Top 5 Tips for Building Your First LWC

I am very honored to have been asked by 100daysoftrailhead.com to record a session about Top 5 Tips for Building Your 1st LWC. And with that, I wanted to write this post to summarize the tips that I featured in that presentation.

Tip # 1 – Hit the Trail

If you are brand new to Lightning Web Components, then you definitely want to begin by working through the Build Lightning Web Components trail on Trailhead. The trail several projects and modules and you do not have to work them all at once. But at the very least, you should complete the first one, Quick Start: Lighting Web Components.

Tip # 2 – Install the Salesforce Extended Expansion Pack

Better Option is to install the Salesforce Extended Expansion Pack
Better Option is to install the Salesforce Extended Expansion Pack

The official Salesforce docs tell you to install the Salesforce Extension Pack for Visual Studio Code. But, I suggest you also/or instead install the Salesforce Extended Expansion Pack, which you can do by Clicking the Extensions icon in the left toolbar of Visual Studio Code and then selecting Salesforce Extension Pack (Extended).

Select the Extended Expansion Pack though the Extensions icon in Visual Studio Code
Select the Extended Expansion Pack though the Extensions icon in Visual Studio Code

This extension pack will include 4 additional JavaScript libraries that you will more than likely need. They are XML, ESLint, Prettier and Apex PMD.

Tip # 3 – Embrace the Command Line Interface (CLI) Help

Don’t fear the CLI – Embrace it! I know that the Salesforce Extensions offers a very nifty Command Palette tool, but that does not cover everything that the CLI offers. By using the built-in help features, you not only get access to the latest docs (and that you can be rest assured of), but you can learn a lot about what the CLI Offers.

To access the help feature, just type the following sfdx help from a Terminal Window in Visual Studio Code. This will bring up results such as the following:

Access the CLI help feature from Terminal window
Access the CLI help feature from Terminal window

To drill down into one of the topics, such as the force one, use the following:

sfdx force --help

From there you can drill down as far as you need to, such as this command for accessing info about creating a Salesforce DX project:

sfdx force:project:create --help

Tip # 4 – Use Base Lightning Components Whenever Possible

The Base Lightning Components that Salesforce offers not only make your life as a developer so much easier, they are highly performant than anything you might try to create yourself. So, you should check them all out and make sure to use them whenever possible.

The Component library offers a handy Lightning Mini Playground that you can use to access sample HTML and JavaScript directly.

The Component Library offers a handy Lightning Mini Playground feature

Tip # 5 – Reference the Code in the Sample App Gallery

The Sample App Gallery includes real-world code that were all designed by the incredible developers with the Salesforce developer relations group. They not only demonstrate new Salesforce features, but best practices for how to create Lightning web components.

As you begin the process, the most important one to checkout is the LWC Recipes one. This GitHub repo features very short code snippets that demonstrate how to perform certain key operations.

Bonus Tip – Check out My New Pluralsight Course

This month, I also released my latest Pluralsight course, “Salesforce Lightning Web Components: The Big Picture“. You can find out more about it in this post. Once you have completed that course, you might want to checkout, “Building Your First Lightning Web Component (LWC) for Salesforce“.

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