Lightning Tips for Visualforce Devs! #Salesforce

Hey everyone, today we are going to discuss about some great features of lightning, and how Visualforce developers should start utilising these features.

 Why Lightning ?

As per salesforce, lightning is the collection of tools and technologies behind a significant upgrade to the Salesforce platform. There are many things salesforce launched under lightning like Process Builder, Lightning App Builder, Community Builder are all build using aura framework.
Using Lightning component, we make business ready components, and the component are ready to use in Salesforce1, Lightning experience and communities.
And if we talk about the performance, then lightning calls the server whenever it needed not all the times, not like we do in visualforce pages, just for clicking a button visualforce calls the server, but lightning framework is not designed like that. because of that it increases the efficiency of the application.
Aura framework uses JSON to send the data to client and to the server, the best part is lightning development is faster compared to visualforce pages, as the application we develop lightning facilitates parallel design.

 What's the difference between Lightning and Visualforce?

As we all were using Visualforce pages, they were static, basically page-centric model, as we discussed earlier visualforce page was designed to help implement salesforce classic look and feel, where on click of a button, it will hit to the server, but in lightning its different.

Visualforce pages has optional use of Javacsript and CSS, using Javascript we can do some client side processing in visualforce, Visualforce was meant for desktop, later on after Salesforce1, we started adding more CSS or Bootstrap etc, to make our visualforce pages work with Salesforce1.

Its kind of changing our way of working on apps, Lightning follows app-centric model, with Lightning you can send an interaction to the Salesforce servers and then update a specific component, this make performance of the application far more better. We can decide in lightning weather to process functionality on client side or server, lightning component comes in Bundles, that has there own files, for example Component, Controller, Helper, CSS, Documentation etc, you can optionally define weather you want to use the controller or not. Developing lightning component is much more complex then visualforce as you building an app not a page. It supports the latest in browser technology such as HTML5, CSS3, and touch events.

Wait....what about my visualforce page ?

You can still use your visualforce pages, as still many things lightning doesn't supports, visualforce are still standing strong, Lightning can't make a Homepage Component, email templates, or render pages as PDFs.
Lightning is still growing and it will take years to remove visualforce pages from salesforce, lightning is a new age of development of apps, and visualforce pages are everywhere, people still have to think about before migrating an existing visualforce pages to lightning.

Switching Visualforce page to Lightning 

I still say it not that easy to convert your visualforce pages to Lightning, it needs allot of analysis and rework to change a visauforce to lightning. Using SLDS you can have look and feel of a visualforce like lightning pages.

Important Links to know more about Lightning & Learning

These below link can surely help you learn and explore lightning experience and their advantages.

Share Visualforce Pages Between Classic and Lightning Experience

Lightnign FAQ

Using Lightning Components in Lightning Experience

Lightning Experience Development

Visualforce & Lightning Experience


So go ahead and explore...

Thank you!

Lightning Modal Using Salesforce Lightning Component #Salesforce

After a long time I got some time for blogging, I've been thinking for a long to post something about lightning component, its feel great when you learn something, I've been now working on lightning for more then 6 months now, learned somethings about the SLDS (Salesforce Lightning Design System) and still learning about lightning Components,

Lightning Component Framework : It is one of the most powerful app development technology we have, Lightning Components is a UI framework for developing web apps for mobile and desktop devices. It’s a modern framework for building single-page applications with dynamic, responsive user interfaces for Force.com apps. It uses JavaScript on the client side and Apex on the server side. (Source Trailhead)

(Source Trailhead)

I would highly recommend TRAILHEAD for learning Salesforce Lightning Component module

So here I am going to show you how simple is creating a modal in Lightning component, and if you ask why modal, then this is because, I get many requirement where client asks that we need this thing in a pop-up or that form should come in a modal, so it is very commonly used thing, so I thought it will be helpful to post about it.

