Salesforce has emerged from being a CRM to a powerful cloud-based platform which is sufficient for running all the aspects of a business end to end. Lightning Aura has been such a great technology from the very beginning of its journey. It has evolved to match new edge platforms and requirements of the enterprises.
At the beginning of the Salesforce Development times, developers used Visual Force, which is an HTML Tag-based mark-up language to develop their Visual Force web pages and Apex to control the internal logic.
But this HTML based Visual Force standards were not compatible to build large scale enterprise solutions and complex applications. So, developers needed something that could support the ongoing huge demand for web-based applications with complicated business logic.
What Are Lightning Components?
Lightning Components are a user interface (UI) framework that is used to create applications for desktop and mobile technologies.
Salesforce Admins deploy these components to construct single-page web applications that provide an end-to-end experience on the platform for a variety of functions.
These pages are optimized for a more interactive user and developer experience. Salesforce Architect Mike Topalovich wrote in one of his articles that Lightning Components provide “a single, integrated framework for developers to create rich, responsive applications that could be seamlessly “plugged in” anywhere in the UI.”
In practice, this means both your users and customers will have an easier time navigating the interface, streamlining the services Salesforce provides them. Lightning Components can be created, divided, and integrated with other components very easily, which lets you create highly customized pages.
Instead of just creating separate components throughout the application, developers can extend lightning web components, allowing new components to be built on top of one another.
The Benefits Of Lightning Components:
Lightning Web Components benefit everyone in different roles. Here are some reasons why these components are so important:
For Developers
Lightning Component architecture lets developers use a standardized JavaScript framework that isn’t held back by some of Visualforce’s limitations (the legacy framework), which allows them to create customized pages and functions without a third-party framework, or vendor.
For Admins
Enables Admins to do their job more efficiently, ensuring the company gets the exact web pages they need on Salesforce.
Reusable and optimal for responsive actions, meaning components designed are to register an action and provide a specific response or solution.
Highly event-driven, delivering faster results in response to user actions, messages, and other events.
For Users
Lightning Components create a better, faster web experience for customers.
Increase page speed and loading performance.
Make the app/page mobile responsive.
What are Lightning Web Components?
Lightning Web Components or LWC is a stack of modern lightweight frameworks created on the latest web standards. It is a document object model element built using reusable code. It is used to generate powerful interfaces without using JS or building a Library. This feasibility makes it easy to use and quicker, thus, saving developers a ton of efforts and time on the web stack.
Let’s look at few of its remarkable features:
Ability to create apps using small codes as the crucial element to create a component is part of the native web browser web stack and engine.
Improved performance of the component
Increase in richness of the apps built using LWCs as they include modern web standards
Unparalleled interconnectedness and feasibility to use both LWCs and Aura components together in the apps with no visible difference to the end-user experience
Why did Salesforce Launch Lightning Web Components?
At the time, when LWCs was first launched by Salesforce, web standards were less popular. Developing bigger client-side apps came up with a lot of challenges. The components and applications written in different frameworks were not linkable even though they all were based on the JS. The frameworks delivered a higher level of distraction, making each one non-identical and forcing developers to choose one path. This made ramp-ups and skill transfers very difficult. Salesforce is one of the biggest advocates of standardizing the web in order to enhance flexibility.
Lightning Components vs. Lightning Web Components: What are the Differences?
Both components can be used together, which means that Lightning Components continue to play a prominent role in the Salesforce ecosystem; however, Lightning Web Components are further advanced because they are aligned with more modern web standards, which makes for a more efficient building process.
| Lightning Components | Lightning Web Components |
|---|---|
| Uses a standardized JavaScript framework. | Uses standard tools like CSS, HTML, and updated JavaScript (ECMAScript 7). |
| Users must be more proficient with the Salesforce platform. | Aligned with modern web standards, so developers don’t need to be as familiar with Salesforce architecture. |
| Takes longer to build and deliver, and can be pricey. Few out-of-the-box components. | Structure that relies on using code that runs natively on browsers, improving performance while making it much faster to deploy and more versatile.. |
| Code reuse is supported. | Code reuse is supported. |
| Doesn’t support unit testing framework. | Supports unit testing framework for quality assurance. |
| Heavily reliant on Aura framework for creation and execution, which is limiting. Not built on code that runs natively in browsers. | Natively supported in the browser → application’s performance is faster. |
Both Lightning Components and Lightning Web Components serve to help the Salesforce platform be more accessible and easier to utilize, more flexible. That’s the beauty of the Salesforce platform. As you look to help optimize the user experience and turn out a faster web page, Lightning Web Components should definitely be front of mind.
For more information about Lightning Components vs. Lightning Web Components, click on this link to clarify your doubts: https://www.anavcloudsoftwares.com/salesforce-aura-vs-lightning-web-components/
