Canvas Developer Guide

Introducing Canvas
Quick Start
Quick Start—Advanced
Prerequisites
Clone the Project from GitHub
Run the Web App Locally
Create the Canvas App
Use an External Client App
Use a Connected App
Configure Who Can Access the Canvas App
Deploy the Web App to Heroku
Deploy the Canvas External Client App to an Org
Update the Canvas App
Package the Canvas App
Configure Who Can Access the Installed Canvas App
Canvas SDK
Canvas Apps and Visualforce Pages
Lightning Component Code Examples
Canvas Apps in a Page Layout or a Mobile Card
Canvas Apps in the Publisher
Canvas Apps in the Chatter Feed
Canvas in the Salesforce Mobile App
Customizing Your App Lifecycle
Objects
Canvas Limits
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.

Create the Canvas App

To create a canvas app, you need the Customize Application and Modify All Data user permissions.

Previously, you created the canvas app as a connected app to use it in your org. Starting in Spring ’26, we recommend that you use external client apps for your canvas integrations.

External client apps can’t be used until they’re installed in an org, unlike connected apps that can be used by any org without installation once it’s created in an org locally. External client apps support the same OAuth flows with additional built-in security features while allowing you to package developer settings, keeping subscriber policies separate. External client apps also provide full metadata compliance, which makes packaging and deployment easier.