While it’s technically a week shy of 10 months, close enough.
What’s New
Awesome New Client!!!
This contract started in April and it’s been great. The people are smart, friendly, know what they want, and are easy to get along with. I was onsite for a week and provided training and other services. Also, the work is interesting and I have the opportunity to do more Lightning development.
Turned down additional work.
The prospect from March reached out to me recently asking if I’m available for an urgent project they have but unfortunately I’m not. Instead, I referred them to some colleagues who will provide what they need. We kept the door open for future engagements.
More Lightning Development.
I’m currently implementing my first official Lightning component that’s like a Kanban board where one can drag-n-drop various items from one column to another.
Overall, the UI looks better but currently I still prefer developing, from a developer’s perspective, in Visualforce because performance is better, the amount of coding required is less than Lightning since more code is needed for basic plumbing and wiring, and the overall infrastructure is better.
There are also little things, such as Locker Service, that drive me nuts in the name of security. For example, I can’t add a custom attribute to a Lightning base component or even add an onclick event attribute to one.
Another little thing is always having to remember to add the v. prefix in {! v. } bindings to access attributes. I wish specifying the attribute alone was enough like it was in Visualforce and the framework could figure out where the binding originates.
Slackforce
Matt Addy and I started a Salesforce Slack team named Slackforce where Salesforce professionals can hangout and have real time communication with others. See Introducing Slackforce for more detail and on how to join.
One nice, somewhat unexpected, benefit of Slackforce is that it has helped fill the “Missing Professional Camaraderie” void by helping connect to many great professionals I’ve worked with in the past and present.
Changed Student Loan Payment Option
When I started the business, I changed my student repayment option to the graduated, extended 25 year plan so that my monthly payment would be the lowest possible because my revenue expectations were projected but unknown at the time.
With business doing well and my confidence in it steady, I’ve switched my student loan payment back to the graduated plan so that I can still pay the loans off within the original 10 year timeframe, which is in 4 1/2 years.
What’s Next
More Lightning
This recurring theme will most likely stay for a while since more and more people are showing interest in it. Additional blog posts are coming too.
Learning Other Salesforce Technologies
With Salesforce, there’s always something more to learn. Besides Lightning, I want to learn more about:
Platform Events – This native messaging bus could be very interesting for integrations and other pub-sub type architectures.
DX – I am now in the pilot but have to still try it. It’s on the backlog.
Einstein – Another thing on my learning backlog.
Keep Expanding the Network
Slackforce has helped with the networking goal but I want to keep expanding so I’ll do this by getting more involved in the community by attending conferences, meetups, open source projects, and other activities.
No Upcoming Product
I’ve given some serious thought about doing a Salesforce product but have decided against it for now because I’m not that passionate about the product idea I have. If I’m going to build something, I’m going to be passionate about it.
How’s your business or professional goals going for 2017 and how will you reach them? What’s your experience with Lightning been like?