Nowadays, everyone prefers better UI experience and upgraded features, which play a crucial role in accelerating business growth. But it’s not as straightforward as flipping a switch. Migration to Lightning Experience can be a painstaking process that requires a significant amount of effort to plan and execute.
However, with the right approach and planning, you can make the migration a smooth and seamless experience. If your organization is thinking about an upgrade or simply, you must be sure if they’re ready for Salesforce Lightning.
What is Salesforce?
Salesforce is a cloud-based customer relationship management platform that offers one of the market’s leading cloud-based CRM solutions by making usage of all available technologies to help companies streamline business processes and satisfy customers. It provides a solution to every part of your business, including customer interaction, Sales, Commerce, Service, Marketing, etc.
Salesforce’s services allow businesses to use cloud technology for better connect with customers, partners and potential customers. The software has become the number one for customer success and helps companies to track customer activity, market to customers and many more services. It provides powerful cloud-based features that can be accessed easily from any device connected from any part of the globe.
Salesforce classic is a traditional version of Salesforce CRM where every time a user clicks a link, an HTML page is loaded from the server. Even for small interactions, the whole web page or tab needs to be reloaded.
Until the Lightning release, Salesforce Classic was the interface for the CRM platform. When you first take a look at Salesforce Classic you can see right away that it is not a modern web UI. It is very compact and text-centric with little attention paid to graphics and icons. The graphics that do exist are typically small and aren’t displayed in high resolution.
Architecture
Salesforce classic uses Model View Controller (MVC) architecture where standard and custom (Visualforce) pages directly interact with Controller in order to execute user action. In Salesforce Classic, web pages are generated by the server (instance of Salesforce) and then they’re rendered on the client (user’s desktop or mobile device).
MIgrate to Lightning. User Experience
Due to traditional architecture, Salesforce Classic UI feels like a tired clunky antique compared to dynamic UIs that leverage modern user experience design. For each click, user has to wait for the page to reload which directly impacts productivity.
All of Salesforce's new features are now built for the Lightning user interface. Classic exists largely in an “as is” state. Salesforce has stopped upgrading features for Classic. In this modern era, desktop is not the only place from where we access the webpages. In recent times, mobile usage has been increased drastically and influencing Salesforce user to work on their mobiles, Salesforce classic user interface is not dynamic nor compatible with different screen sizes.
The new modern Lightning user interface is more flexible and dynamic than the original classic layout. Increase user productivity by decreasing toggle time between screens, allowing team members to work more efficiently and speed up time with fewer clicks.
Salesforce Lightning is modern, fast and intelligent user interface that is designed to take productivity to the next level. It loads the whole page at once with bunch of components which user may interact with. It combines Lightning Designing System (LDS), Lightning app builder and Lightning Components to create modern enterprise applications which can be accessed from any device irrespective of screen size.
Lightning Experience offers benefits and out-of-box features which supports most of the modern business process.
Salesforce Lightning Architecture
Salesforce Lightning Experience uses component-based architecture. It is a collection of components that can work together. Components in the framework are loosely coupled and communicate with each other using public interface or event messaging model. In this case UI element doesn’t interact with the server directly.
It has a client-side controller, which is used to perform an action and interact with the server-side apex controller whenever needed.
Component-based architecture comes with below advantages:
A component encapsulates everything it needs to function and provides well defined public interface that facilitates its usage and reuses across multiple applications
Component can encapsulate functionality that can be subclassed and modified for specific requirements beyond its the base design
A component can be deployed or replaced in a system with minimal dependencies, providing a robust architecture
One component may be swapped for another, as long as both components expose the same public interface and provide similar functionality.
As Salesforce Lightning Experience uses component-based architecture, it loads the whole page at once. It gives flexibility to the user to efficiently navigate between tabs and also provide the ability to switch between custom-branded apps. Lightning Experience comes with modern accessibility design and dynamically adjusts the UI with screen size. It provides seamless interaction between user and Salesforce UI. Lightning Experience UI is modern and fast which makes sales/service process smooth and more productive.
Features
Salesforce Lightning Experience has many enhanced and new features. Some of them are listed below.
