Lightning Communities Developer Guide

Get Up to Speed with Lightning Communities
Before You Begin
What Is Salesforce Lightning?
Which Lightning Template Do I Use?
Develop Lightning Communities: The Basics
Customize the Look and Feel of a Lightning Template
Example: Build a Condensed Theme Layout Component
Develop Secure Code: Lightning Locker and CSP
Analyze and Improve Community Performance
Use a CMS with Your Community
Report on Deflections: The Deflection Signals Framework
Deploy a Community from Sandbox to Production
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Get Up to Speed with Lightning Communities

Lightning community templates let you create branded spaces where your employees, customers, and partners can connect. Built on the Lightning Component framework, Lightning templates include many ready-to-use features and Lightning components. But the real power of the Lightning Component framework is that you can develop custom Lightning components and features to meet your unique business needs and completely transform the look and feel of your community.

As of Spring ’19 (API version 45.0), you can build Lightning components using two programming models: the Lightning Web Components model, and the original Aura Components model. Lightning web components are custom HTML elements built using HTML and modern JavaScript. Lightning web components and Aura components can coexist and interoperate on a page.

You can configure both Lightning web components and Aura components as drag-and-drop component for Experience Builder. Admins and end users don’t know which programming model was used to develop the components—to them, they’re simply Lightning components. Custom theme layout or search components are supported in Aura only.

Whether you’re a developer, partner, or ISV, this guide describes how to create custom Lightning communities, Aura components, theme layouts, and Lightning Bolt Solutions. You’ll also learn how to package solutions and components and distribute them on AppExchange. For information in developing custom Lightning web components, see the Lightning Web Components Developer Guide.