Visualforce Developer Guide

Introducing Visualforce
Tools for Visualforce Development
Getting a Quick Start with Visualforce
Customizing the Appearance and Output of Visualforce Pages
Standard Controllers
Standard List Controllers
Custom Controllers and Controller Extensions
Live Controller (Pilot)
Advanced Examples
Creating Your First Custom Controller
Creating a Custom Controller Class
Defining Getter Methods
Defining Action Methods
Defining Navigation Methods
Creating a Wizard
Advanced Visualforce Dashboard Components
Integrating Visualforce and Google Charts
Mass-Updating Records with a Custom List Controller
Overriding Buttons, Links, and Tabs with Visualforce
Using Static Resources
Creating and Using Custom Components
Dynamic Visualforce Bindings
Dynamic Visualforce Components
Integrating Email with Visualforce
Visualforce Charting
Creating Maps with Visualforce
Render Flows with Visualforce
Templating with Visualforce
Developing Salesforce Apps with Visualforce
Adding Visualforce to a Salesforce AppExchange App
Using JavaScript in Visualforce Pages
Communicating Across the DOM with Lightning Message Service
Best Practices
Standard Component Reference
Appendices
Glossary
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Defining Action Methods

Action methods perform logic or navigation when a page event occurs, such as when a user clicks a button, or hovers over an area of the page. Action methods can be called from page markup by using {! } notation in the action parameter of one of the following tags:

For example, in the sample page described in Using Input Components in a Page, a command button is bound to the save method in the Account standard controller. We can adapt that previous example so that it now uses the MyController custom controller:

Remember, for this page to display account data, the ID of a valid account record must be specified as a query parameter in the URL for the page. For example:

Note

After saving the page above, the Visualforce editor offers a “quick fix” option to add the save method to the MyController class. If you click the quick fix link, MyController now looks like this:

The save method that is generated by the quick fix takes the standard signature for an action method: it is public, returns a PageReference, and contains no arguments.

Ultimately, the save method definition must update the database with new account values, but first we must define a member variable to save the account information that is retrieved from the database. Without a member variable for the account, the record retrieved from the database does not persist after its values are used to render the page, and the user's updates to the record cannot be saved. To introduce this member variable, two parts of the controller code need to change:
  • The member variable must be added to the class
  • The member variable must be set when getAccount performs the initial query

Now that the member variable is in place, all that the save method needs to do is update the database:

A more robust solution for save might catch various exceptions, look for duplicates, and so on. Since this is meant to be a simple example, those details have been left out.

To test this page, change the value in the Change Account Name field and click Save New Account Name. As with the standard Account controller example, the page simply refreshes with the new account name. In the next example, we will extend the save action so that instead of refreshing the current page, it navigates the user to a different confirmation page.

For the page to render properly, you must specify a valid account ID in the URL. For example, if 001D000000HRgU6 is the account ID, use the following URL:

Note