Salesforce App Developer Guide

Version 15, Spring '19

Written by
Dianne Siebold
Samantha Ready
Michelle Chapman-Thurber

With contributions by
Michael Alderete
Cliff Armstrong
Jay Hurst
Dean Moses
Tammy Rahn
Samantha Reynard
Jim Sinai
Quinton Wall
Emily Wilska
 Discover both the declarative (point-and-click) and the programmatic (code-based)
features of Salesforce. Learn how you can optimize existing features such as
Visualforce pages and quick actions for the Salesforce mobile experience, as we
walk you through the process of making an existing organization mobile-ready.

Salesforce App Developer Guide

© Copyright 2000–2019 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved. Salesforce is a registered trademark of
salesforce.com, inc., as are other names and marks. Other marks appearing herein may be trademarks of
their respective owners.

Various trademarks held by their respective owners.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior consent
of the publisher.
CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Introducing the Salesforce Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Salesforce Platform Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Introducing the Salesforce App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Getting Around in the Salesforce App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
What about the Other Mobile Apps? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Chapter 2: About This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Who Is This Book For? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
How Do I Begin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
About the Sample Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
About Acme Wireless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Chapter 3: Setting Up Your Work Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Install the Enhanced Warehouse Data Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Download Salesforce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

SALESFORCE APP ADMINISTRATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 4: Configuring the Salesforce App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Defining Which Users Can Use the Salesforce App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
About Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Try It Out: Enable Notifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
About Offline Access in the Salesforce App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Chapter 5: Customizing the Salesforce App Navigation Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

About the Salesforce Navigation Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Try It Out: Configuring the Salesforce App Navigation Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Test Out the Salesforce App Navigation Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
How the Navigation Menu Works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Chapter 6: Customizing How Your Data Shows Up in the Salesforce App . . . . . 31

How Page Layouts Work in the Salesforce App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Contents

Rethinking Your Page Layouts for Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Try It Out: Create a Custom Page Layout for the Mobile Technicians Profile . . . 35
Test the Page Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Tips for Optimizing Page Layouts for Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
About Compact Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Try It Out: Create a Compact Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Test the Compact Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Tell Me More: Compact Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Chapter 7: Using Actions in the Salesforce App . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Quick Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Action Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Point and Click Your Way to Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Try It Out: Create an Object-Specific Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Try It Out: Assign the Action to the Account Page Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
About Global Quick Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Tell Me More: Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
About Action Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Try It Out: Customize an Object-Specific Action Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Test Out the Object-Specific Quick Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
About Predefined Values in Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Try It Out: Set a Predefined Field Value on an Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Test the Predefined Value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
About Custom Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Chapter 8: Guidelines and Best Practices for Administrators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Action Guidelines and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Custom Icon Guidelines and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

DEVELOPING FOR THE SALESFORCE APP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Chapter 9: Welcome to Salesforce Platform Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Our Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Who This Part is For . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
When to Use Declarative vs. Programmatic Tools to Create Salesforce Apps . . . . . . . . . 68
When to Use the Salesforce Platform vs. Creating Custom Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
 Contents

Salesforce Platform Development Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Development Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Change the System Administrator Page Layout Assignment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Chapter 10: Designing Mobile-First User Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Design for Mobile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Keep Navigation Simple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Put Important Information at the Top . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Minimize the Number of Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Use Field Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Minimize User Interface Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Tap Target Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Chapter 11: Extending the Salesforce App with Visualforce Pages . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Try It Out: Create a Visualforce Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Create a New Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Add the Tab to the Navigation Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Test the Visualforce Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Tell Me More: Where Visualforce Pages Can Appear in the Salesforce App . . . . . . . . . 86
Tell Me More: About the Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Chapter 12: Adding Functionality with Visualforce Custom Actions . . . . . . . . . . 93

Custom Actions Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Try It Out: Create a Visualforce Custom Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Add the Visualforce Custom Action to the Page Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Test Out the Visualforce Custom Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Tell Me More: About the Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Chapter 13: Development Guidelines and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

When to Use the Navigation Menu or the Action Bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Guidelines and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Sharing Visualforce Pages Between Mobile and Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Excluding Visualforce Pages from Mobile or Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Choosing an Architecture for Visualforce Pages in the Salesforce App . . . . . . . . . 109
Standard Visualforce Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Mixed Visualforce and HTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Contents

JavaScript Remoting and Static HTML . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Visualforce Components and Features to Avoid in the Salesforce App . . . . . . . . . 119
Unsupported Visualforce Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Choosing an Effective Page Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
User Input and Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
Managing Navigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Navigation and Messaging with the sforce.one Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
How sforce.one Handles API Versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Using Visualforce Pages as Custom Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Creating Visualforce Pages That Work in Mobile and Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Performance Tuning for Visualforce Pages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Canvas Guidelines and Best Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Canvas Apps in the Chatter Publisher and Salesforce App Action Bar . . . . . . . . . 141
Canvas Apps in the Feed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Canvas Apps Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Custom Icons for Canvas Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Chapter 14: Learning More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
CHAPTER 1 Introduction
In this chapter ... Mobile has become the new normal for staying connected in both our
personal and professional lives. More and more, we’re living our lives
• Introducing the connected to the Internet, but instead of sitting at a desk, we’re connecting
Salesforce Platform on planes, in cabs, in between meetings, in hotels, or even in line for coffee.
• Salesforce Platform We follow friends, update status feeds, research local businesses,
Features collaborate with colleagues, email suppliers, and much more—all tasks
• Introducing the increasingly performed on the go.
Salesforce App And at the same time, every company is working harder and faster to
• Getting Around in the innovate and stay ahead of the competition. The successful businesses of
Salesforce App the future must embrace this mobile-first world and the freedom this
• What about the mobility provides to get things done, regardless of where you are and
Other Mobile Apps? what you’re doing.
Salesforce solves the problems of lagging innovation and a lack of mobile
specialists with a revolutionary approach to app development for the social
and mobile-first world. Salesforce delivers breakthrough productivity for
all users because it puts the customer—employees, partners, consumers,
and devices—at the center of everything.
The result is a fast, connected mobile solution with the potential to be as
disruptive as Software as a Service. It’s time to build the future today!

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Introducing the Salesforce Platform

Salesforce is a mobile app development platform for everyone. It gives ISVs, developers, administrators,
and every user the freedom to innovate.
This approach to unlocking mobile app development for organizations is built for today’s needs: mobile
and social solutions delivered in days or weeks. Apps are driven by metadata and intelligently provide
context to the user experience. These apps deliver information-based mobile device features: addresses
can be plotted on maps, phone numbers can be dialed with a simple tap, feed-centric workflows can be
created, and much more.
Business users and administrators can develop apps with clicks, not code, complete with powerful workflow
rules, approval processes, and dynamic user interfaces. Unlike other solutions where business users often
create independent applications in which IT has little visibility into their security or reliability, Salesforce
gives administrators the tools to centrally manage apps without limiting the business’s need to innovate.
Designed for scale with open APIs for extensibility and integration, and powerful developer tools, there’s
no limit to what developers and ISVs can build on the platform. Salesforce’s flexible development models
let every administrator or developer create custom apps that are supported by mobile back-end services
and a unique, yet familiar, mobile user experience. ISVs developing on the Salesforce Platform can develop
apps that take advantage of advanced packaging and version management controls, complete enterprise
marketplace capabilities with the AppExchange, and feed-first discovery of their apps within the Salesforce
Platform.

