[SalesForce] How to generate a PDF for an SObject without using Visualforce

Cause: Transaction Scope

I've hit this before, and concluded this is due to how getContent is likely implemented internally. As per the Apex Documentation on transaction handling...

all changes are committed to the database only after all operations in the transaction finish executing

So the problem is until your database changes are committed, effectively not until after submitApplication method completes, no other code executions will see the changes to the record. I suspect the platform getContent method must run in a separate transaction context and thus cannot see the changes your code is making.

Solution: Chaining Execution Contexts

The solution is to invoke your logic that calls getContent and creates the attachment in a subsequent execution context (providing this one completes successfully). As it seems all async Apex features (Batch, @future) block getContent or fail silently.

We can create a new execution context via apex:actionFunction, which is invoked once the command button AJAX is complete. This example performs some DML (in my test case insert), then sets a controller member variable to pass some context to the second method invoked by the actionFunction.

public with sharing class CreateRecordAndAttachPDF {

    public Id parentId {get;set;}

    public PageReference createRecord()
    {
        Test__c test = new Test__c();
        test.A_Number__c = 42;
        insert test;            
        parentId = test.id;         
        ApexPages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message(ApexPages.Severity.Info, 'Please wait while the attachment is made...'));            
        return null;                
    }

    public PageReference attachPDF()
    { 
        Attachment applicationpdf = new Attachment();
        applicationpdf.Body = Page.mypdf.getContentAsPdf();
        applicationpdf.ContentType = '.pdf';
        applicationpdf.Name = 'Application PDF';
        applicationpdf.Name += '.pdf';
        applicationpdf.ParentId = parentId;
        insert applicationpdf;          
        parentId = null;            
        ApexPages.addMessage(new ApexPages.Message(ApexPages.Severity.Info, 'PDF has been attached!'));   
        return null;            
    }   
}

This is the Visualforce page i used...

<apex:page controller="CreateRecordAndAttachPDF">
    <apex:form id="myform">
        <apex:pageMessages />
        <apex:commandButton 
                action="{!createRecord}"
                value="Create Record and Attach PDF" 
                rendered="{!ISNULL(ParentId)}" 
                onComplete="attachPDF();" 
                reRender="myform"/>
        <apex:actionFunction 
                name="attachPDF" 
                action="{!attachPDF}" 
                reRender="myform"/>
    </apex:form>
</apex:page>

It shows this initially...

Then when clicked this...

Then once attached this...

Hope this helps!

On the attaching the PDF part of your question, you can connect your button to a controller method as described in e.g. Call Apex Class From A Custom Button.

To generate the PDF and attach it you can use the getContentAsPDF method and insert the Attachment:

global class MyClass {
    webservice static void attachPdf(Id customObjectId) {
        PageReference pr = Page.YourPageName;
        // Add parameters (if any) passed from the custom button or queried locally
        pr.getParameters().put('id', ...);
        insert new Attachment(
                ParentId = customObjectId,
                Name = 'Whatever Name You Want',
                Body = pr.getContentAsPDF(),
                ContentType = 'application/pdf'
                );
    }
}