Preface 1
Chapter 1: Getting Started with Visualforce 7
The MVC model 8
Understanding Visualforce 8
The Visualforce architecture 9
Advantages of Visualforce 11
Visualforce development tools 13
Summary 13
Chapter 2: Controllers and Extensions 15
Standard controllers 16
How to use a standard controller with a Visualforce page 16
Standard controller actions 17
Standard list controllers 20
How to use a standard list controller with Visualforce 20
Standard list controller actions 21
Custom controllers and controller extensions 23
Understanding custom controllers 23
Building a custom controller 23
Understanding controller extension 26
Building a controller extension 27
Controller methods 28
Getter methods 29
Setter methods 29
Action methods 31
Working with large sets of data on the Visualforce page 31
Order of execution of a Visualforce page 32
Order of execution for a Visualforce page's get requests 32
Order of execution for a Visualforce page's postback requests 33
Table of Contents
[ ii ]
Validation rules and standard controllers/custom controllers 34
Using the transient keyword 35
Considerations for creating custom controllers and
controller extensions 36
Summary 36
Chapter 3: Visualforce and Standard Web Development
Technologies 37
Styling Visualforce pages 38
Salesforce styles 38
Custom styles 38
Using JavaScript in Visualforce pages 42
Accessing Visualforce components in JavaScript 42
JavaScript remoting for Apex controllers 44
Using jQuery in Visualforce pages 47
HTML5 and Visualforce pages 49
Summary 50
Chapter 4: Visualforce Custom Components 51
Understanding Visualforce custom components 51
Creating and using a custom component 52
Custom attributes and custom controllers 54
Summary 56
Chapter 5: Dynamic Visualforce Bindings 57
Using dynamic references with standard objects and custom objects 57
Referencing Apex Maps and Lists 61
Working with field sets 64
Summary 64
Chapter 6: Visualforce Charting 65
Limitations and considerations of Visualforce charting 66
How does Visualforce charting work 66
Providing chart data 68
Using the controller method 69
Using a JavaScript function 69
Using a JavaScript array 70
A complex chart with Visualforce charting 71
Summary 74
Table of Contents
[ iii ]
Chapter 7: Visualforce for Mobile 75
Understanding Salesforce Mobile 75
Salesforce Mobile and Visualforce Mobile supporting devices 76
Capabilities and limitations of the mobile application 77
Using Visualforce Mobile 78
Developing and mobilizing Visualforce pages 78
Best practices for building Visualforce Mobile pages for iPhone
and BlackBerry 78
iPhone considerations 80
BlackBerry considerations 80
Developing cross-platform compatible pages 81
Using the JavaScript library 83
Building a mobile-ready Visualforce tab 85
Creating the mobile configuration 85
Summary 86
Chapter 8: Best Practices for Visualforce Developments 87
Accessing component IDs 88
Page block components 88
Controllers and controller extensions 89
Improving Visualforce's performance 89
Static resources 92
Rendering PDFs 92
Using component facets 93
Summary 94
Appendix: Security Tips for Apex and Visualforce Development 95
Security scanning tools 95
Force.com Security Source Scanner 96
Cross-site scripting (XSS) 97
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) 98
SOQL injection 98
Data access control 100
Summary 100
Index 101
