[SalesForce] PageReference from embedded Visualforce page becomes inlined

I have a Visualforce page that gets embedded into the opportunity page layout. Part of the embedded page is a command button with an action defined in the controller to redirect the user to another page.

Snippet from controller method referenced by the command button:

public PageReference editDynamicProperties() {
    PageReference editpr = Page.AnotherPage;

    Map<string, string> params = editpr.getParameters();
    params.put('oppId', opportunityFromController.Id);
    // Attempt to remove the &inline query string parameter, but it isn't present yet.
    if(params.containsKey('inline')) {
        params.remove('inline');
    }
    editpr.setRedirect(true);
    System.debug(LoggingLevel.Info,'editDynamicProperties() redirecting to ' + editpr);
    return editpr;
}

When the button is pressed the redirection occurs, but the query string picks up the parameter &inline=1. As a result the page is rendered without any of the standard Salesforce content, such as the AppBodyHeader or sidebar. Manually removing the &inline=1 produces the desired results.

I tried explicitly removing the inline parameter from the PageReference, but it isn't present at that time. I've also tried explicitly adding &inline=0, the headers still get removed. It doesn't seem to matter what the value of inline is, only that it is present.

How can I redirect from an embedded Visualforce page to another page without becoming inlined?

Best Answer

I managed to hack my way around it by using JavaScript in the command button oncomplete to do the redirection from the top level window.

Simplified Page:

My reality is a bit more complicated as the Command button is a dynamic Visualforce component.

E.g. public PageReference stubAction() { return null; }

public PageReference editDynamicProperties() {
    PageReference editpr = Page.AnotherPage;

    Map<string, string> params = editpr.getParameters();
    params.put('oppId', opportunityFromController.Id);

    editpr.setRedirect(true);
    return editpr;
}

public Component.Apex.OutputPanel getDynamicPropertyControls() {
    //...

    Component.Apex.PageBlockButtons pbButtons = new Component.Apex.PageBlockButtons();
    pb.childComponents.add(pbButtons);

    Component.Apex.CommandButton editCommandButton = new Component.Apex.CommandButton();
    editCommandButton.value='Edit';
    //editCommandButton.expressions.action = '{!editDynamicProperties}';
    editCommandButton.expressions.action = '{!stubAction}';

    editCommandButton.rerender= new Set<string>{'dynamicForm'};
    editCommandButton.oncomplete= 'window.top.location.href = \''+editDynamicProperties().getUrl()+'\'';
    pbButtons.childComponents.add(editCommandButton);

    //...
}

UPDATE: Apparently I've come across this problem before. See Visualforce Page embedded in a detail page that needs to redirect to other page That question had a very similar answer by JCD, but the redirection was handled by the rerendered component.

Related Solutions

[SalesForce] Disable commandButton after first click to prevent double submission

The mechanism I have found to be most maintainable uses a JavaScript function called by an element's click event, which internally calls an actionFunction to post the form, disables the buttons on the page and then returns false on the commandlink/button. This is used in conjunction with an oncomplete on the actionFunction to re-enable the buttons when the form has been (ajax) posted and returns a result to the page.

Without the rerender attribute the form performs a full postback along with the disabling of the buttons.

Note: You can't disable the button(s) before the form is posted or the data sent to the controller will not include which button/link within the form was clicked and thus which action to execute.

<script src="//ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/latest/jquery.js"></script>
<script>

    function buttonsEnabled(enabled) {
        // retrieve all of the buttons or links on the page
        // with the css class of btn
        var $buttons = jQuery('.btn');
        if (enabled === false) {
            // add the btnDisabled class to give it the look of being disabled
            // add the disabled attribute to actually disable interactability
            $buttons.toggleClass('btnDisabled', true).attr('disabled', 'disabled');
        } else {
            // remove the css class and the disabled attribute
            $buttons.toggleClass('btnDisabled', false).attr('disabled', null);
        } 
    }

    function doSomeWork() {
        // first, call the action function to post the form
        doSomeWorkActionFunction();

        // second, disable the buttons
        buttonsEnabled(false);

        // third, return false to prevent the click from
        // posting the form a second time
        return false;
    }

</script>

<apex:form>

    <apex:actionFunction name="doSomeWorkActionFunction" 
        action="{!yourControllerMethod}" 
        oncomplete="buttonsEnabled(true);"
        rerender="whateverYouNeedToRerender"></apex:actionFunction>

    <apex:commandLink action="{!yourControllerMethod}" 
        value="Your Text Here" 
        id="theCommandLink" 
        onclick="return doSomeWork();" />

</apex:form>

[SalesForce] URL Encoding in Apex – PageReference to Merge Accounts

Don't escape the URL that you pass into the PageReference constructor. This will result in Bad Things happening. Also, you shouldn't use escapeHtml* methods, because that's for a different purpose (encoding HTML so it doesn't render as HTML when viewed as HTML). Instead, you would use EncodingUtil.urlEncode if you needed to escape parameters, which you don't, because you're using normal ID values.

However, all of the information I've just provided is useless in this case, because PageReference is going to mangle your URL anyways-- you can't have duplicate parameters in a PageReference query string. You'll need to invent a different way of redirecting the user without using a PageReference, such as by depositing the URL into a plain string that's later injected into a script that performs the redirect:

<script>
    window.top.location.href = '{!newLocation}';
</script>

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[SalesForce] Disable commandButton after first click to prevent double submission

[SalesForce] URL Encoding in Apex – PageReference to Merge Accounts

Related Topic