Getting Started with Lightning!
Here are a few points from the Meetup organized as a part of Salesforce1 Lightning Developer Week.
Salesforce1 Lightning is an all new Component Based Framework built on the Aura Platform which significantly reduces development and maintenance time.
It provides us with a set of point and click tools using which we can build and deploy apps at Lightning Speed.
The 4 Major Components of Lightning are:
1. Lightning Connect :
Lets you connect to any external data source that supports oData format and fetch the data from it in real time with point and click simplicity.
All the data that is fetched is available in Read Only Mode. None of the data is actually stored or cached in Salesforce.
The data tat is fetched from an external source is mapped to something called an External Object, whose API Name is suffixed by __x.
Some key differences between an External Object and a Custom/Standard Object include No Triggers or Validation Rules - as the data is not actually stored in Salesforce, none of these would be applicable.
For a comprehensive hands-on tutorial, here's the link
http://bit.ly/lightning-connect-tutorial
2. Lightning Process Builder
Stating simply, it is a highly advanced Visual Workflow. It helps you quickly build and automate a business process with point and click operations.
Its capabilities exceed that of a normal workflow,where Process builder allows you to additionally
Create Unrelated Records - thus eliminating the need to write simple triggers
Post to Chatter
Send record for Approval and many more.
The process runs completely in the background without the need of any UI(A key difference between this and a Visual Workflow) and can be configured to start executing whenever a new Record is inserted, Updated with optional filter criteria.
For a comprehensive hands-on tutorial, here's the link
http://bit.ly/process_lightning_tutorial
3. Lightning Components
It is a UI Framework which helps you build responsive and dynamic Applications using the Aura Framework.
The key idea behind this is to build reusable components each with their own UI, Styles and Business logic. Each of these components can then be put together to build an App in no time.
Salesforce provides you with a set of standard components which you can use while building your app .you can create your own custom components or download components from AppExchange.
For a comprehensive hands-on tutorial, here's the link
http://bit.ly/lightning-components-tutorial
4. Lightning App Builder
A drag and drop interface which allows you to build apps using components. It allows you to design apps for every screen size using one canvas.
For a comprehensive hands-on tutorial, here's the link
http://bit.ly/app_builder_lightning
App Builder is not enabled by default in DE orgs and must be requested from Salesforce.
However, Register from the below link and try Lightning App Builder for Free.