Salesforce Platform Features

The Salesforce Platform brings together Lightning Platform, Heroku, and ExactTarget Fuel into one incredibly
powerful family of social, mobile, and cloud services—all built API first.
The Salesforce Platform delivers:

Social Data
The ability to share, follow, collaborate, and take business actions directly on data within Salesforce is at
the core of the platform. Users can follow records and data with a single tap. They can be notified of
changes in real time, and collaborate directly within the record feed. This feed-based approach to working
lets users focus on what’s most important to them.
By treating data as social and as an important participant in business, Salesforce allows data to share
updates, trigger workflows, and be part of the collaboration process with workers, teams, partners, and

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

customers. The result is an unparalleled opportunity to create new business apps and processes for business
productivity.

Declarative and Programmatic Development

IT departments have struggled to keep pace with the level of change required for businesses to remain
competitive. Too often, IT is resource-constrained because they must manage existing on-premises systems
while at the same time recruit and retain professional developers—especially those with mobile application
development experience.
Salesforce solves this problem by providing intuitive drag-and-drop tools for storing and working with
data, defining cloud-based logic with workflows, creating approval processes and formulas, and creating
mobile-ready apps.
Professional developers can use the most popular open-source languages, tools, and standards to build
completely custom apps and user interfaces. Unlike other platforms, Salesforce delivers a unique experience
where developers and administrators create apps on the same platform, eliminating the effort required
to build complicated integration solutions.

Action-Based App Model

Salesforce mobile puts the customer at the center of the development process. Rather than require
complicated development cycles, apps can be declared through actions: create an order, set a delivery
date, select a route, and so on. Administrators can define default values for actions to streamline apps
down to the click of a mouse or a swipe of the finger.
Actions defined via the desktop are instantly available in context-sensitive menus on mobile devices. And,
for developers building integrations with Salesforce, actions are automatically enabled with RESTful
endpoints capable of accepting either XML or JSON data envelopes.

Connect to Everything with Open APIs

Salesforce provides the flexibility to create apps that connect to everything using efficient and scalable
APIs that perform over 1.3 billion transactions a day. Every object or data entity is instantly REST-enabled.
Our APIs include bulk APIs for data loading, social APIs for ubiquitous collaboration anywhere, cutting-edge
streaming APIs to support push notification integrations, and metadata APIs that describe every aspect of
your app and business such as permissions, data access policies, field types, and user experience.

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Introducing the Salesforce App

The Salesforce apps are Salesforce on the go! These enterprise-class mobile apps give your users real-time
access to the same information that they see in the office, but organized for getting work done in those
precious free moments when they’re between customer meetings, waiting for a flight—even when they’re
in line for coffee.
You can get Salesforce in different ways:
• As an app for iOS from the App Store or an app for Android from Google Play.
• As mobile web experience that runs in supported mobile browsers. This option doesn’t require anything
to be installed.
In this book, we’ll be working exclusively with the downloadable apps.

Requirements for Using Salesforce

The Salesforce app is available for most Salesforce editions and user license types. The app is supported
on a variety of mobile platforms, with some minimum operating system and mobile browser requirements.
For current mobile platform requirements and the list of devices that Salesforce uses for testing, see
Requirements for the Salesforce App in the Salesforce Help.
On most devices, Salesforce is supported in portrait orientation only. The one exception is when using the
Salesforce for iOS on iPad tablets, where both portrait and landscape orientation are supported.

Getting Around in the Salesforce App

Let’s take a tour of Salesforce.
When users log in to Salesforce, the first thing they see is a landing page. The first item in the navigation
menu becomes a users’ landing page by default. If your organization has Chatter enabled, and you haven’t
customized the navigation menu to change the first item in the menu to something else, the user’s Feed
will be their landing page.

The Feed
The Chatter feed shows users their updates, updates to records and people they follow, and updates in
groups they follow. Tapping a feed item displays all of the item’s details. Pulling down on the feed reveals
the search bar (1), sort and filter options (2), the feeds drop-down menu (3), and feed items (4).

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

From the feed, record pages, and from elsewhere in Salesforce, users access actions from the action bar.

The Action Bar and Menu

Depending on which feed or record page users are viewing, they see different actions in the action bar
and action menu. From the feed, for example, they see a set of global actions. From a record page, however,
they see a mix of productivity actions, standard and custom buttons, standard Chatter actions such as Post
and File, and global and object-specific actions that are assigned to the layout for that record type. Users
can tap from the action bar to open the action menu, which contains the full set of actions that are
available for the object.

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Chapter 1 Introduction

We’ll go over creating and customizing actions in Using Actions in the Salesforce App on page 45.

Salesforce App Navigation Menu

Anywhere users see , they can tap it to access the navigation menu. If a user doesn’t see , they
can swipe left to right on the header bar to open the navigation menu.
What your users see in the menu is determined by how you, as the administrator, have configured it, what’s
available in your organization, and what users have access to, based on their user permissions and profile.

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

1. Search box
2. Menu items—any items you place above the Smart Search Items element when you customize
the navigation menu
3. Smart Search Items—includes a set of recently-searched objects in the Recent section and a larger
set of supported objects under the More link
4. Apps section—contains any items you place below the Smart Search Items element
From the navigation menu, users can access the feed, objects, apps, tasks, notes, and any other item you’ve
added to the menu. We’ll go over the components of the navigation menu in more detail in About the
Salesforce Navigation Menu on page 24. But for now, let’s take a look at records.

The Record View

The record view is made up of the record feed, detail, and related information pages, which your users
can swipe left and right to see. If your organization doesn’t have Chatter enabled, the record view only
includes the detail and related information pages.
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Chapter 1 Introduction

At the top of each record page is the record highlights area. The icon for standard objects is predefined in
Salesforce, and you can select the icon for a custom object using the custom object’s tab style.
You can customize the fields displayed in the record highlights section by using compact layouts, which
we’ll look at in About Compact Layouts on page 39.

1. Back arrow—returns the user to the previous page

2. Record highlights—displays the first four fields that are assigned to the compact layout for the
object

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

What else do I need to know?

From the top of most pages, users can access their notifications by tapping .
Users can create a new record by tapping New at the top of recent object pages, search pages, and related
list pages. They can also create and update records by using actions in the action bar.

What about the Other Mobile Apps?

Wondering how the Salesforce app relates to the other Salesforce mobile products?
• SalesforceA gives administrators mobile access to essential organization management tasks. Use it to
edit, unlock, freeze, and deactivate user accounts, reset passwords, and assign permission sets.
For more detailed information about the full suite of Salesforce mobile apps, see “Salesforce Mobile Product
Comparison” in the Salesforce Help.

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CHAPTER 2 About This Book
In this chapter ... This book introduces you to both the declarative (point-and-click) and the
programmatic (code-based) features of Salesforce.
• Who Is This Book
For?
To help you get familiar with the different pieces that make up the
Salesforce Platform, and to show you how you can optimize existing
• How Do I Begin?
features—such as Visualforce pages and actions—for the Salesforce mobile
• About the Sample experience, this book walks you through the process of enhancing an
Scenario existing organization to make it mobile-ready and mobile-friendly.
• About Acme Wireless

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Chapter 2 About This Book

Who Is This Book For?

