(WIP) FAQ (for business stakeholders)

The following are some of the most common questions that I have been asked by business executives when considering a Reactforce application.

I don't want to our website to look like Salesforce. What are our options?

• When using ReactJS for the Salesforce.com front-end technology, your can provide your own user experience, design, CSS, html, and javascript to build pixel-perfect websites. You can have full control over the look and feel of your website.

I want to use ReactJS as a technology, but I would like the screens to look and feel like Salesforce. What are my options?

• Developers can easily include the Salesforce Lightning Design System into their react applications to ensure that the Salesforce look and feel is honored. There is an open-source project that maintains Salesforce branded React components that can be found here.

What are the limitations we will face if we use a React front end vs using Salesforce.com native front-end technology (Visualforce/Aura/LWC)?

• ReactJS applications are bundled into the Salesforce platform and delivered via a technology known as "static resources" which are standard and supported tools within the Salesforce ecosystem. The ReactJS applications are bundled into a zip file that are delivered when Salesforce.com screen are loaded. These React bundles can be cached to the Salesforce.com CDN to provide faster initial load times to a user's browser.

• The limits that you will face using ReactJS as a front-end technology stack are the same limits that you will face if you utilize SLDS (Salesforce Lightning Design System) for a custom built community. The primary limits to be aware of are Page Views and Bandwidth. These limits (and others) are able to be tracked using both Salesforce.com tools as well as third party tools that can easily be integrated into the website.

What are the limitation we will face if we host our site using Salesforce.com vs a more open platform like AWS or Azure?

• Reactforce will allow you to build and host a ReactJS application quickly and easily using native and supported Salesforce technology. It can be used both with Visualforce and Lightning based solutions.

• Other platforms such as AWS and Azure also support React applications, but typically require a different backend technology (such as .NET or Node.js) that are required to handle tasks such as API calls or database access. Salesforce "backend" would be built using the Apex programming language and would require a more significant investment in Salesforce.com resources to provide the data services required for more advanced applications.

• Salesforce.com uses governor limits such as maximum page views and data bandwidth to both limit as well as provide site scalability. If your website were to exceed these limits additional licensing would be required by Salesforce to ensure your website solution would not be throttled at scale.

Who supports Reactforce?

• Reactforce is an architectural concept as opposed to a specific technology solution. The Reactforce solution in a recommended architecture and approach for using the React libraries within the standard Salesforce solutions.

• Reactforce offers a command line tool (SFDX plugin) that offers bootstrapped code solutions for quickly building ReactJS applications hosted on Salesforce.

• The Reactforce CLI is managed by CloudPremise LLC, a technology integrator that has been building Salesforce solutions since 2012. CloudPemise is managed by Gregory Cook, a Salesforce.com Certified Technical Architect.

• ReactJS is designed and supported by Meta (Facebook) and was used for building the website and mobile solutions for Facebook and Instagram. There is a large community of ReactJS developers that can be used to design and support any Reactforce applications.