Visualforce Basics¶

Creation Timestamp: May 13, 2021 8:33 PM
Date Finished: December 16, 2020
Details: Use Visualforce to build custom user interfaces for mobile and web apps.
Estimated Hours: 3
Has Exam Weight?: No
Points: 4100
Salesforce Docs URL: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.224.0.pages.meta/pages/pages_intro.htm
Status: Done
Tags: Module
Timeline: December 16, 2020

Get Started with Visualforce¶

A web development framework

• An example of a Visualforce page

  <apex:page standardController="Contact" >
      <apex:form >
          <apex:pageBlock title="Edit Contact">
              <apex:pageBlockSection columns="1">
                  <apex:inputField value="{!Contact.FirstName}"/>
                  <apex:inputField value="{!Contact.LastName}"/>
                  <apex:inputField value="{!Contact.Email}"/>
                  <apex:inputField value="{!Contact.Birthdate}"/>
              </apex:pageBlockSection>
              <apex:pageBlockButtons >
                  <apex:commandButton action="{!save}" value="Save"/>
              </apex:pageBlockButtons>
          </apex:pageBlock>
      </apex:form>
  </apex:page>
  

  e646fb225441602ba0db4e602bf4477c_visualforce-intro-sample-page.jpeg

Create & Edit Visualforce Pages¶

The sidebar and showHeader attribute have no effect in Lightning Experience, and that there’s no way to suppress the Lightning Experience header.

Use Simple Variables and Formulas¶

Use Standard Controllers¶

Display Records, Fields, and Tables¶

Input Data Using Forms¶

Use Standard List Controllers¶

Visualforce uses model–view–controller (MVC)

Use Static Resources¶

Create & Use Custom Controllers¶

https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.224.0.pages.meta/pages/pages_controller_def.htm

• Custom controller cannot accept parameters in constructors

// Controller
public class MyController {

    private final Account account;

    public MyController() {
        account = [SELECT Id, Name, Site FROM Account
                   WHERE Id = :ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('id')];
    }

    public Account getAccount() {
        return account;
    }

    public PageReference save() {
        update account;
        return null;
    }
}

// How to use in VF Page
<apex:page controller="myController" tabStyle="Account">
    <apex:form>
        <apex:pageBlock title="Congratulations {!$User.FirstName}">
            You belong to Account Name: <apex:inputField value="{!account.name}"/>
            <apex:commandButton action="{!save}" value="save"/>
        </apex:pageBlock>
    </apex:form>
</apex:page>

Controller Extensions¶

A controller extension is any Apex class containing a constructor that takes a single argument of type ApexPages.StandardController or CustomControllerName, where CustomControllerName is the name of a custom controller you want to extend.

Use controller extensions when:

• You want to leverage the built-in functionality of a standard controller but override one or more actions, such as edit, view, save, or delete.
• You want to add new actions.
• You want to build a Visualforce page that respects user permissions. Although a controller extension class executes in system mode, if a controller extension extends a standard controller, the logic from the standard controller does not execute in system mode. Instead, it executes in user mode, in which permissions, field-level security, and sharing rules of the current user apply.

• Code examples

  // Controller Extension
  public class myControllerExtension {
  
      private final Account acct;
  
      // The extension constructor initializes the private member
      // variable acct by using the getRecord method from the standard
      // controller.
      public myControllerExtension(ApexPages.StandardController stdController) {
          this.acct = (Account)stdController.getRecord();
      }
  
      public String getGreeting() {
          return 'Hello ' + acct.name + ' (' + acct.id + ')';
      }
  }
  
  // usage in VF
  <apex:page standardController="Account" extensions="myControllerExtension">
      {!greeting} <p/>
      <apex:form>
          <apex:inputField value="{!account.name}"/> <p/>
          <apex:commandButton value="Save" action="{!save}"/>
      </apex:form>
  </apex:page>
  

  • For multiple extensions, use comma separated values for the extensions attribute:
    extensions="ExtOne,ExtTwo" ← Leftmost one gets preference
    -

StandardSetController Class¶

A way to extend StandardListControllers

Useful for:

• Mass updates to an object of a type
• Pagination (inbuilt feature)