I am not going into the basics of the lightning component framework, so here how it looks

So here is the component code for the lightning modal

<aura:component implements="force:appHostable,flexipage:availableForAllPageTypes,flexipage:availableForRecordHome,force:hasRecordId,forceCommunity:availableForAllPageTypes" access="global">
    
    <ltng:require styles="/resource/SLDS103/assets/styles/salesforce-lightning-design-system-ltng.css" />
    
    <div class="slds">
        
        <div >
            <!-- modal body starts here -->
            <div tabindex="-1" aria-labelledby="header43" aria-hidden="false" id="newClientSectionId" role="dialog" class="slds-modal slds-fade-in-open" style="display:none;">
                <div class="slds-backdrop slds-backdrop--open">
                    <div class="slds-modal__container">
                        <div class="slds-modal__header">
                            <button class="slds-button slds-modal__close slds-button--icon-inverse" title="Close">
                                <button class="slds-button slds-button--neutral" onclick="{!c.hideModal}">X</button>  
                                <span class="slds-assistive-text">Close</span>
                            </button>
                            <h2 id="header43" class="slds-text-heading--medium">Modal Header</h2>
                        </div>
                        <div class="slds-modal__content slds-p-around--medium">
                            
                           London is the capital city of England. It is the most populous city in the United Kingdom, with a metropolitan area of over 13 million inhabitants.
                        </div>
                        
                        <div class="slds-modal__footer">
                            <button class="slds-button slds-button--brand" onclick="{!c.hideModal}">Cancel</button>
                            <button class="slds-button slds-button--brand">Continue</button>
                        </div>
                    </div>
                </div>
            </div>
            <button class="slds-button slds-button--neutral" onclick="{!c.showModal}">Open Modal</button>
        </div>
    </div>
    
</aura:component>

And here is the controller code :

({  
    showModal : function(component, event, helper) {
        document.getElementById("newClientSectionId").style.display = "block";
    },
    
    hideModal : function(component,event, helper){
        document.getElementById("newClientSectionId").style.display = "none" ;
    }
 })

To run the above component, create a lightning app

<aura:application >
    <c:JustLightningModal />
</aura:application>

Note : Use SLDS library of Salesforce used in the component code.

Hope this help will soon continue to add more functionality to the modal using lightning component.

Thanks

Delete Duplicate Records Having Same External Id #Salesforce

Hey everyone, if you find a situation where there is duplicate data having a unique field in common, and you want to delete all and let the unique record be in the org, then this below apex is for you, I am using external Id field which is not unique, which is common in duplicate records.

We have many tools to handle duplicates on creation but few to remove duplicates.

So the scenario is I have below data

Account Name         External Id
Chris x                      12345
Chris x                      12345
Chris x                      12345

After running the code we will have

Account Name       External Id
Chris x                    12345


Here is the below code, you can do tweeks according to you scenario

      //Collections that we are using  
      Map<String, List<Id>> mapsOfAccountOfAccount = new Map<String, List<Id>>();  
      List<Account> accountToDelete = new List<Account>();  
      //Looping through the accounts records which has external ID  
      for(Account ac : [Select Id, External_Salesforce_Id__c From Task Where External_Salesforce_Id__c != null]) {  
           //Creating a map with External as key and list of duplicate records in values  
           if(mapsOfAccount.containsKey(ac.External_Salesforce_Id__c)) {  
                mapsOfAccount.get(ac.External_Salesforce_Id__c).add(ts.Id);  
           } else {  
                mapsOfAccount.put(ac.External_Salesforce_Id__c, new Set<Id>{ac.Id});  
           }       
      }  
      //Here we are populating a list with those records that we want to delete  
      for(String ky : mapsOfAccount.keySet()) {  
           integer i=0;  
           for(Id ids : mapsOfAccount.get(ky)) {  
                if(i>0)     {  
                     //Create and instance of the records to delete and add to list  
                     accountToDelete.add(new Account(Id = ids));  
                }  
                i++;  
           }  
      }  
      delete accountToDelete;  

Hope it helps someone
Thank you

Description and Resolution of System.SObjectException: Field is not writeable

Was working on the apex, and found this error, its a System exception, so you cannot handle it easily until you resolved it.

So basically this error comes when you are trying to re-assign the parent record on child object, in a master detail relationship.

For the resolution you can do "Allow  reparenting" is one of the resolution by which in the apex you can re-assign the parent field.

You can go to the child object and on the master-detail field, and check Allow reparenting.

Thank you.!!

How to set up MavensMate for Sublime Text #Salesforce

Sublime Text is basically a cross platform text and source code editor which is build using Python Application Programming Interface. Just the way we extend Eclipse’s functionality using force.com IDE plugin, we can use Sublime Text with a plugin called MavensMate.

MavensMate is Sublime Text plugin for force.com developers, this plugin allows you to perform operations like compile apex classes, trigger, built visualforce pages, deploy apex test to server.

Steps to Install Sublime Text:

Sublime Text can be installed from the Sublime website. It is available for:

1.    Windows 64 bit

2.    Ubuntu 64 bit

3.    Ubuntu 32 bit

Once, you have downloaded the exe file, Runthe file to Install Sublime Text in your System.