This book is broken up into two major sections. The first, Salesforce App Administration, is aimed at
administrators, and takes you through the declarative Salesforce tools in Setup, where you can
point-and-click your way through getting your organization ready for the Salesforce mobile experience.
This includes how to optimize your page layouts for mobile, customize the navigation menu, create actions,
and set up mobile notifications.
The second section, Developing for the Salesforce App, is for advanced administrators and developers
who are comfortable working with code. To fully understand its chapters, you should be familiar with
Visualforce and XML. We’ll walk through optimizing your Visualforce pages for mobile and creating custom
actions.

Tip: Point-and-click admins, don’t let this deter you! We include code samples in most places, so
even if you're not an experienced developer, you can still try the steps in each chapter and get a
feeling for what can be done with Salesforce.

How Do I Begin?
It’s up to you! You could begin by pointing-and-clicking your way through Configuring the Salesforce App
and working all the way through Using Actions in the Salesforce App. Then, put your developer hat on
and create custom actions or add canvas apps to further enhance your users’ Salesforce experience.
If you’re a seasoned developer, you could jump into the deep end first with the Welcome to Salesforce
Platform Development chapter.

About the Sample Scenario

The sample scenario for this book builds on the sample Warehouse data and code created in the Force.com
Workbook. We took that data set and added some extras. We’ll use what was built there as a launching
point, then add more to bring our sample organization into the mobile world of Salesforce.
To do this, we’ll walk through the steps as if we were someone with administrator privileges at a
make-believe company called Acme Wireless.

About Acme Wireless

Let’s find out a little bit about our fictional company.

12
 Chapter 2 About This Book

Acme Wireless is a large company that repairs devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and gaming consoles.
The company has a number of brick-and-mortar locations where customers can drop off devices for repair.
In addition, these storefronts sell device accessories like tablet covers, mobile phone covers, power cords,
rechargers, and so on.
Acme Wireless maintains a central warehouse where all the repair parts and accessories are stored. The
storefront locations order parts from the warehouse so that they can keep some inventory on hand. When
they need a special part that’s not in stock, storefronts can special order it from the warehouse.
Acme Wireless is also expanding its repair services by doing on-site service. Mobile technicians will go to
various customer locations to provide on-site service, including personal residences, hotels, small business
offices, and conference centers.

How Acme Wireless Uses Salesforce

Acme Wireless uses Salesforce to track customers. These are often individuals who visit the storefronts,
but can also be small businesses that have contracted with Acme Wireless for device support. Acme
Wireless also uses Salesforce to track merchandise items and inventory in the warehouse, as well as to
manage its billing and invoicing. They use two custom Web applications: one to track orders and process
merchandise for shipment and one to track delivery of shipments to storefront locations.
Employees at Acme Wireless’s storefronts and the main office use Chatter internally to communicate about
inventory levels, customer accounts, and orders.

How Acme Wireless Wants to Use the Salesforce App

Acme Wireless wants to use the app to leverage its existing Salesforce organization and enable mobile
technicians to access customer and merchandise data. The technicians should be able to see all their repair
tickets for the day, locate a customer, look up inventory for any parts needed, order parts, check the status
of orders, and so on.
Acme Wireless also wants to enable their truck drivers, delivering products from the warehouses to the
storefronts, to track and update their deliveries for the day without having to use a separate app. They also
want to give the warehouse workers the ability to track customer orders and process them for shipping.
Acme Wireless also wants to enable integration with legacy Web applications for order management.

13
CHAPTER 3 Setting Up Your Work Environment
In this chapter ... To follow along with the exercises in this book, you’ll need a Salesforce
account and a Developer Edition organization. If you don’t have a Developer
• Install the Enhanced Edition organization, go to http://sforce.co/1om1gHf and sign
Warehouse Data up for a free Developer Edition account. Developer Edition is a fully
Model functional version of Salesforce that you can use to develop Salesforce
• Download Salesforce apps. Since it’s free, there are limits on the amount of users, bandwidth,
and storage you’re allowed, but it includes all the features in Salesforce.
After that, you’ll need to install the enhanced Warehouse data model into
your organization, and then download Salesforce, if you haven’t already.

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Chapter 3 Setting Up Your Work Environment

Install the Enhanced Warehouse Data Model

To prepare your developer organization for the exercises in this book, you need to import the Warehouse
data model. You might be familiar with the Warehouse app if you’ve gone through the tutorials in the
Lightning Platform Workbook. We took the Warehouse data from that guide and added a few extra things
to it to help show you what Salesforce can do.
1. Go to www.salesforce.com and log in to Salesforce using your Developer Edition credentials.
2. Open a new browser tab or window, and navigate to
https://github.com/forcedotcom/Salesforce1-Dev-Guide-Setup-Package.
Do this in the browser that you logged in to your developer organization with.

3. Open the README file.

4. Click the link in the README file.
This is the installation link for the enhanced Warehouse data package. You should be taken directly
into your development organization to the Package Installation Details page.

5. Click Install.
6. Wait for the installation to finish.
7. From the Lightning Platform app menu, select Warehouse.
8. Click the Data tab.
9. Click Create Data.
All right! The last step is to download Salesforce, then we’ll be ready to roll.

Download Salesforce
If you’ve already downloaded Salesforce, you can skip this step.
1. Go to www.salesforce.com/mobile/, and download Salesforce for your device.
You may be prompted to create a security PIN.

2. Open Salesforce.
3. Log in using your developer organization credentials.

16
SALESFORCE APP ADMINISTRATION

CHAPTER 4 Configuring the Salesforce App

In this chapter ... The Salesforce app is automatically enabled for all organizations, except
those that have auto-enabling turned off.
• Defining Which Users
Can Use the
The app doesn’t require much configuration at the beginning, but before
Salesforce App your users get started, you should:
• About Notifications 1. Define which users can access the Salesforce app.
• Try It Out: Enable 2. Enable notifications.
Notifications
Since we’re in a developer organization, we don’t need to worry about
• About Offline Access enabling users. Review the information about that in the next section, then
in the Salesforce App we’ll get started by enabling notifications.

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Chapter 4 Configuring the Salesforce App

Defining Which Users Can Use the Salesforce App

Important: This information is for reference only. We won’t be enabling users in this book, but this
step is important when configuring the Salesforce app in your production organization.

Downloadable Apps
Salesforce for Android and Salesforce for iOS are connected apps. As a result, you can control the users
who have access to the apps, as well as other security policies. By default, all users in your organization
can log in to Salesforce for Android and iOS.
You can control security and access policies for Salesforce for Android and Salesforce for iOS using settings
components that are installed from the managed Salesforce connected apps package. These components
need to be installed in Salesforce:
• Salesforce for Android
• Salesforce for iOS
These components are automatically installed when one of your users installs Salesforce from the App
Store or Google Play on a mobile device and authenticates with your organization by logging in to the
mobile app.
Alternatively, you can manually install the Salesforce and Chatter Apps connected apps package so you
can review and modify the default security and access settings before rolling out Salesforce for Android
and Salesforce for iOS to your users.
When the Salesforce connected apps components are installed, they’re added to the Connected Apps
page. (From Setup, enter Connected Apps in the Quick Find box, then select the option for
managing connected apps.) Here, you can view and edit the settings for each of the apps, including
controlling user access with profiles, permissions, and IP range restrictions. An error message is displayed
if a restricted user attempts to log in to Salesforce for Android or Salesforce for iOS.

