Book Image

Visualforce Development Cookbook - Second Edition

By : Keir Bowden
Book Image

Visualforce Development Cookbook - Second Edition

By: Keir Bowden

Overview of this book

Visualforce is a framework that allows developers to build sophisticated, custom user interfaces that can be hosted natively on the Force.com platform. The Visualforce framework includes a tag-based markup language, similar to HTML that is used to write the Visualforce pages and a set of controllers that are used to write business logic to the Visualforce pages. Visualforce Development Cookbook provides solutions to a variety of challenges faced by Salesforce developers and demonstrates how easy it is to build rich, interactive pages using Visualforce. Whether you are looking to make a minor addition to the standard page functionality or override it completely, this book will provide you with the help you require throughout. You will start by learning about the simple utilities and will build up to more advanced techniques for data visualization and to reuse functionality. You will learn how to perform various tasks such as creating multiple records from a single page, visualizing data as charts, using JavaScript to enhance client-side functionality, building a public website, and making data available to a mobile device. With an interesting chapter on tackling common issues faced while developing Visualforce pages, the book provides lots of practical examples to enhance and extend your Salesforce user interface.

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Visualforce Development Cookbook - Second Edition
Keir Bowden
Aug, 2016 | 358 pages
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Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Visualforce Development Cookbook - Second Edition
Visualforce Development Cookbook - Second Edition
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewer
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
General Utilities
General Utilities
Introduction
Overriding standard buttons
Data-driven styling
Turning off an action poller
Visualforce in the sidebar
Passing parameters to action methods
Reacting to URL parameters
Passing parameters between Visualforce pages
Opening a pop-up window
Adding a launch page
Testing a custom controller
Testing a controller extension
2
Custom Components
Custom Components
Introduction
Passing attributes to components
Updating attributes in component controllers
Passing action methods to components
Data-driven decimal places
The custom iterator component
Setting a value into a controller property
Multiselecting related objects
Notifying the containing page controller
3
Capturing Data Using Forms
Capturing Data Using Forms
Introduction
Editing a record in Visualforce
Adding error messages to field inputs
Adding error messages to non-field inputs
Using field sets
Adding a custom lookup to a form
Adding a custom datepicker to a form
Retrieving fields when a lookup is populated
Breaking up forms with action regions
The Please wait spinner
Action chaining
4
Managing Records
Managing Records
Introduction
Styling fields as required
Styling table columns as required
Attaching an image to a record
Managing attachments
Maintaining custom settings
Refreshing record details from embedded Visualforce
Using wrapper classes
Changing options based on the user input
Changing page layout based on the user input
Form-based searching
5
Managing Multiple Records
Managing Multiple Records
Introduction
Editing a record and its parent
Managing a list of records
Converting a lead
Managing a hierarchy of records
Inline editing a record from a list
Creating a Visualforce report
Displaying report data in Visualforce
Loading records asynchronously
6
Visualforce Charts
Visualforce Charts
Introduction
Creating a bar chart
Creating a line chart
Customizing a chart
Adding multiple series
Creating a stacked bar chart
Adding a third axis
Embedding a chart in a record view page
Multiple charts per page
7
Enhancing the Client with JavaScript
Enhancing the Client with JavaScript
Introduction
Using action functions
Avoiding race conditions
The confirmation dialog
Pressing Enter to submit
The onload handler
Collapsible list elements
Trapping navigation away
Creating a record using JavaScript remoting
8
Force.com Sites
Force.com Sites
Introduction
Creating a site
Record and field access
Retrieving content from Salesforce
Web to lead form
Creating a website template
Adding a header menu to a template
Adding a sidebar to a template
Conditional rendering in templates
9
Visualforce in Salesforce1
Visualforce in Salesforce1
Introduction
Navigating between pages
Lightning forms
Capturing the user's location
Saving an image when creating a record
Capturing a signature when creating a record
Displaying a location in a map
Scanning the QR code to access the record
10
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Introduction
Avoiding validation errors with action regions
Surfacing errors
Multiple bindings to the same record
Reducing view state size 1 - the transient keyword
Reducing view state size 2 - HTML vs Visualforce components
Debugging Visualforce
Logging messages in a Visualforce page

Using action functions

An action function allows an action method from a controller to be executed from JavaScript. The standard Visualforce <apex:actionFunction /> component generates a named function that can be called from any JavaScript code.

In this recipe, we will create a Visualforce page that displays a list of cases and a countdown timer implemented in JavaScript. Once the timer expires, an action method from the page's controller is executed, which redirects the user's browser to the standard case tab.

Getting ready

This recipe makes use of a custom controller, so this must be created before the Visualforce page.

How to do it...

  1. Navigate to the Apex Classes setup page by clicking on Your Name | Setup | Develop | Apex Classes.

  2. Click on the New button.

  3. Paste the contents of the ActionFunctionController.cls Apex class from the code download into the Apex Class area.

  4. Click on the Save button.

  5. Next, create the Visualforce page by navigating to the Visualforce setup page by clicking on...

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