5 #Lightning Tips for Visualforce Devs!

Most of us Salesforce Developers have started our development in Salesforce Classic. Now that the Lightning Experience is out there, we're starting to migrate our skillset from Visualforce to Lightning.

If you're in the process of starting your journey from Visualforce to Lightning, please keep reading, as I've got 5 tips for you! I hope you find them useful.

#1 - JavaScript Understanding

When I was more involved in Java projects I used to build apps with the DOJO framework. This is a JavaScript toolkit that provides multiple elements and UI components to help with Web App development.
When I moved to Lightning, I found this skillset very useful. I kept finding similarities between the Lightning and the DOJO framework.
So my #1 recommendation when it comes to starting with #Lightning is to have some JavaScript understanding. Any of the other popular frameworks (jQuery, ...) can do to help you understand the underlying JavaScript architecture.

#2 - Embedded #Lightning Components

The Lightning Experience provides a beautiful environment, and it's a very user-friendly one. But those who have been working on Salesforce Classic for a while (as is my case) may find it difficult to adjust to the new approach; and changing the look and feel of the platform, as well as the underlying technology, all at once, may be a bit disconcerting.
That's why I'd recommend starting by embedding your first #Lightning Components inside a Visualforce page that you can hook anywhere in Salesforce Classic.

The image above is an example of a Visualforce page that embeds the NewContactDataInput Lightning component. Note the use of the  < apex:includeLightning />  tag. Also be aware that not all the Lightning events are supported in Classic, but it's a good start to create something in #Lightning within your comfort zone of Salesforce Classic and Visualforce pages. 

#3 - Read the #Lightning Documentation

A good start point to understand the new Lightning Framework is the Official Documentation, where you can find the principles of the new technology, based on the open source Aura Framework.
I also find very useful the style documentation available in the SLDS (Salesforce Lightning Design System), where you find examples of the CSS classes used in the #Lightning Experience, and you can learn how to use them for your own custom components.

#4 - Explore your Developer Tools

One of my favourite tools is the MavensMate IDE. I use it together with Sublime Text 3 and it's really easy to use. The Lightning Component Bundles are made of a number of files; I find it quite difficult to navigate through the different elements from the Salesforce Developer Console.

Luckily, the IDE groups the files in the Bundle in the same folder, making it very easy to switch from the component to the controller, as shown in the image on top of these lines.

#5 - Test is a must!

When you work with Lightning Components, you find yourself in the wonderful world of a great UI experience; this is great because you "see your work" making progress!
However, sometimes this can distruct you from your Unit Tests, which will become a nightmare at deployment phase...
Trust me, I've found myself spending a whole day adding little bits and pieces to make my component look stunning, because the SLDS is so beautiful and easy to customise that your creativity gets boosted, but you can't forget about your component's controller; your controller is still an Apex class, and it needs to be Unit Tested to make it to Production!

And that's all for now. I hope you find this post useful.
Happy coding!  

Being a Salesforce Developer in the Community

There are times in your life when you pause for a few seconds and think to yourself: 'How did I end up here?'

I do that quite often; while I'm commuting to and from work or while travelling from here to there on the plane... Those moments that only belong to you, when only you can hear your thoughts... I do my own retrospectives, having an insight to what my life is and how I got to be the person I am and doing what I do.

And I'm talking about this because the content of my thoughts at those moments is actually my career path, and how I ended up being a Salesforce developer.

My previous development experience had mainly been with Java, working for a big consultancy firm on the financial services sector, and then working for a small consultancy on big civil engineering projects. That's when I heard about this other small company called Desynit with a few Java projects, but with a special focus on a different technology called Salesforce. And from that moment, my life as a developer started changing, giving me skills I hadn't had the chance to develop before.

What's the Salesforce learning curve?

This is one of the questions I'm asked more frequently, and the answer to it is simple: if you're a developer with an object oriented background, then it's really quick. My experience, coming from a Java background, is that you can easily learn Apex with minimal effort.

The rest (Visualforce, Lightning, ...) depends on your front-end skills before starting with Salesforce, but I always recommend everyone to take a look at Trailhead, where they can learn all things Salesforce, from user to admin to development; hundreds of guided tutorials that you can try yourself with the free Salesforce Developer ORGs.