Mobile Browser App

You can control whether users can access Salesforce mobile web when they log in to Salesforce from a
supported mobile browser. By default, mobile web is turned on for your organization.
1. From Setup, enter Settings in the Quick Find box, then select Salesforce Settings.
2. Select Enable the Salesforce mobile web to allow all users in your organization
to access the app. Deselect this option to turn off access to the app.
3. Click Save.

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 Chapter 4 Configuring the Salesforce App

When this option is turned on, users who log in to Salesforce from a supported mobile browser are
automatically directed to the Salesforce mobile web experience. Logging in from an unsupported mobile
browser loads the Salesforce Classic full site, even when this option is selected.

Important: Use of the Salesforce Classic full site in a mobile browser isn’t supported. While you can
disable Salesforce mobile web for your organization, and individual users can turn off mobile web
for themselves, regular use of the full site in a mobile browser isn’t recommended. Your users may
experience problems that Salesforce Customer Support won’t investigate.
It’s not possible to access the Lightning Experience full site from any mobile browser.

About Notifications
Notifications let your users know when certain events occur in Salesforce. For example, notifications let
users know when they receive approval requests or when someone mentions them in Chatter.
These types of notifications can appear to Salesforce app users.
In-app notifications
In-app notifications keep users aware of relevant activity while they’re using the Salesforce app. By
tapping the notification bell, a user can view the 20 most recent notifications received within the last
90 days.
If Salesforce Communities is enabled for your organization, users see notifications from all of the
communities they’re members of. To help users easily identify which community a notification came
from, the community name is listed after the time stamp.
Push notifications
Push notifications are alerts that appear on a mobile device when a user has installed the Salesforce
for Android and Salesforce for iOS but isn’t using it. These alerts can consist of text, icons, and sounds,
depending on the device type. If an administrator enables push notifications for your organization,
users can choose individually whether to receive push notifications on their devices.
As the first task in our fresh new development organization, let’s set up notifications for all the Acme
Wireless mobile users.

Try It Out: Enable Notifications

We want all the mobile users in the Acme Wireless organization to receive notifications about events
happening in the full Salesforce site, such as approval requests, or when they’re mentioned.

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Chapter 4 Configuring the Salesforce App

1. From Setup, enter Connected Apps in the Quick Find box, then select Manage
Connected Apps.
2. If they’re not already selected, select both Enable in-app notifications and Enable push
notifications.
3. If you’re authorized to do so for your company, select Display full content push
notifications.
4. Click Save.

Note: Enabling in-app notifications is an all-or-nothing process. Either they’re on for everyone, or
off for everyone. Mobile users can’t customize, enable, or disable in-app notifications for themselves.
Now that we’ve addressed notifications, let’s look at offline access in the app.

About Offline Access in the Salesforce App

Offline access is available for Salesforce for iOS and Salesforce for Android users only. We won’t be working
with the app’s offline mode in this book, but this information is important if you have any users who want
to take advantage of it.
Your mobile users' productivity doesn't have to stop when there's no connectivity. When you enable
caching and Offline Edit, users can keep working, unimpeded by a subway commute, FAA regulations,
capricious cellular signals, or bunker-style buildings. Offline access is available for Salesforce for Android
and Salesforce for iOS. The beta version of Offline Edit requires version 10.0 of Salesforce for Android or
Salesforce for iOS.
Caching in the Salesforce app is enabled the first time someone in your org installs Salesforce for Android
and Salesforce for iOS.

Salesforce Data / Salesforce Available for Offline Viewing Available to Create, Edit, or
App Element Delete Offline (Beta)
Navigation Menu Yes n/a

Action Bar Yes Edit action: Yes

Delete action: Yes
Other actions: No

Global Search Previous search results from n/a

current session

List Views If viewed in current session No

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 Chapter 4 Configuring the Salesforce App

Salesforce Data / Salesforce Available for Offline Viewing Available to Create, Edit, or
App Element Delete Offline (Beta)
Records for Recent Objects Yes, recently accessed records for Yes, recently accessed records for
the first five objects (excluding the first five objects (excluding
Files) in the Recent section of the Files) in the Recent section of the
Salesforce app navigation menu Salesforce app navigation menu

Records for Other Objects If viewed in current session If viewed in current session

Related Records If viewed in current session If viewed in current session

Salesforce Today Main page and mobile event No

records, if viewed in current
session

Salesforce Events If viewed in current session Create: No

Edit and Delete: If viewed in
current session

Tasks Most recently accessed tasks from Most recently accessed tasks from
the first page of My Tasks list only the first page of My Tasks list only
(The simplified New Task form
must be disabled)

Notes If viewed in current session Create: Yes

Edit: If viewed in current session
Delete: No

Files If viewed in current session No

Dashboards (Enhanced Charts) Most recently accessed only No

Dashboards (Legacy Charts) No No

Feeds, Groups, and People If viewed in current session No

Notifications If viewed in current session n/a

Approvals (submit, approve, or No No

reject)

Visualforce pages No No

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Chapter 4 Configuring the Salesforce App

Salesforce Data / Salesforce Available for Offline Viewing Available to Create, Edit, or
App Element Delete Offline (Beta)
Canvas Apps No No

Lightning pages No No

Salesforce App Settings Yes n/a

A Salesforce app session is the time between logging in and logging out of the app. Switching away from
Salesforce app doesn’t end the session as long as the user doesn’t log out.
All right! We’ve addressed notifications and offline access, now let’s look at the navigation menu.

22
CHAPTER 5 Customizing the Salesforce App
Navigation Menu
In this chapter ... Before you can send your users out on their mobile adventure, they need
a map to point the way to their destination.
• About the Salesforce
Navigation Menu
The Salesforce app navigation menu is that map. And it’s up to you to draw
it for them.
• How the Navigation
Menu Works Help your mobile users get work done faster and more easily by configuring
which items appear in the navigation menu and in which order.

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Chapter 5 Customizing the Salesforce App Navigation Menu

About the Salesforce Navigation Menu

Anywhere your users see the icon, they can tap it to access the menu. As an administrator, you can
customize what the menu contains.

What You Can Include

Depending on how your organization is configured and what they have access to, your users could see
multiple items in their navigation menu.

Menu Item Description

Approval Requests Displays a list of the user’s pending approvals. Users can tap an approval item
and approve or reject it from within Salesforce. Available in Salesforce for iOS
and mobile web.

Canvas apps Appears for organizations that have enabled a canvas app to appear in the
navigation menu.

Chatter The user’s main feed. Appears for organizations that have Chatter enabled.

Dashboards Availability depends on edition and user permissions. If you don’t add this
item to the navigation menu, dashboards are automatically included in the
set of Smart Search Items instead and the Dashboards item is available from
the Recent section.

Events Lists events owned by the user, that the user created for him- or herself, and
that the user or a user’s groups are invited to. If you don’t add this item to the
navigation menu, events are automatically included in the set of Smart Search
Items instead and the Events item is available from the Recent section.

Forecasts Displays the Forecasts app, a helpful tool for every member of a sales team to
keep track of forecast data and monitor progress towards quota. Available in
Salesforce for iOS only.

Note: Your org must have Collaborative Forecasts enabled. If your org
uses Customizable Forecasts, the Forecasts item isn’t available to add
to the navigation menu.

