[SalesForce] Hash symbol when binding variables in URL

I'm trying to populate the Contact lookup when a User creates a new related list object from the Contact page.

I am storing the Contact parameter in a Custom Setting so it can be changed when deploying to Production.

For some reason, whenever I try to bind this custom setting to the URL I get a leading '#' and none of the bindings work correctly. This is despite using the URLENCODE function in the Visualforce

So when I put this (contactParameterId is != null)

<apex:outputLink value="/{!relList.keyPrefixObject}/e?{!IF(relList.contactParameterId != null, 'CF{!URLENCODE(relList.contactParameterId)}={!URLENCODE(contact.Id)}&', '')}retURL=/{!contact.Id}&saveURL=/{!contact.Id}"></apex:outputLink>

I get the URL

https://na12.salesforce.com/a0R/e?#{URLENCODE(relList.contactParameterId)}={!URLENCODE(contact.Id)}&retURL=/003U000000PL9LNIA1&saveURL=/003U000000PL9LNIA1

What am I doing wrong?

Best Answer

EDIT: You already are in the "merge fields syntax" with the {!IF ... }. There's no need to use { ... } again inside this IF but you have 'CF{!URLENCODE...

So probably something like this will be better:

<apex:outputLink 
    value="/{!relList.keyPrefixObject}/e?{!IF(relList.contactParameterId != null, 'CF' & URLENCODE(relList.contactParameterId) & '=' & URLENCODE(contact.Id),'')}&retURL=/{!contact.Id}&saveURL=/{!contact.Id}">
</apex:outputLink>

(you probably also don't need to URLENCODE anything here, both field Ids and record Ids should be "safe")

I don't think you're doing anything wrong.

Server-side parser gets in my opinion ~~stupid~~ overzealous with URLENCODE'ing too much stuff you'd consider safe. Might be even related to my question Proper urlencoding of spaces in formulas syntax

I have a massive <apex:commandButton /> to redirect user from my overridden VF page to standard edit page while salvaging what I can (prepopulating some fields) if he needs to fall back to original behavior of the page.

<apex:commandButton value="classic 'new' page"
    immediate="true"
    action="{!URLFOR($Action.Purchase_Order_Item__c.New, $ObjectType.Purchase_Order_Item__c, 
        [retURL=URLFOR($Action.Purchase_Order__c.View, po.Id),
        saveURL=URLFOR($Action.Purchase_Order__c.View, po.Id),
        CF00ND0000003F2Gk_lkid=po.Id,
        CF00ND0000003F2Gk=po.Name,
        CF00ND0000003F2Gn_lkid=po.Cost_Code__c,
        CF00ND0000003F2Gn=po.Cost_Code__r.Name,
        CurrencyIsoCode=po.CurrencyIsoCode],
        true) + '&00ND0000003F2Gw=' + po.PO_Type__c + '&00ND0000003F2Gv=' + po.PO_Sub_Type__c}"
    rendered="{!Purchase_Order_Item__c.id = ''}" />

po is the "Purchase Order" header and this button sits on the page we use to create new line items.

As you can see this abomination deals with your "CF" problem outside of URLFOR. Additionally fields with names that begin with 0 will prevent you from saving the VF page so I had to put them outside of the URLFOR too (they're picklists if that's relevant).

Related Solutions

[SalesForce] Strange behavior when passing parameters in retUrl and saveUrl

I managed to make this work by using the Cookie class. Instead of outputLinks, I used a commandLink and constructed a Page Reference in the controller like so.

PageReference pr = new PageReference('/'+recordToView+'/e?retURL=/apex/Codi?id='+contact.Id+'&rels='+preSelectedRelListsKeyPrefix);

Cookie relCookie = new Cookie('Checked Related Lists', preSelectedRelListsKeyPrefix, null, 1440, false);

pr.setCookies(new List<System.Cookie>{relCookie});
return pr;

Then in my constructor if the url parameter is empty I check for the Cookie

        Cookie rels = ApexPages.currentPage().getCookies().get('Checked Related Lists');

The result - the checkbox state is maintained even if the user clicks the Browser back button.

[SalesForce] URL hacking on a VisualForce page

The related list will already pass parameters from the standard button, so there is no need URL hack, you just need to know the parameter (which you would be using for URL hacking anyways) Then you assign the value to the record generated by the controller. Here is a an extremely simplified example.

Controller

public class OppEntryTestExtension {

  public OppEntryTestExtension(ApexPages.StandardController controller) {

    // Get Parameters that correspond to those passed by related list
    Id accountId = ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('accid');

    // Reference to Controller Record
    Opportunity opp = (Opportunity)controller.getRecord();

    // Assign values to Record
    opp.AccountId = accountId;

  }

}

Visualforce Page

<apex:page standardController="Opportunity" extensions="OppEntryTestExtension">

   <apex:form>
     <apex:inputField value="{!Opportunity.AccountId}" />
   </apex:form>

</apex:page>

In this example we override the standard Opportunity New page and use the parameter passed by the Opportunity related list on the account to set the Account on the Opportunity.

Once you have the id of the incoming object, you could also query that object if there were other fields you wanted to pre-populate in your new related object. (for example, I wanted to use an Account Type field to set a type field on the Opportunity)

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[SalesForce] Strange behavior when passing parameters in retUrl and saveUrl

[SalesForce] URL hacking on a VisualForce page

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