My experience in the Community

The Salesforce community is a huge online space where you find answers to your questions, and also very funny pictures of people having fun in their DUGs (Salesforce Developer User Groups). From Twitter to Salesforce Stack Exchange you have lots of resources and people willing to help.

And that's what I've done myself. I surf the net looking for answers to my problems, I ask my questions to my fellow developers on Twitter, where the Salesforce community is huge.


 
But one of the things that's helped me the most was running my local Salesforce Developer User Group in Sevilla. Meeting people in your local area who work on your same industry is a key factor to motivate yourself. Since then, I've been able to show Salesforce to people who didn't know anything about Salesforce, and also discuss more advanced topics with other Salesforce professionals.

Since then I've given a few presentations and overcome one of my biggest fears in the past, public speaking. Having attended a few Salesforce events over the world, it was something I really wanted to be able to do. I started giving a few presentations as part of our DUG meetings, and managed to do a couple more with a bigger audience at Madrid Essentials.

And now I'm looking forward to the next one!


These are just a few things that make me appreciate to be part of the Salesforce community. It's been a long time since I've complained about work, so that must be a sign that some things are working well...

But if there's one thing that I can say is always true and constant in the Salesforce world, that is definitely LEARNING. There's always something new to learn. LEARN! LEARN! LEARN!

So keep your eyes peeled!

 

Being a Certified Force.com Developer

Under the title of New year? - New Salesforce Certificate!, our first developer meetup of 2014 happened on the 8th of January at The Llandoger Trow pub, in Bristol (UK). The group meetups have been going on every other month since October 2012, giving developers around the South West of England the opportunity to gather and chat about Salesforce development.

The theme of the meetup in this occasion was Certification; at Desynit we have made our new years resolutions, and we are planning on getting our "Force.com Developer" and "Force.com Advanced Developer" certifications; hence the meetup.

Attendees chatting at the meetup

My colleague Simon created a really good presentation about getting Certified as a "Force.com Developer", in which I contributed with my own experience on preparing for the test and all the certification process. You can find a really good explanation of the Force.com Developer certification on his blog, from prices and training available to the duration of the test and format of the questions.

This is the presentation with all the slides we presented at the meetup.

Becoming a Salesforce certified developer from Simon Lawrence

Achieving the "Force.com Developer" certification was one of my objectives for the year after my annual review at Desynit, so I could get more involvement with Salesforce.com projects in the company.

When I took my "Force.com Developer" certification test I had been working on the platform for about 6 months. I had been developing on projects, involving object and field creation, some workflow and validation rules, some Visualforce and Apex triggers, and so forth. My experience had been with quite a few of the features of the Salesforce.com platform, having used both the point and click approach and some hands-on coding; this was enough to go for it.

The first thing I did as part of my preparation for the test was to go through the Force.com Workbook, which goes through the creation of a basic Warehouse application. By following this tutorial you are exposed to most of the aspects of the Salesforce.com platform; creation of an app, the required objects and fields, some business logic and some user interface customisation. It is a really good starting point as it explains the basics of the platform without going very deeply into details.

After the workbook I started the Force.com Fundamentals book, which is a much more in-depth guide to all of the features available in the Salesforce.com platform, and it is the main reference when it comes to the preparation of the "Force.com Developer" certification. This book also goes through the creation of an application, explaining all the steps in the process with a lot more details than the workbook. My main focus on this book was the Security and the Reporting sections, as they represent quite a big portion of the overall exam, and I hadn't had that much exposure to them on my day-to-day work.

Me presenting my slide

My last suggestion with regards to preparing for the "Force.com Developer" exam would be to have a look at the Study Guide, that can be found here, and gives a full outline of the exam and the weight of each section on the test. I would also recommend having a look at audit fields, multi-currency and encrypted fields, because these are not covered in the Fundamentals book and there are always a couple of questions about them in the exam.

After our presentation, my colleague Chris gave another presentation with his experience on getting the "Force.com Advanced Developer" certification, so if you are already a certified developer, have a look at his blog post and check what else it takes to become a "Force.com Advanced Developer", I'm already working on it, as I'm planning to get the Advanced certification by the end of the year.

If you are thinking about why we do this meetups and would like to join us, here are some of the reasons why you should join our Salesforce Developer User Group, so give it a go and sign up for the next event!