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
What are Custom Controllers and Controller Extensions?
Build a Custom Controller
Building a Controller Extension
Building a Custom List Controller
Controller Methods
Controller Class Security
Working with Large Sets of Data
Considerations for Creating Custom Controllers and Controller Extensions
Order of Execution in a Visualforce Page
Test a Custom Controller
Validation Rules and Custom Controllers
Using the transient Keyword
Advanced Examples
Override Buttons, Links, and Tabs with Visualforce
Using Static Resources
Creating and Using Custom Components
Dynamic Visualforce Bindings
Dynamic Visualforce Components
Integrate 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
Visualforce Best Practices
Standard Visualforce Component Reference
Appendices
PDF

Note: This release is in preview. Features described here don’t become generally available until the latest general availability date that Salesforce announces for this release. Before then, and where features are noted as beta, pilot, or developer preview, we can’t guarantee general availability within any particular time frame or at all. Make your purchase decisions only on the basis of generally available products and features.

What are Custom Controllers and Controller Extensions?

A custom controller is an Apex class that implements all of the logic for a page without leveraging a standard controller. Use custom controllers when you want your Visualforce page to run entirely in system mode, which does not enforce the permissions and field-level security of the current user.

A controller extension is an Apex class that extends the functionality of a standard or custom controller. 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.

Custom controllers and controller extension classes execute in system mode, so they ignore user permissions and field-level security. However, you can choose whether they respect a user's organization-wide defaults, role hierarchy, and sharing rules by using the with sharing keywords in the class definition. For information, see “Using the with sharing, without sharing, and inherited sharing Keywords” in the Apex Developer Guide.

Note