You’ve probably noticed it already: Salesforce Lightning. There’s a major shift underway as Salesforce ramps down work on its old user interface (UI), Visualforce (or “Salesforce Classic”), and shifts focus to its new UI, Lightning.
Now, you might be concerned. You may have Visualforce pages that have been dutifully doing their job for years without complaint. Your employees already know how to use the platform, and it cost a lot of money to build them the first time around. While it’s not required to make a change from Visualforce to Lightning right away (Salesforce will continue supporting, though not improving, Visualforce for the foreseeable future), Lightning brings a lot of cool new functionality to the table that is worth considering. Here are some of the ways that converting to Lightning can improve your existing Visualforce pages:
With benefits like those, you can probably think of some Visualforce pages that could benefit from a move to Lightning. And next, you’ll want to know how much that effort will cost and how long it will take to achieve. There is no flat-rate, one-size-fits-all solution but there are options that can suit your budget and desired timeframe:
1. Embed a Lightning component into a Visualforce page
Suppose you wanted to create a new feature or page that takes advantage of all the wonders Lightning has to offer, but you aren’t ready to migrate your entire org over. Not a problem. It’s possible to embed Lightning components into Visualforce pages.
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2. Embed a Visualforce page in a Lightning layout
If you want to move your org to Lightning, but still need some of your existing Visualforce pages, you can continue to use those pages in Lightning page builder without needing to convert them.
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3. Update Visualforce styles to match Lightning
If you like the look of Lightning UI but can’t commit to a full migration just yet, existing Visualforce pages can be updated to match the look-and-feel of Lightning.
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4. All In with Lightning
If you have a very important page that is slow to load and slow to use, it might be a good candidate for a full conversion to Lightning.
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When is the best time to do this?
The answer to this question depends on your business and your needs. We like to ask the following questions to make sure the timing is right:
The best pages to move to Lightning sooner rather than later are complex Visualforce pages which are used often, but every page and flow will benefit in some way from migrating to Lightning. As Lightning continues to outpace Visualforce in terms of updates and support from Salesforce, you’ll be faced with needing to do a full migration at some point so start strategizing now to realize the value of Lightning sooner than later. We’re here to assess your current org and/or help plot the path forward whenever you are ready!