Groups Appears for organizations that have Chatter enabled. If you don’t add this
item to the navigation menu, groups are automatically included in the set of

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 Chapter 5 Customizing the Salesforce App Navigation Menu

Menu Item Description

Smart Search Items instead and the Groups item is available from the Recent
section.

Lightning component Only custom Lightning components that have a Lightning component tab
tabs associated with them can appear in the navigation menu.

Lightning pages Custom app pages.

News Displays the News app, a one-stop place for news and other insights about
the user’s accounts, contacts, leads, and opportunities.

Notes Displays the Notes app. If you don’t add this item to the navigation menu,
notes are automatically included in the set of Smart Search Items instead and
the Notes item is available from the Recent section.

Paused Flow Interviews Displays a list of flow interviews that the user paused. An interview is a running
instance of a flow. Users can tap an interview and resume or delete it. Available
in Salesforce mobile web only.

People Appears for organizations that have Chatter enabled. If you don’t add this
item to the navigation menu, profiles are automatically included in the set of
Smart Search Items instead and the People item is available from the Recent
section.

Reports Availability depends on edition and user permissions. If you don’t add this
item to the navigation menu, reports are automatically included in the set of
Smart Search Items instead and the Reports item is available from the Recent
section.

Smart Search Items Adds standard and custom Salesforce objects to the Recent section in the
menu. This item also adds a set of the user’s recently accessed objects to the
Recent section and adds the More item so users can access all the objects
they have permission to use and that are supported. If you don’t include this
item in the navigation menu, users can’t access any objects on the navigation
menu.

Note: Smart Search Items is required for users to get search results in
Salesforce for Android. Users of Salesforce for iOS and the Salesforce
mobile web are able to search for records if this option is omitted from
the navigation menu.

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Chapter 5 Customizing the Salesforce App Navigation Menu

Menu Item Description

If your iOS downloadable app users don’t yet have a history of recent objects,
they initially see a set of default objects in the Recent section. For Salesforce
for Android and Salesforce mobile web, the default set of objects match the
Lightning Experience Navigation Bar that the admin has configured in the
Lightning App. If the user doesn’t have access or permissions to the Lightning
App, they also see a default set of objects until the user’s most frequently used
objects are determined. It can take up to 15 days for the objects that users
work with regularly in both the Salesforce app and the full Salesforce site to
appear in the Recent section. To make objects appear under Recent sooner,
users can pin them from the search results screen in the full site.

Tasks Lists of a user’s open and closed tasks and tasks that have been delegated. If
you don’t add this item to the navigation menu, tasks are automatically
included in the set of Smart Search Items instead and the Tasks item is available
from the Recent section.

Today An app that helps users plan for and manage their day by integrating mobile
calendar events with associated Salesforce tasks, accounts, and contacts. The
app also allows users to instantly join conference calls, quickly log notes about
events, and more. Available in Salesforce for Android and iOS only.

Visualforce page tabs Only Visualforce pages with the Available for Lightning
Experience, the Salesforce app, and Lightning
Communities checkbox selected will display in the Salesforce app.

We won’t get into Visualforce pages in these exercises, but to learn more about them and how they work
in Salesforce, see Extending the Salesforce App with Visualforce Pages on page 79.

Try It Out: Configuring the Salesforce App Navigation Menu

1. From Setup, enter Navigation in the Quick Find box, then select Salesforce Navigation.
Some items are automatically added to the menu.
The order in which you put the items in the Selected list is the order that they display in the
navigation menu. Also, the first item you put in the list becomes your users’ Salesforce app landing
page. The Acme Wireless mobile technicians will probably be using the Today and Tasks menu
items the most, so we want to put those at the top.

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 Chapter 5 Customizing the Salesforce App Navigation Menu

2. Using the Up or Down arrows, arrange the top items in the Selected list like so:
• Chatter
• Today
• Tasks
• Smart Search Items
• Dashboards
Now whenever a mobile technician logs in to Salesforce, the Today page will be the first thing
they see.
3. Click Save.
Let’s go look at our changes.

Test Out the Salesforce App Navigation Menu

1. Open Salesforce on your mobile device.
2. Tap to access the navigation menu.
3. Pull down and release the navigation menu to refresh it.
You should see the Chatter, Today, Tasks items at the top, and then the Recent section, which is
created from the Smart Search Items element.
4. Scroll down to the Apps section.
This section contains any menu item that was put below the Smart Search Items element, whether
it’s really an “app” or not.

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Chapter 5 Customizing the Salesforce App Navigation Menu

Now that we’ve addressed the navigation menu, let’s look at configuring our data for mobile.

How the Navigation Menu Works

• The first item in the Selected list becomes your users’ Salesforce app landing page.
• You can’t set different menu configurations for different types of users.
• When organizing the menu items, put the items that users will use most at the top. The Smart Search
Items element can expand into a set of eight or more menu items and it might end up pushing other

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 Chapter 5 Customizing the Salesforce App Navigation Menu

elements below the scroll point if you put it near the top of the menu. Anything you put below the
Smart Search Items element appears in the Apps section of the navigation menu.
• Before you can include Visualforce pages, Lightning pages, or Lightning components in the Salesforce
app navigation menu, create tabs for them. From Setup, enter Tabs in the Quick Find box,
then select Tabs.
• Anything represented by a tab in Salesforce—such as standard and custom objects, Visualforce pages,
the Chatter feed, People, or Groups—is visible for a user in the Salesforce app menu, based on the
user’s profile settings. For example, if a user is assigned to a profile that has the Groups tab set to Tab
Hidden, the user won’t see the Groups menu item in the Salesforce app, even though an administrator
has included it in the menu.
Some objects are excluded from the Recent section in the navigation menu, even if you accessed them
recently.
• People, groups, notes, dashboards, reports, tasks, and events, if these items were added directly to the
navigation menu
• List views, which are shown only on object home pages, not in the navigation menu
• Objects that aren’t available in the Salesforce app, including any objects that don’t have a tab in the
full Salesforce site

About the Dashboards, Reports, Notes, Tasks, Events,

Groups, and People Menu Items
If you opt to add the Dashboards, Reports, Notes, Tasks, Events, Groups, or People items to the Selected
list for the navigation menu, these items appear in the order you specify, just like Today and other individual
menu items.
If you don’t add these items to the navigation menu, however, they’re automatically included in the Smart
Search Items set of objects and show up in the Recent section of the navigation menu.

Pin an Object into the Recent Section

Users can customize the objects that appear in the Recent section of the navigation menu. If they search
for an object in the full site, they can hover their mouse over the object name and click to pin it to
the top of the search results. The order of pinned objects in the full site determines the order of the objects
that stick to the top of the Recent section of the navigation menu. However, pinning objects in this way
causes the unpinned objects remaining in the Recent section to drop into the More element.

29
CHAPTER 6 Customizing How Your Data Shows
Up in the Salesforce App
In this chapter ... We’ve done the basic configuration for the Salesforce app; now it’s time
to consider how we can optimize things in the full Salesforce site to give
• How Page Layouts our users the best possible mobile experience. First, we’ll customize how
Work in the our Salesforce data shows up when presented in a mobile context.
Salesforce App
Two factors affect how information is displayed in the Salesforce app. One
• About Compact
has been around for a while: page layouts. The other is newer: compact
Layouts
layouts. You’ll learn about both in this chapter.