There are lots of features and reasons to move to Lightning. Lightning Experience represents the first significant overhaul in the look and feel of Salesforce. Here are the primary reasons to switch to Lightning Experience.
Seamless UI Experience – Lightning Experience comes with a modern UI look and feel. It enables user to efficiently navigate between tabs and also provide the ability to switch between custom-branded apps. Lightning Experience comes with modern accessibility design and dynamically adjusts the UI with screen size. Better UI experience increases user productivity significantly.
Increase Productivity – Lightning Experience provides easy access to new and innovative features and capabilities such as improved Sales automation process, customer engagement, enhanced reporting, artificial intelligence, IOT, etc. It enables organizations to improve their sales teams' productivity and lower the cost of developing and supporting applications compared to Salesforce classic.
Lightning Only Features – Most of the new features now can only be accessed from Lightning Experience. Below is the list of significant features that are only supported in Lightning.
To make the Lightning Experience migration smooth and hassle-free, Salesforce offers an out-of-box tool to check how well-prepared your org is for the transition to Lightning Experience. Lightning Experience Readiness report shows which of your users will benefit right away, and how to adjust your implementation for Lightning Experience. This tool generates readiness report and it is a valuable resource that helps you focus on updates that smooth the way as you roll out Lightning Experience.
Below is the list of functionalities which requires attention during the roll-out:
Overview – Salesforce lightning uses different domain name compare to Salesforce classic. Create and deploy a unique domain name while activating Lightning experience.
Impact – If your org has hard coded Salesforce instance URLs in Buttons, Apex classes, Visualforce pages and Tabs. Update it with new lightning experience domain URL. If you continue using the same, it will redirect Users to salesforce classic.
Solution – To replace old classic URLs with new Lightning URLs. You may use global methods to get current instance using.
For formula editors – “LEFT($Api.Partner_Server_URL_260, FIND( '/services', $Api.Partner_Server_URL_260))”
For Apex classes – “URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl()”
Example –
Existing hardcoded URL- cs54.salesforce.com/00O50000003QjC6
New URL – URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl() + ‘/00O50000003QjC6’
OR
LEFT($Api.Partner_Server_URL_260, FIND
( '/services', $Api.Partner_Server_URL_260)) + ‘/00O50000003QjC6’
Overview – Salesforce lightning doesn’t support JavaScript buttons as there are significant security challenges with combining untrusted JavaScript from multiple sources.
Impact – If your org uses JavaScript buttons in record details page to perform actions. Users wouldn’t be able to see those buttons in Lightning experience.
Solution – You need to convert these buttons to Lightning Components or Links. Salesforce has introduced “Lightning Experience Configuration Converter”. We can use the configurator to convert buttons which does not have complex logic For rest of it, we need to manually create Lightning Component or Links.
Link for Converter- lightning-configuration.salesforce.com/javascript-buttons.xhtml
Example – Existing JavaScript Button- Suppose there is “Accept Case” javaScript button in Case record details page. It will not be available in Salesforce Lightning. Please find the below screenshots to see how buttons appear in Salesforce Lightning. Note- “Accept Case” button is missing in Salesforce Lightning.
Overview – Lightning Experience brings an all new user interface to Salesforce. It offers Lightning Components to build responsive applications for any device. The benefits include an out-of-the-box set of components, event-driven architecture, and a framework optimized for performance.
Impact – With some important exceptions, Visualforce just works in Lightning Experience but they are outdated and Salesforce will soon stop providing support to them. Most of the VF pages use JavaScript and some of the JavaScript features may not work in Lightning Experience.
Solution – You need to convert VF pages to Lightning Components or you can refactor existing VF pages and add SLDS classes to give feel and look like Lightning Components (not recommended). Salesforce has introduced “Lightning Experience Configuration Converter” to add SLDS classes to existing pages.
Link for Converter – lightning-configuration.salesforce.com/visualforce-pages.xhtml
Example – Below screenshot is the example of difference in UI experience of Visualforce page and Lighting Component. Here we are displaying input form for Contact object.
