All my friends working on SFDC or Salesforce are aware that lighting is the latest in-thing. Also those trying to cross to the cloud will be greeted by this catchy word! I will not go into the technicalities of it but would like to list out some of the frequently asked questions on lightning.
Q: What is Lightning?
A: Lightning is the collection of tools and technologies behind a significant upgrade to the Salesforce platform. Lightning includes:
Experience: A set of modern user interfaces optimized for speed. This includes the Lightning Experience, Salesforce1 Mobile app and template-based communities.
Lightning Component Framework: A JavaScript framework and set of standard components that allow you to build reusable components to customize the Lightning Experience, Salesforce1 Mobile app and template-based communities and build your own standalone apps.
Visual Building Tools: Drag-and-drop technologies for fast and easy app building & customizations. Use the Lightning App Builder to customize the Lightning Experience and Salesforce1 Mobile app. Use the Community Builder to customize template-based communities.
Lightning Exchange: A section of the AppExchange where you can find 70+ partner components to jumpstart your development.
Lightning Design System: Style guides and modern enterprise UX best practices to build pixel perfect apps that match the look and feel of the Lightning Experience and Salesforce1 Mobile app.
Q: Is Lightning an MVC framework?
A: Unlike salesforce lightning is a component-based framework.
Q. Which parts of Lightning Components are server-side and which are client-side ?
A: Lightning Components are use JavaScript on the client side and Apex on the server side.
Q: Can I make a Lightning Component that shows up in both the mobile and the desktop user interfaces?
A: You can use Lightning Components directly in Lightning Experience, the Salesforce1 Mobile app, template-based communities, and custom standalone apps. Additionally, you can include Lightning components in a Visualforce page, allowing you to use them in Salesforce Classic, Console, and Visualforce-based communities.
A:Can we make one component inherit styles/CSS from a parent component, or must we always define it in the component ?
Q: Yes, we can inherit styles from parent. there is no need to always defined in the component.
Q:Can we Include One component to another ?
A: Yes, we can Include one lightning component to another lightning component
Q: What is Aura? Why do I see the aura: namespace in the code?
A: Aura is the open source technology that powers Lightning Components. The aura: namespace contains all of the basic building blocks for defining components and applications.
Q: Do I need a namespace to develop Lightning Components?
A: No. Lightning Components used to require a namespace, but that is no longer a requirement.
Q: Where can a component be displayed?
A: After you create a component, you will want to display it somewhere. There are a number of possibilities.
Lightning Experience: Display your component in the Lightning Experience using the App Builder. You can edit the home page, edit a record detail page or create/edit a new app page to include it. Alternatively, you can create a custom Lightning tab that references your component and add that tab to your Lightning navigation.
Salesforce1 Mobile app: Display your component in the Salesforce1 Mobile app by creating a custom Lightning tab that references it and adding that tab in your mobile navigation.
Template-based community: Display your component in your template-based (e.g. Napili) community using the Community Builder.
Standalone Lightning app: Create a standalone Lightning app (e.g. myapp.app) and include your component in this app. Access your Lightning app by URL.
Q: Do I always create an app bundle first?
A: Not necessarily, you can start with a Component bundle.
Q:Where Lightning components can be displayed ?
Ans :
In Lightning App (.app URL)
In Salesforce1 app as a Tab
As a lightning extension
Q: Is there any limit on how many component to have in one Application ?
A: There is no limit.
Q: What is difference between Visualforce Components and Lightning Components ?
A: Visualforce components are page-centric and most of the work is done on the server. Lightning is designed from the component up, rather than having the concept of a page as its fundamental unit. Lightning Components are client-side centric, which makes them more dynamic and mobile friendly.
Q:Can we include external JavaScript/CSS libraries in components ?
A:Yes ! we can use multiple libraries in our lightning component like JQuery, Bootstrap, custom CSS and custom Javascript libraries from a local resource (static resource).
