Referencing an Existing Page with <apex:include>

Use the <apex:include> tag when you want to duplicate the entire content of another page without making any changes. You can use this technique to reference existing markup that will be used the same way in several locations.

You should not use <apex:include> if you are only duplicating components. Custom components are better suited for reusable segments of code.

Note

For example, suppose you want to create a form that takes a user's name and displays it back to them. First, create a page called formTemplate that represents a reusable form and uses a controller called templateExample:

After you receive the prompt about templateExample not existing, use the following code to define that custom controller:

Next, return to formTemplate and add the following markup:

Note that nothing should happen if you click Save. This is expected behavior.

Next, create a page called displayName, which includes formTemplate:

When you save this page, the entire formTemplate page is imported. When you enter a name and click Save the form passes a true value to the showGreeting field, which then renders the <apex:outputText> and displays the user's name.

You can create another Visualforce page that uses formTemplate to display a different greeting. Create a page called displayBoldName and use the following markup:

Notice that although the displayed text changes, the templateExample logic remains the same.

Visualforce Developer Guide

Referencing an Existing Page with <apex:include>