Canvas Apps and Visualforce Pages

In addition to standard canvas apps, Canvas also lets you expose a canvas app on a Visualforce page. This means you can display a canvas app anywhere you can display a Visualforce page.

Developers can use Visualforce pages to:
  • Override standard buttons, such as the New button for accounts, or the Save button for contacts
  • Override tab overview pages, such as the Accounts tab home page
  • Define custom tabs
  • Embed components in detail page layouts
  • Create dashboard components or custom help pages
  • Customize, extend, or integrate the sidebars in the Salesforce Console (custom console components)

To host a canvas app on a Visualforce page, use the <apex:canvasApp> component.

The Canvas framework includes methods that you can use to circumvent the navigational limitations of the iframe that contains a canvas app, without using Visualforce pages. These methods offer a streamlined alternative for controlling navigation to or from canvas apps in the Salesforce app. For details, see Salesforce Mobile App Navigation Methods for Use with Canvas Apps.

Note