Customizing Case Feed with Code

Introduction
Customizing the Layout and Appearance of Case Feed
Customizing the Email Action
Customizing the Portal Action
Customizing the Log a Call Action
Customizing the Articles Tool
Replicating a Standard Case Feed Page
Create Custom Actions
Creating Custom Console Components That Interact with Case Feed
Learning More
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Introduction

Available in: Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer Editions

Case Feed gives support agents a more streamlined way of creating, managing, and viewing cases. It includes actions and a Chatter feed. The actions let agents create case notes, log calls, change the status of cases, and communicate with customers. The feed displays important case events in chronological order, so it’s easy to see the progress of each case.

The standard Case Feed page is designed for organizations that want to take advantage of feed-based case management quickly and with minimal configuration. You can modify the Case Feed page in a few ways, including specifying which actions and tools are available to users. Sometimes organizations with complex or unusual case management needs need to customize the Case Feed page more.

Case Feed Visualforce components enable you to create a customized page within the Salesforce console. In addition, the Case Feed-related events that can be published through the publish method on the Sfdc.canvas.publisher object in the Publisher JavaScript API let you create custom Salesforce console components that interact with Case Feed actions.

This guide is for developers who are responsible for customizing Case Feed according to their company’s needs. It includes several use cases and examples to help you create a unique Case Feed page.

Requirements

Before customizing Case Feed in the Salesforce console, make sure:

  • Case Feed, Chatter, and feed tracking on cases are enabled in your organization. Refer to Implementing Case Feed for detailed information.
  • Your organization has at least one Salesforce console app. For more information, see Create a Salesforce Console App.
  • You’re familiar with developing with Visualforce. Check out the Visualforce Developer’s Guide for a comprehensive overview.

Limitations

Lookup field filters aren’t supported on any of the Case Feed Visualforce components.

Assigning Custom Pages to Users

Generally, when you create a custom Case Feed page using Visualforce, it’s not possible to assign that page only to certain users while allowing other users to see the standard Case Feed page. However, with the support:CaseFeed component, you can create a page that replicates the standard Case Feed page, assign that page to certain users, and then create a custom page to assign to a different set of users. See Replicating a Standard Case Feed Page for more information.

Customization Overview

There are five Case Feed Visualforce components:

Component Name Description Use It To...
apex:emailPublisher Displays and controls the appearance and functionality of the Case Feed Email action.
  • Create an Email action and place it anywhere on a Salesforce console page.
  • Change the appearance of the action by specifying its dimensions and the fields it includes.
  • Customize certain aspects of the action’s functionality, such as specifying a default Subject for each outgoing email.
apex:logCallPublisher Displays and controls the appearance and functionality of the Case Feed Log a Call action.
  • Create a Log a Call action and place it anywhere on a Salesforce console page.
  • Change the appearance of the action by specifying its dimensions and the fields it includes.
support:caseArticles Displays and controls the appearance and functionality of the Articles tool for cases.
  • Create an Articles tool for cases and place it anywhere on a Salesforce console page.
  • Change the appearance of the tool by specifying its dimensions.
  • Customize certain aspects of the tool’s functionality, such as how it searches for articles.
support:CaseFeed Replicates the standard Case Feed page, including all standard actions, links, and buttons.
  • Create a version of the standard Case Feed page that you can assign to certain users so that you can also create a custom page and assign it to other users.
support:portalPublisher Displays and controls the appearance and functionality of the Case Feed Portal action.
  • Create a Portal action and place it anywhere on a Salesforce console page.
  • Change the appearance of the action by specifying its dimensions and the fields it includes.

In addition, the chatter:feed component has two attributes related to Case Feed: feedItemType, which lets you specify how feed items are filtered, and showPublisher, which lets you display the Chatter publisher on a page.

Finally, you can also create Visualforce pages to use as custom actions in Case Feed and can use the publisher.selectAction, publisher.setActionInputValues, invokeAction, and customActionMessage events to create interactions between custom Salesforce console components and Case Feed actions.

The following chapters offer detailed information on each of these components and customization options.