The Chrome Extension: Salesforce Lightning Inspector – A Comprehensive Review

Extensions have become a significant part of our browsing experience, making tasks more efficient and user-friendly. One such extension is the Salesforce Lightning Inspector, a highly useful tool for developers working on the Salesforce platform. However, according to its aggregate rating of 2.63 out of 5, it appears to fall short of user expectations. In this article, we delve into the reasons behind this low rating, analyze its shortcomings, and provide insights based on user reviews.

Functionality and Features

As a utility tool, the Salesforce Lightning Inspector promises to enhance the development of Lightning Components, providing critical data about running applications and their components. It offers features such as component structure inspection and navigation, performance bottleneck identification, server interaction debugging, component tree navigation, and event firing and handling sequence tracking. However, despite these impressive features, user reviews suggest a different story.

User Reviews and Feedback

Looking at the user reviews, we find a mixed bag of opinions. Positive feedback includes praise for its indispensability, with one user stating they would give it ten stars if possible. Yet, the negative reviews depict a different story, with users experiencing issues such as crashes, a missing Inspector option, and a complete lack of functionality.

For instance, user Dmitry Komarov suggested adding a feature to manage the sites that the app can access and mentioned that the extension does not work in the community if enhanced domains are on. On the other hand, user Igor Cukovic called it an "utterly useless and counterintuitive tool," while Matt Foster reported crashes and subsequent loading of a classic page. These reviews indicate several technical issues that have significantly impacted the extension's user experience.

Updates and Bug Fixes

The Salesforce Lightning Inspector team has released numerous updates and bug fixes to improve the tool's functionality. For example, an update in March 2021 added telemetry, while one in July 2020 changed the extension to only allow use with Salesforce URLs to comply with Google's policy. However, user reviews suggest these updates have not adequately addressed all the existing issues, leading to the tool's low aggregate rating.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while the Salesforce Lightning Inspector Chrome extension offers a range of impressive features, it seems to fall short in terms of functionality and user-friendliness based on its low aggregate rating and user reviews. Before choosing to install this extension, potential users should carefully weigh its features against reported issues.