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Chapter 6 Customizing How Your Data Shows Up in the Salesforce App

How Page Layouts Work in the Salesforce App

Use the enhanced page layout editor to customize the layout of an object’s record detail pages, configure
actions, and adjust which fields and related lists appear in the Salesforce mobile app.
In the Salesforce mobile app, page layouts drive these areas of the mobile experience.
Record Related Information and Detail Pages
When you view a record in the mobile app, you see the fields, Visualforce pages, and related lists that
are based on the record type and the user’s profile. Related lists show up as single-line cards containing
the name of the page or related list. Tapping the related list card displays its details.
Mobile Cards
You can add expanded lookups, components, canvas apps, and Visualforce pages to the Mobile Cards
section of your page layout to have them show up as mobile cards in the mobile app. The elements
you place in this section don’t show up on a record’s detail page in the full Salesforce site. They appear
only on the record’s related information page in the mobile app.

Note: In organizations that are created after Spring ’14, the Twitter component is added by
default to the Mobile Cards section of page layouts for objects that support it.
Actions
Actions in the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions section of a page layout appear in
the action bar and action menu on the object’s record pages.
Here are the record detail page, related information page, and action menu for a sample account, Edge
Communications:

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 Chapter 6 Customizing How Your Data Shows Up in the Salesforce App

We’ll cover actions in a later chapter. For now, let’s focus on record pages and mobile cards.

Rethinking Your Page Layouts for Mobile

Page layouts containing dozens of fields and lots of related lists might be manageable when viewing
records on a computer screen, but on a small mobile device, viewing that same record can be overwhelming.
People accessing information using a mobile device are looking for a quick way to get what they need,
and making your users sift through hundreds of fields and related lists just doesn’t make sense.
For example, in our Warehouse data model, our custom page layout has 32 standard and custom fields.
That may not seem like many, but in a mobile context, fields add up quickly. In the full Salesforce site, an
account record detail page using the Warehouse Schema Account Layout looks like this:

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Chapter 6 Customizing How Your Data Shows Up in the Salesforce App

In the Salesforce app, the same account detail page looks like this:

We only show three here, but there were five pages of scrolling, and that’s from a page layout with only
32 fields! If you were a mobile user trying to find specific fields in a record detail with dozens of fields on
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 Chapter 6 Customizing How Your Data Shows Up in the Salesforce App

your phone, you’d have to scroll... and scroll... and scroll. It’s not the best user experience and it’s definitely
not good for your users’ productivity.
You have two options for handling page layouts for your mobile users: re-engineer your existing page
layouts, or create new page layouts that are mobile-friendly from the outset.
We’ll look at both options. First, we’ll walk through creating a fresh mobile-friendly page layout, then we’ll
discuss tips and tricks for optimizing existing long layouts for a mobile audience.

Try It Out: Create a Custom Page Layout for the Mobile Technicians
Profile
Users like the mobile technicians at Acme Wireless will spend the majority of their time accessing Salesforce
from a mobile device. We can create a streamlined, mobile-optimized page layout assigned to the Mobile
Technician profile, with only the items they need when on-site, and, voilà! Instant productivity boost.
In addition, using the specialized Mobile Cards section of the page layout, we can enhance the record’s
related information page by adding Visualforce pages and lookup cards.
1. From the object management settings for accounts, go to Page Layouts.
2. Click New.
3. Leave the Existing Page Layout drop-down list set to –None–.
We want to start with a clean slate for this page layout, so we’re choosing not to clone an existing
page layout.

4. Enter Account Mobile Technician Layout in the Page Layout Name field.
5. Click Save.
Required fields and “Always on Layout” fields are pre-populated onto the page layout. We just
need to add a few more that are pertinent to the mobile technicians.

6. Drag these fields from the palette into the Account Detail portion of the page, below the existing
fields.
• Shipping Address
• Business Hours
• Phone

7. Click the Visualforce Pages category in the palette and drag Account Location into the Mobile
Cards section.

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Chapter 6 Customizing How Your Data Shows Up in the Salesforce App

Account Location is a preconfigured Visualforce page that shows the user the location of the
selected account on a Google map. In Salesforce, this will show up as a mobile card on the account
record related information page.

Note: Only Visualforce pages with the Available for Lightning

Experience, the Salesforce app, and Lightning Communities
checkbox selected will display in the Salesforce app. Mobile-enabled Visualforce pages
show up as slightly differently colored elements in the palette than their
non-mobile-enabled counterparts. Hovering your mouse over a Visualforce page element
in the palette shows whether the Visualforce page is mobile-enabled.
For more detailed information about using Visualforce in the Salesforce app, see Extending the
Salesforce App with Visualforce Pages on page 79.

8. Click the Expanded Lookups category and drag Parent Account into the Mobile Cards
section, above the Account Location mobile card.
Parent Account is a lookup field, and putting it into the Mobile Cards section makes it display
as a related lookup card on the account’s related information page.

9. Click the Related Lists category and drag the Cases and Contacts related lists to the Related Lists
section.
Related lists show up on the record related information page in the Salesforce mobile app. When
the mobile technicians navigate to an account’s related information page, they’ll see preview cards
for the related lists that they can tap to get more information about the cases and contacts for
that location.

10. Click Save.

11. Click No when asked if you want to override users’ customized related lists.
12. Click Page Layout Assignment.
13. Click Edit Assignment.
In this step, you would normally assign the new mobile-optimized page layout to a user profile
for the mobile technicians. However, since you’re logged in as a system administrator, we’re going
to have you assign it to the System Administrator profile instead.

14. Click the System Administrator line item to select it.

15. Select Account Mobile Technician Layout from the Page Layout to Use drop-down list.
The System Administrator profile should now be assigned to the Account Mobile Technician
Layout.
16. Click Save.
Now let’s check out what we did.
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 Chapter 6 Customizing How Your Data Shows Up in the Salesforce App

Test the Page Layout

1. Open Salesforce on your mobile device and log in.
2. Tap to access the navigation menu.
3. In the Recent section, tap Accounts. You may have to tap More... to find it.
4. Tap the search bar.
5. Enter Barbary.
6. Tap Search.
7. Tap Barbary Coast Wireless.
You’re on the Barbary Coast Wireless record detail page, which is the default view when accessing
a record. Scroll down a bit, and you should see the same fields we added to the page layout, in
the same order.

8. Tap Related to get to the related information page.

You should see the Parent Account lookup card and the preview card for the Visualforce page first.

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Chapter 6 Customizing How Your Data Shows Up in the Salesforce App

Scroll down and you should also see the related lists that we added to the page layout. Tap a
related list to see its details.
Now that we’ve created this specialized page layout and added the fields our mobile technicians will need,
their jobs will be much easier when they go on site. When they visit an account record’s related information
page, they won’t have to shuffle through a long list of unnecessary fields to find the ones they really want.
And, since we added the Visualforce page as a mobile card, they’ll be able to see the location of an account
on a Google map.
In the Actions chapter, we’ll enhance this page layout with special actions we’ve created just for our mobile
technicians. But for now, let’s go over some recommendations for paring down existing page layouts to
make them more mobile friendly.

Tips for Optimizing Page Layouts for Mobile

In many cases, creating a new mobile-only page layout may not make sense. Here are some tips and tricks
to making your existing page layouts more mobile friendly.
When optimizing a page layout, consider:
• What are the important things to see at a glance?

