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

I'm using a VF page to show Contacts. I have a group of categories (related lists) which are checked or unchecked. When I perform an action on the page, e.g. View, Edit, New, I want SF to remember which categories are checked, and check them again when the user clicks the back button or saves the record.

To do this, I'm setting retUrl and saveUrl where necessary, adding a parameter "rels" onto both which holds the keyPrefixes of the checked related lists. E.g. /apex/MyApexPage?id=003xxxxxxxxxx&rels=a09,a0B,a0K

Here is the code I'm using for this:

<apex:outputLink value="/{!fvv.recordId}/e?retURL={!URLENCODE('/apex/Codi?id='& contact.Id & '&rels='& preSelectedRelListsKeyPrefix &'')}&saveURL={!URLENCODE('/apex/Codi?id='& contact.Id & '&rels='& preSelectedRelListsKeyPrefix &'')}">Edit</apex:outputLink>

When I hover over the links I see the correct retURL and saveURL. This means that preSelectedRelListsKeyPrefix is populating correctly.

In the next page I see the Encoded URLs, i.e.

https://na1.salesforce.com/a0GU0000005nFJRMA2/e?retURL=%2Fapex%2FCodi%3Fid%3D003U000000PL9LNIA1%26rels%3Da0G&saveURL=%2Fapex%2FCodi%3Fid%3D003U000000PL9LNIA1%26rels%3Da0G

When I click the back button, I look for the rels parameter in my controller. However, this is null. In the URL rels is missing as well.

However, the weird thing is that it works if I perform an action in the page. Let's say I edit an object in the a0G related List. So the URL I generate would be the same as above.

. Now, if I edit the record, the rels parameter is correctly set, and the salesforce 'newid' parameter is attached, like so: https://na1.visual.force.com/apex/Codi?id=003U000000PL9LNIA1&rels=a0G&newid=a0GU0000005nFJR . But if I click the back button without editing, it doesn't work. And yet I checked for differences between my saveUrl code and my retUrl code and they are identical.

Likewise, the "New" and "View" buttons are not passing the parameter properly. I'm kind of stuck what to do here, since I'm passing everything correctly from my side and it seems to be salesforce that doesn't attach the parameter on the way back.

Best Answer

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.

Related Solutions

[SalesForce] Redirecting back to original page using visualforce

Edit : You can proxy the invocation of the Standard Save method via an ActionFunction, but then override the redirect by using the onComplete to redirect to a custom URL. Here is a sample I did for overriding the New button for Contact : (By default the Save method returns you to the Contact newly created, however using this I managed to get it to return to the Account I clicked the New Contact button on)

<apex:page standardController="Contact">
<script>

var returnURL;

window.onload =  function(){
returnURL = gup('retURL');
//alert('Set retURL = ' + returnURL);

};

function gup( name ){  //this function just grabs HTTP params by name

name = name.replace(/[\[]/,"\\\[").replace(/[\]]/,"\\\]"); 
var regexS = "[\\?&]"+name+"=([^&#]*)"; 
var regex = new RegExp( regexS ); 
var results = regex.exec( window.location.href );
 if( results == null )    return ""; 
else    return results[1];}

function redirectBack(){
//alert('Sending you back to ' + returnURL);
window.location.href = '/' + returnURL;
}

</script>

<apex:form >
<apex:actionFunction  name="saveActionFunc" action="{!Save}" oncomplete="redirectBack()" rerender="theBlock" />

<apex:pageBlock mode="Edit" id = "theBlock" >
<apex:pageBlockButtons >
<apex:commandButton value="Save" onClick="saveActionFunc();"/>
</apex:pageBlockButtons>

<apex:pageBlockSection >
<apex:inputField value="{!Contact.LastName}" />
<apex:inputField value="{!Contact.FirstName}" />  
<apex:inputField value="{!Contact.Email}" />   
</apex:pageBlockSection>

</apex:pageBlock>
</apex:form>
</apex:page>

In summary, it does seem possible to do without a Controller! (Although I noticed some javascript race issues at times, but works for the most part)

My understanding of retURL is the location you want to redirect to when the user hits Cancel. To control the page to navigate to on Save, the saveURL is used.

When creating a new record from inspecting the URL, it also adds save_new_url=/003/e for Contact. I would try adding this.

Could you post the URL you have set the new button to redirect the user to when they click new. (what I usually do is copy the URL that salesforce by default sends you to when clicking new)

I would also try adding noOverride=1 to the URL.

[SalesForce] Hash symbol when binding variables in URL

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).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[SalesForce] Redirecting back to original page using visualforce

[SalesForce] Hash symbol when binding variables in URL

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