[SalesForce] Setting default field values in apex for new objects

We need to set some default values in apex on a custom object before it is created. The user should ideally work with the standard object page – we don't want to re-create the whole page in visualforce if not necessary.

Approach 1

Redirect the 'New' button to a custom VF page which loads the defaults and passes them on to the standard page via redirect using URL parameters.

Page (partial):

<apex:page standardcontroller="MyObj__c"
    extensions="MyObjController"
    action="!redirectDefaults">

Controller (partial):

public PageReference redirectDefaults() {
    string defName = someComplexLogic();
    PageReference retPage = new PageReference('/a0H/e?Name' + defName);
    return retPage.setRedirect(true);
}

Question: The problem here is that fields must be passed in a locale specific format : you have to know the user locale and then pass mm/dd/yyyy or dd.mm.yyyy as the case may be. How can this be done?

Approach 2

Re-create the page in visual force as an extension of a standard controller. This is more work but I assume there must be a way to initialise an instance of myObj before the page is displayed.

Question: How do I initialise myObj in my controller before the form is loaded?

Any better approaches than these are more than welcome!

Best Answer

For the Approach2 i would take ApexPages.StandardController:

public with sharing class YourController{

    private MyObj__c obj;

    public YourController(ApexPages.StandardController controller){
        this.obj = (MyObj__c)controller.getRecord();
    }
}

More info about StandardController Class

To Approach1.

UPDATE:

It is not a problem to pass date parameter in a current user locale. For that just use format() method of the Date class:

String s = Date.today().format();

and then:

'/a0H/e?DateField=' + s

The s looks for me in europe like 21.02.2013. In US it will be 02/21/2013.

From here

And for the default value of a custom field i would try to use a Default Value Formula

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] Setting default value for datetime field

You need to use DATETIMEVALUE(...) function, like this:

DATETIMEVALUE("2013-11-15 12:00:00")

Or just NOW() function