Now, go to All Programs and open Sublime Text 3 and there you go!!!

You have successfully installed Sublime Text in your System.

Now, you can use this Sublime Text as a Text Editor to view your code or modify it. It comes with a lot of different language syntax which makes it easy for developers to view their code in a specific language and modify it.

Now that we have installed Sublime Text and played around a bit to know how it works, we could install MavensMate to make it more useful for us (Salesforce Developers).

Let me give you a small background on what is MavensMate.

If you are a developer you must be knowing about Eclipse,not the one in which one heavenly body shadows the other one, but the Eclipse Software, which is extensively used in developing applications. Now, if you are a Salesforce Developer, you must be knowing the so called Force.com IDE plugin, which makes our Eclipse Force.com Platform specific. It helps us connect to our Salesforce Environment using Username and Password. After which we can push/pull changes to/from our Salesforce Instance.

You could compare Eclipse with Sublime Text and MavensMate with Force.com IDE.MavensMate is the open source alternative to the Force.com IDE and is compatible with Sublime Text.

Lets go ahead and install MavensMate for our Sublime Text.

First of all, open your Sublime Text editor and go to Preferences and search for Package Control.

If you could not find Package Control under Preferences, you would have to install it manually.

Steps to install Package Control :

1.    Go to View - Show Console

2.    Paste the appropriate Python code in the console. Click here for the link to the code

3.    Click on Enter

Once the code runs, again go back to Preferencesand search for Package Control

Steps to install MavensMate Plugin

1.    Go to Preferences - Package Control

2.    Choose Package Control: Install Package from the drop down 

3.    Search for MavensMate in the Search Box.

4.    Clicking on MavensMate would automatically run a Python script in the console and install the plugin.

5.    Once you have installed MavensMate, it is always good to Restart you Sublime Text.

6.    You could find the plugin access as a tab in your Sublime Text editor by the nameMavensMate. 

7.    Click on MavensMate - MavensMate API (mm) - Update MavensMate API (mm). This would run a python script to update and ensure, that your MavensMate plugin is up to date.

WHOLLAAA !!!! You have successfully installed MavensMate for your Sublime Text.

Additional Step (Required) : Create your Project Workspace

To create a workspace for your projects,

1.    Create a Workspace folder in your local system and give it an appropriate name, say “MavensMate_Workspace” (This would be the folder where all your MavensMate project would be saved)

2.    Copy the folder path, we would need it in a while.

3.    Open Sublime Text - go to MavensMate - Settings - User

      

4.    Search for "mm_workspace" and paste the workspace folder path you copied earlier.

Note: use conventional Front Slash (\) in your path (for Windows). In case you are using any other operating system, you probably would want to use Back Slash (/)in your path.

Now that we have created a workspace for our MavensMate projects, lets go ahead and create our first Project.

Steps to Create New MavensMate Project:

1.    Open Sublime Text - Click on MavensMate - Project - New Project. (Make sure your Internet is working).

       

       

      2.    Clicking on New Project would take you to  a user interface where you can enter your Salesforce Instance Credentials (For which you want to create the Project).

3.    Enter the appropriate credentials - Choose the Salesforce Environment - Click onAdvanced to choose the Metadata which you want to have in your Project

4.    You can multi select the Metadata.

    

5.    Click on Refresh

6.    Select the Metadata components and click on Create Project

CONGRATULATIONS !!!! You have successfully created you first MavensMate Project in Sublime Text.

Some Cool Tips and Tricks in Sublime Text

Sublime Text comes with some cool tips and tricks to make User Experience rich, sleek and easy.

I would show you here a small example of one such trick.

Imagine a situation, where you have pasted some code in your text editor and working on it. While performing the modifications, you realise there is a particular variable name or a method name (OR any text for that matter) needs modification in some part of the pasted code / or the whole code. What would you generally do: Change the text at one place, copy it and then keep on find the former text at other places and change it with the later text (the one you copied).

Time consuming right!!!

Sublime Text makes it easier for you. You could double click on the text to be replaced at one place (preferably, the first time it has occurred), then keep on adding other instances using Ctrl + D, you could skip the current instance using Ctrl + K, Ctrl + D. Also you could deselect the current instance using Ctrl + U.

<picture>

There is a lot more to it.

Doesn’t it sound interesting !!! Try it out, it is fun!!!

HAPPY CODING!!!!

References:

http://MavensMate.com/Getting_Started/Users

https://packagecontrol.io/installation