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• What are the important moments for your users when they’re working in the Salesforce mobile app?
• What actions or processes can you automate so that your users don’t have to manually do them?

The Key: Organize and Minimize Fields

• Use sections to organize information logically, putting the most important things at the top of the
page so they show up first. Your users don’t want to search for fields individually. Organizing similar
fields in sections will help your users find what they need. They can then easily scroll down the page
to the section they care about.
• For accounts, contacts, and leads, you don’t need to put phone or email fields near the top. They’re
already quickly accessible via the and icons on each record page’s action bar.
• You don’t need to keep fields in one column, as the page will render dynamically based on the device
that’s viewing it. A phone will reorder the fields into a single column, and a tablet or desktop will show
two columns.
• Put the most important fields into the compact layout—which drives record highlights and record
preview cards in the mobile app—so they’re available right up front, and so your mobile users don’t
have to drill into the record detail. We’ll get into compact layouts in more detail soon.
• Keep the number of required fields to a minimum. Setting a field to required means it must appear
on the detail page of all page layouts, so consider whether each field is truly required. You might have
to convince stakeholders that a field isn’t actually necessary for a record to be saved.
• If available in your organization, think about using record types so that fields that aren’t common to
all records don’t have to appear on all records.
• To reduce the number of fields on a screen, consider using default values for new records instead of
having the user enter the data.
We’ve gone over page layouts. Now let’s get into another kind of layout, created especially for mobile: the
compact layout.

About Compact Layouts

In the last section, we learned how page layouts affect the look and content of records in the Salesforce
app. But page layouts aren’t the only thing used to help customize how your Salesforce data appears in a
mobile environment.
A compact layout displays a record’s key fields at a glance in both the Salesforce mobile app and Lightning
Experience.
In the full Salesforce site, a compact layout determines which fields appear in the Chatter feed item that
appears after a user creates a record with a quick action.

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In the Salesforce mobile app, the first four fields that you assign to a compact layout appear in:
• An object record’s highlights area
• Expanded lookup cards on a record’s related information page
If a user doesn’t have access to one of the fields that you assign to a compact layout, the next field on the
layout is used.
The first four fields you assign to your compact layout populate the record highlights section at the top
of each record view in the Salesforce app, so we’ll put the fields we think our mobile technicians most
want to see into the list.
Creating and customizing compact layouts for objects isn't required for the Salesforce app, because system
defaults are provided out of the box. However, we recommend using compact layouts to put important
fields into object record headers—and elsewhere—to help your mobile users get the information they
need quickly. Let’s give it a try.

Try It Out: Create a Compact Layout

As with page layouts, there are separate compact layouts for each object. By default, each object derives
its record highlight fields, preview cards, and action-related feed items from the predefined set of fields
in the object’s read-only, system default compact layout. You can create custom compact layouts on an
object-by-object basis. After you create one or more custom compact layouts, you set one as the primary
compact layout for the object. The primary compact layout is then used as the new default for that object.
We’ll create a custom compact layout, and then set it as the primary compact layout for the Merchandise
object. Our new compact layout is used to render important merchandise record fields first in Salesforce
for the Acme Wireless mobile technicians.
Before we can see compact layouts in action, though, we need a Merchandise record in our organization.
Let’s quickly create one.
1. From the app menu, select Warehouse.
2. Click the Merchandise tab.
3. Click New.
4. For Merchandise Name, enter iPhone 6.
5. For Price, enter 599.
6. For Quantity, enter 10.
7. Click the Warehouse lookup, then select Oaklandia.
8. Set the Condition to Refurbished.
9. Click Save.

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Currently, the Merchandise object uses its system default compact layout, which only has the
Merchandise Name field assigned. Here’s what our iPhone 6 record looks like:

Let’s add more fields alongside that “iPhone6” so our mobile users can see more pertinent information
right at the top of the Merchandise record pages.
1. Navigate to the Merchandise custom object in Setup. From the Compact Layouts related list, click
New.
2. In the Label field, enter Customized Compact Layout.
3. Select these fields for the compact layout, and then click Add.
When on site, these are the most important fields for our mobile technicians to see. You can select
and add them individually or select them as a group using CTRL-click.
• Condition
• Merchandise Name
• Price
• Quantity

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4. Using the Up or Down buttons, adjust the list so that the fields are in this order: Merchandise
Name, Quantity, Condition, Price.
5. Click Save.
Now we need to set our compact layout as the primary.
6. Click Compact Layout Assignment.
You can see that the primary compact layout is set to the System Default here. We need to change
that.
7. Click Edit Assignment.
8. Select the compact layout you just created to use as the primary compact layout.
9. Click Save.
We’ve customized a compact layout for the Merchandise object. Now let’s see what its related information
page looks like.

Test the Compact Layout

When you customize a compact layout and assign it as the default, as we just did, the changes are reflected
in Salesforce immediately.
1. Open Salesforce on your mobile device.
2. Tap to access the navigation menu.
3. In the Recent section, tap Merchandise. You may have to tap More... to find it.
4. Tap the iPhone 6 item.

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As you can see, the record highlights area has the fields from our newly-created custom compact layout.
Instead of seeing just the merchandise name, as on the system default layout, the Acme Wireless mobile
technicians can now see much more: that there are ten refurbished iPhone 6s in stock at the warehouse,
and they cost $599.00 each.

Tell Me More: Compact Layouts

We’ve gone over a lot about compact layouts, but here are a few more tidbits about how they work.
Compact layouts support all field types except:
• text area
• long text area
• rich text area
• multi-select picklist
If a user doesn’t have access to one of the fields that you assign to a compact layout, the next field on the
layout is used.

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Removing a field from a page layout doesn’t remove it from the object’s compact layout. The two layout
types are independent.
Fields that aren’t available in the SOAP API don’t show up on compact layouts in the Salesforce app.

Compact Layouts and Record Types

If you have record types associated with an object, you can override the object’s primary compact layout
and assign different compact layouts to some or all of the record types. Each record type can have only
one compact layout assigned to it. If you don’t set any record type overrides, all record types use the
object’s primary compact layout by default.
To find out more about compact layouts and record types, see “Assign Compact Layouts to Record Types”
in the Salesforce Help.

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In this chapter ... As an administrator, you can enable valuable micro-moments for all of
your users by creating unique actions. When thinking about what actions
• Quick Actions you might want to create specifically for the Salesforce app, ask your users
• Point and Click Your what they wish they could do in the mobile context.
Way to Actions
For example, an administrator at a food service company could create an
• About Action Layouts "Emergency Order" action that allows their delivery drivers to immediately
• About Predefined order extra or missing food items using their mobile phone while still at a
Values in Actions customer site. Creating actions for the Salesforce app can drive adoption
• About Custom in your organization and make you a hero to your users!
Actions In this chapter, we’ll learn about types and categories of actions, how to
create and customize them in Salesforce using point-and-click tools, and
how they can help mobile users get essential work done while away from
the office.

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Quick Actions
Create quick actions, and add them to your Salesforce Classic home page, to the Chatter tab, to Chatter
groups, and to record detail pages. Choose from standard quick actions, such as create and update actions,
or create custom actions based on your company’s needs. In addition, actions have their own action
layouts, which let you specify which fields are included in the action, and in which order.

Where Do Actions Appear?

In the Salesforce app, actions appear in the action bar and its action menu.

