Try It Out: Assign Object-Specific Actions to Page Layouts

Unlike global actions, there isn’t a new type of layout for object-specific actions. There is, however, a special place for them on every page layout. The Publisher Actions section of the page layout editor looks and acts much like the editor for global publisher layouts. All we have to do is drag actions from the palette and drop them into the right spot.

1. From Setup, click Create | Objects, and then click Position.
2. In the Page Layouts related list, click Edit next to IT Position Layout.

Notice that the Publisher Actions section is empty. Currently, this page layout is using the global publisher layout assigned to each user’s profile. Since we created object-specific actions, we can’t add them to the global publisher layout. That’s okay! In order for our new actions to appear in the action bar on position records, we just need to override the global publisher layout.

3. In the Publisher Actions area, click override the global publisher layout.

When we override the global publisher layout, the platform automatically provides some actions: standard Chatter actions like Post and File, as well as Mobile Smart Actions. Mobile smart actions are a set of pre-configured actions, just like default actions. However, they are only available in Salesforce1. Mobile smart actions appear as a single action element in the page layout editor, but appear in the action menu in Salesforce1 as distinct create actions, which allow users to create records directly in the feed. For custom objects like ours, these actions are New Task, New Contact, Log a Call, New Group, New Opportunity, New Case, and New Lead. We can’t change which actions are included as part of a mobile smart actions bundle, so we’re going to remove it and manually add actions that are relevant to this object. For more information on mobile smart actions, and a list of what the mobile smart action element on each supported object expands to include, see “Mobile Smart Actions Overview” in the Salesforce Help.

4. In the palette, click Actions.
5. Drag Mobile Smart Actions back to the palette.
6. Drag actions from the palette to the Publisher Actions section so that they’re in this order.
   • New Application
   • New Candidate
   • New Posting
   • Post
   • New Task
   • New Note
   • File
   • Link

   We have some duplicates, since we created a “New Application” global action and a “New Application” object-specific action. The Force.com platform helps us out with this—using the hover text over the actions. One of the actions has a name of “New_Application,” and the other has a name of “Position__c.New_Application”. Our object-specific action is the second. The name indicates that it’s directly associated with the position object using the Position__c prefix. That means that this action can only be added to a position page layout.

   Note

7. Click Save.
   Customizing the Actions Available on a Standard Position Record
8. Click IT Position Layout at the top of the palette, and from the drop-down list select Position Layout.
9. Customize the Publisher Actions section for the Position Layout so that it matches the IT Position Layout.

Now let’s add our object-specific actions for candidates, employment websites, and job applications to those page layouts. Go to each page layout, and add the actions in the order indicated in this table.