefit of capturing customer data right back into your CRM… a task that would otherwise be challenging when working with multiple tools and exporting / importing data to get the same result. When it comes to adding a truly unique splash of paint to your CRM, it is important to realize that not all databases are created equal. If your firm is considering a one-of-a-kind visual experience (especially when it involves an external customer-facing site) consider the features that come on-board with the various options provided by Salesforce and compare with other CRM (and/or CMS) providers. With Sales or Service Cloud you have the option of layout changes within any Object’s page, or go completely custom via VisualForce or Lightning Web Components, and for your customers, if your site is powered by Salesforce, while your visitors see a custom-built website, they may never know it’s Salesforce that’s powering the experience.

The What, Why, and Hows of Lightning Web Components.

What are Lightning Web Components?

Salesforce introduced Lightning Web Components (LWC) in it’s latest Spring 19 release.  Lightning web components are custom HTML elements built using HTML and modern JavaScript.  It is based on Web Standard. It leverages custom elements, templates, shadow DOM, decorators, modules, and other new language…

Salesforce Lightning is a segment based system for application advancement from Salesforce (dot) com that is intended to rearrange forms for business clients, who ordinarily don't have programming knowledge.

Lightning includes the gathering of instruments and advances behind a huge move up to the Salesforce1 Platform.

The Lightning highlights are:

• Experience, a graphical UI (GUI) that is improved for speed.

• Lightning App Builder, which gives simplified abilities to encourage application creation and customization.

• Lightning Component Framework, which incorporates devices and expansions that empower the advancement of reusable parts and independent applications and customization of the Salesforce1 Mobile App.

• App Exchange for Components, which makes more than 50 accomplice segments accessible in the App Builder.

• Design System, which offers style aides and client encounter (UX) best practices for application improvement.

• Lightning Connect, a reconciliation instrument that makes it simpler for Force.com applications to expend information from any outside source that fits in with the O Data determination.

O Lightning Components é uma User Interface Framework de desenvolvimento de aplicações web dinâmicas para mobile e desktop. Foi desenvolvida com base na Aura Framework e consiste na criação de vários componentes que comunicam entre si através de eventos.

Quais os principais objectivos do Lightning Components?

Acelerar o desenvolvimento de aplicações e a sua performance;

Facilitar o desenvolvimento para Salesforce1 e Lightning Experience;

Custos de desenvolvimento e implementação mais acessíveis.

A criação de app com Lightning Components pode ser feita através de Drag an Drop no Lightning App Builder. Caso os componentes já existam qualquer cliente pode facilmente criar as suas próprias apps juntando os componentes que pretende.

Quer saber mais sobre Lightning Components?

Veja estes slides ou entre em contacto com Dom Digital! Estamos cá para ajudar a criar aplicativos que impulsionam rapidamente os resultados reais do seu negócio!

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  The room lights were dimmed, presentation was up and running, attendees had taken their seats and seemed excited and the Presenter(Me, Atul Gupta) was nervous, excited and anxious.

Yes this is the story of 2nd New Delhi Salesforce DG Meetup and the 1st offline #SalesforceSaturday session. After having the Revival Meetup on 21st February, this Meetup was topped up with a…

Here is the Presentation for the Lightning Components Explained  we had as part of the New Delhi Salesforce DG Meetup and #SalesforceSaturday session on 23rd April, 2016

    Join:

Meetup.com Group http://bit.ly/1QMPNRj­

Twitter http://bit.ly/20g2I0A­

New Delhi Salesforce DUG Success Community Group http://sforce.co/1oc0lQA

  Stay tuned. More Tips to come. Please…