Visualforce to Lightning: Why should you switch?

The Visualforce framework is a tried and true model with a robust set of tags. However, with Lightning, Salesforce offers a user-friendly, mobile-first experience along with an intuitive design. According to Salesforce, owing to its interactive and highly immersive experience, half of the total 9000 communities are Lightning based.

If you think now is the time to bid adieu to Visualforce and welcome Lightning, this blog will answer all your questions.

How is Lightning different from Visualforce?

• Lightning is app-centric while Visualforce is a page-centric model
• Lightning is JavaScript driven framework while Visualforce is tag-based
• Lightning’s UI is generated on client-side while Visualforce is generated on server-side
• Lightning is component based framework while Visualforce is MVC based

Why should you choose Lightning?

The Lightning framework is known as an app-centric model which provides data and business logic to develop dynamic web applications for mobile and desktop. It leverages JavaScript to create, animate and transform the user interface rather than replacing one page at a time. The framework aligns with Salesforce’s user interface strategy, thereby empowering users by providing a highly immersive experience. The other advantages of Lightning include:

• Quick to create
• Easy to handle
• Component reusability
• A scalable solution with smooth design and development
• Low cost of ownership with no additional licensing fee
• Perfect balance between out-of-the-box and customizable UX
• Profile based access to pages

What are some Lightning only features?

• Assistant
• Lightning Sync
• Account News
• Google Interaction
• Enhanced Notes
• Activity Timeline
• Performance Chat

What are the challenges associated with Lightning?

• Onclick JavaScript buttons are not supported
• Random errors like cmp. isValid (), toJson (), etc. while switching from Classic to Lightning
• Certain tags in VF pages can make Lightning Experience UI unresponsive
• Unavailability of some features make customers assess the trade-offs

Lightning is the future of Salesforce technology as it lets you create components and apps lightning fast. These components can be used by other Lightning apps and also provide a unified experience across all platforms such as Mobile devices, desktop browsers and tablets.

Is Your Community Lightning Ready?