This post is about creating a custom button to be placed in a detail page using Visualforce page instead of an S-control (deprecated). I will be using Opportunity object for this example.

The Controller:

public class VFController
{
    private final ApexPages.StandardController theController;
    public List<Opportunity> listOpps = new List<Opportunity>();
 
    public VFController(ApexPages.StandardController stdController)
    {
          theController = stdController;
    }
    // Code we will invoke on page load.
    public PageReference autoRun()
    {
        for (Opportunity opp:[select id, name from Opportunity where id =:theController.getId()])
            {
	        opp.Name = opp.name + ' test';
                listOpps.add(opp);
	    }
		Database.update(listOpps);
 
	return theController.view().setRedirect(true);
    }
}

The Visualforce Page:

You don’t need to do anything special here. The most important part here is the parameter action = “{!autoRun}”.

<apex:page standardController="Opportunity"
extensions="VFController"
action="{!autoRun}"
>
<apex:sectionHeader title="Invoking Apex from a Button"/>
<apex:outputPanel>
You shoudn't see this page...
</apex:outputPanel>
</apex:page>

After that, go to Setup –> App Setup –> Customize –> Opportunities –> Buttons and Links. Add a new custom button with the following configuration.

This example simply appends “test” to the Opportunity name when you click on that custom button. This is only to show you that it works. Hope this helps.

Lyrics:

Life comes in many shapesYou think you know what you gotUntil it changes
And life will take you high and lowYou gotta learn how to walkAnd then which way to go
Every choice you makeWhen you’re lostEvery step you takeHas it’s cause
Chorus:After you clear your eyesYou’ll see the lightSomewhere in the darknessAfter the rain has goneYou’ll feel the sun comeAnd though it seems your sorrow never endsSomeday it’s gonna make sense
Tears you shed are all the sameWhen you laughed ’till you criedOr broken down in pain
All the hours you have spent in the pastWorrying aboutA thing that didn’t last
Everything you sawPlayed a partIn everything you areIn your heart
Chorus:After you clear your eyesYou’ll see the lightSomewhere in the darknessAfter the rain has goneYou’ll feel the sun comeAnd though it seems your sorrow never endsSomeday it’s gonna make sense
Release:Someday you’re gonna find the answersTo all the things you’ve become and all they’ve doneAt your expenseSomeday it’s gonna make sense

The first time I heard this song I already liked it. Originally, it’s a Gilmore Girls soundtrack. Check the YouTube video. I hope you guys like this too.

Lyrics:

How to Dream by Sam Phillips

Have a look at some of our pics.

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var txt = window.frames["iframeName"].document.forms["formName"].elements["elementName"].value;

Tip:  To avoid confusion, your page elements should have the same Id and Name.

I hope this helps!

I’m sharing this code because I know a lot of new salesforce developers are pulling their hair out looking for concrete samples on how to do API batch update. Yes it took me awhile to be able to solve this problem. APEX API documentation doesn’t give it all and it’s frustrating…

So much for that, here’s how I did it. My sample is updating a custom field in Opportunity Object using VB.Net.

Dim arrUpdateID As New ArrayList  'This ArrayList holds the Opportunity IDs I need to update, I didn't included the query - that will be your task
 
Dim objOppx(199) As Opportunity
 
For d = d To arrUpdateID.Count - 1
 
Dim updateOppx As New Opportunity
 
updateOppx.Id = arrUpdateID(d) ' You need an ID when you update
updateOppx.Downloaded__c = True ' This is a checkbox in SFDC where I'm setting it to true
updateOppx.Downloaded__cSpecified = True ' This is required when updating a boolean field
objOppx(d) = updateOppx ' Storing opportunity values to  objOppx which is an array of Oppty
 
Next
 
Dim sr() As SaveResult = sfdc.update(objOppx) ' This is where the updating happens, this line of code should be outside the loop
 
For j As Integer = 0 To sr.Length - 1
Dim msgerr As String
 
If Not sr(j).success Then
msgerr = "Error updating Opportunity ID: " + sr(j).id + ". The error was: " _
+ sr(j).errors(0).message
End If
 
Next

Note: You can only update 200 records in an Object at a time due to Governor limits, so you need to make some work around with that issue. I have done that through chunking up my array of IDs to update. I’ll leave that up to you!

I hope this post helps! There will be more to come as I learn Salesforce.com and APEX programming.

Stay tuned!

This is just the first batch of pics aka part 1.

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