Overview – Salesforce Classic home page components aren’t supported in Lightning Experience, so your users can’t see those components from Lightning Experience Home. Likewise, Lightning Experience doesn’t have a sidebar.
Impact – Users won’t be able to see classic home page components and sidebar in Lightning experience. If your org has custom components added in classic home page, it won’t be available in Lightning.
Solution – You can create custom lightning components which serves similar functionality as classic components. We can add or remove components in lightning using “Lightning App Builder”. We don’t have any option to retain the sidebar functionality in Lightning experience.
Example – Below screenshot is the example of difference in Salesforce classic and Lightning home page
Our Products
Our Products
Our Products
Overview – If you are using attachment for records. This feature is not available in Lightning Experience. However, existing attachments will be visible and can be downloaded in Lightning Experience. Any new file uploads will be created as Salesforce Files.
Impact – When user wants to add attachment for any record, they need to upload it to files. There will not be any difference in User experience. But in backend, it will be stored in File object rather than Attachment object.
Solution – You need to refactor your existing apex classes wherever Attachment object is referred and use Files instead. Also, need to migrate to Salesforce Lightning all Attachment records to Files.
AppExcahneg product (Free) can be used for migration –
appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EHAmyUAH
Example – Please find the below screenshots of UI experience of Attachment in Salesforce classic and Lightning.
Overview – Activities, such as tasks, events, emails, and logged calls, are available in Lightning Experience with some limitations and also with major improvements over their Salesforce Classic counterparts.
Impact –
Calendar - Home shows upcoming events for the current day and includes a link to see all events scheduled for the day. But Home doesn’t include a full calendar like is available on the Salesforce Classic home page. Instead, access the Calendar item from the navigation bar.
Business hours - Calendars don’t indicate the business hours selected in personal settings.
Calendar sharing- User can share “My Events” calendar with manager or other colleagues, but not with personal and public groups.
Events and Tasks - User will be able to see activity timeline and activities related lists, which is similar to Salesforce Classic. Users can switch between options whenever they want from preference settings. Look and feel will be different in Lightning Experience for activity timeline.
Task assignment notifications- Lightning Experience doesn’t display any options to send an email when you assign a task to someone, but it does have a personal setting to receive an email when someone assigns you a task.
Solution–
Tasks -
1. Enable recurring tasks, and add them to task page layouts.
2. Add the reminder field to page layouts to let reps set up reminders for their tasks.
3. Add the new task action to the Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions on page layouts for any object where users are likely to create tasks. For example, users might want to create tasks from an opportunity to create a to-do list to move the opportunity to the next stage.
Events - 1. Add the Repeat option to event page layouts to let reps create event series.
2. Add the reminder field to event page layouts to let reps set up reminders for their events.
3. Add the attendees field to event page layouts to let reps include contacts, leads, or other Salesforce users on their events.
4. Set up attendees to receive invitations when they're included on events from Lightning Experience. To send invitations to attendees, you must set up Lightning Sync, which requires support from your Microsoft or Google
administrator.
5. Add the new event action to the Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions on page layouts for any object for which users are likely to create events. For example, users might want to set up a meeting with a contact after they check the contact's time zone or address.
Example – Please find the below screenshots of UI experience of Activities in Salesforce classic and Lightning.
Overview – This feature is not available in Lightning Experience. However, existing classic notes will be visible in Lightning Experience.
Impact – Classic notes functionality will not be available in Lightning experience. Users won’t be able to add new classic notes for any record. However, they can add enhanced notes in Lightning.
Solution – You need to migrate to Salesforce Lightning all Notes to Enhanced Notes which is available in Lightning Experience.
We may use this AppExcahneg product (Free) for migration-
appexchange.salesforce.com/listingDetail?listingId=a0N3A00000EHAmyUAH
Once everything is ready, go to Lightning Experience Transition Assistant and turn on Lightning Experience. You may adjust user permissions to make sure the correct users get access. Standard profile users are enabled by default, while custom profile users aren’t. Salesforce also provides features to make Lightning Experience the default interface. In Lightning Experience Transition Assistant, you can pick the users who automatically get Lightning Experience when they log in. Otherwise, users stay in Salesforce Classic and can switch themselves.
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