Actions also appear in an action bar on list items such as task lists and related record lists. This gives your
mobile users the ability to work with records directly from lists and update records without having to open
them. To access list item actions, navigate to the task list or open a related list from an object’s related
information page. Then swipe left on the desired record.

Object-Specific Quick Actions

Object-specific actions let users quickly create or update records, log calls, send emails, and more, in the
context of a particular object. For example, you add an object-specific action on the Account object that
creates contacts. If a user creates a contact with that action on the detail page for the Acme account, that

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new contact is associated with Acme. You can only add an object-specific action to page layouts for that
object.

Global Quick Actions

You can add global quick actions to almost any page that supports actions. Use global actions to let users
log call details, create or update records, or send email, all without leaving the page they’re on. Global
create actions enable users to create object records, but the new record has no direct relationship with
other records.

Note: Actions to create records for an object that is the detail object in a master-detail relationship
must be object-specific, not global.

Quick Action Types

There are several types of object-specific and global quick actions.
• Create actions let users create records—like New Contact, New Opportunity, and New Lead. Global
create actions enable users to create object records, but the new record has no direct relationship with
other records. Object-specific create actions create records that are automatically associated with
related records. They’re different from the Quick Create and Create New features on the Salesforce
Classic home page, because create actions respect validation rules and field requiredness, and you
can choose each action’s fields.
• Update actions let users make changes to a record.
• Log a Call actions let users record the details of phone calls or other customer interactions. These call
logs are saved as completed tasks. Object-specific Log a Call actions let users enter notes about calls,
meetings, or other interactions that are related to a specific record.
• Custom actions invoke Lightning components, flows, Visualforce pages, or canvas apps with functionality
that you define. Use a Visualforce page, Lightning component, or a canvas app to create global custom
actions for tasks that don’t require users to use records that have a relationship to a specific object.
Object-specific custom actions invoke Lightning components, flows, Visualforce pages, or canvas apps
that let users interact with or create records that have a relationship to an object record.
• Object-specific Send Email actions, available only on cases, give users access to a simplified version of
the Case Feed Email action in the Salesforce mobile app. You can use the case-specific Send Email
action in Salesforce Classic, Lightning Experience, and the Salesforce mobile app.
• Global Send Email actions are supported only in Lightning Experience. You can’t add them to the Cases
layout or use them with cases.
• Question actions enable users to ask and search for questions about the records that they’re working
with.

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For create, log-a-call, and custom actions—which we’ll go over at the end of this chapter—you can create
either object-specific quick actions or global quick actions. Update actions must be object-specific.
For a list of supported objects for object-specific and global actions, see "Object-Specific Actions" and
"Global Quick Actions" in Salesforce Help.

Action Categories
Actions fall into several different categories. What you see depends on the age and configuration of your
org.
Standard Chatter actions
Standard Chatter actions are actions that are included automatically when Chatter is enabled: Post,
File, Link, Poll, and, in orgs that use work.com, Thanks. Standard actions can also include any actions
that you created for your org using point-and-click methods, such as create or Log A Call actions.
Default actions
Default actions are sets of predefined actions to get you and your users started using actions in your
org. Add default actions to publisher layouts to make them available to your users in the full Salesforce
site and the action bar in the Salesforce mobile app. Default actions are sets of predefined actions to
get you and your users started using actions in your org.
Because our Development org is new, it contains a set of default actions. You can check out the default
global actions: From Setup, enter Global Actions in the Quick Find box, then select Global
Actions.
For a list of which default actions appear on which object, see “Default Actions” in the Salesforce Help.
Mobile smart actions
Mobile smart actions are a set of preconfigured actions and are supported on the same list of objects
as default actions. However, they appear in orgs created before Winter ’14 and are displayed only in
the Salesforce app.
Mobile smart actions appear as a single action element in the page layout editor. In the Salesforce
mobile app, the Mobile Smart Actions element expands to distinct create actions that enable users to
create records directly from the action bar.

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Mobile smart actions are populated with all your org’s required fields on the relevant object, regardless
of how many fields there are. For example, the New Case action in the mobile smart action bundle
includes all required case fields. You can’t edit the fields on mobile smart actions. The fields that appear
change only if you change which fields on an object are required.
Mobile smart actions don’t appear in the full Salesforce site, regardless of which page layouts you add
them to. They appear only to users in the Salesforce mobile app.
For a list of what the mobile smart action element on each supported object expands to include, see
“Mobile Smart Actions” in the Salesforce Help.
Custom quick actions
Custom quick actions are actions that you create and customize, such as Create a Record, Send Email,
or Log a Call actions. Quick actions can also invoke Lightning components, flows, Visualforce pages,
or canvas apps with functionality that you define. For example, you can create an action so that users
can write comments that are longer than 5,000 characters. Or, you can create an action that integrates
a video-conferencing application so that support agents can communicate visually with customers.
We’ll touch briefly on custom actions later in About Custom Actions, but you can find out much more
about them in the Adding Functionality with Visualforce Custom Actions chapter.
Productivity Actions
Productivity actions are predefined and attached to a limited set of objects. Productivity actions include
Send Email, Call, Map, View Website, and Read News. Except for the Call action, you can’t edit or delete
productivity actions.

Point and Click Your Way to Actions

In the next set of tasks, we’ll create an object-specific action. But that’s only the first step. There are a few
things we need to do after that to make sure the action shows up where it’s supposed to in both the
Salesforce app and the full Salesforce site, and that it’s optimized for a mobile experience.
These are the steps you need to follow when setting up actions. We’ll go through all of them.
1. Create a global or object-specific action.
2. Customize the action’s layout, choosing the fields users see when they use it.
3. If you created an object-specific action, add it to one or more of that object’s page layouts. If you
created a global action, add it to a global publisher layout.
4. Set predefined field values for required fields, where possible.
Let’s get started!

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Try It Out: Create an Object-Specific Action

Let’s give the mobile technicians at Acme Wireless a way to quickly log a case while they’re still on site
with a customer. If we put a record create action on the Account object with Case as the target object,
the technicians can browse to a customer account record on their mobile device. They can also log cases
directly from there.
1. In the object management settings for accounts, go to Buttons, Links, and Actions.
2. Click New Action.
3. For Action Type, select Create a Record.
4. For Target Object, select Case.
5. For Label, enter Create a Case.
6. Click Save.
After saving, we’re dropped directly into the action layout editor, where we can customize the fields
assigned to the action. We’ll get to action layouts shortly. But before we do, there’s one more thing we
need to do: assign the action to an account page layout.

Try It Out: Assign the Action to the Account Page Layout

Before the object-specific quick action can appear in the Salesforce mobile app, you need to add it to a
page layout.
1. We’re already in the Buttons, Links, and Actions area for accounts. Now navigate to Page Layouts.
2. Click Edit next to Account Mobile Technician Layout.
This layout is the one you created in the Page Layouts chapter. The Salesforce Mobile and Lightning
Experience Actions section is empty, and a message says that Salesforce has predefined the actions
on this layout. Because this page layout is for Acme Wireless mobile technicians, we want to
customize the actions to match the work the technicians need to do when they’re in the field.

3. In the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions section, click override the predefined
actions.

Tip: If you haven’t customized the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions
section of a page layout, the actions for that object default to a set of predefined actions.
If you have customized actions in the Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic Publisher
section, and have saved the layout, the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions
section inherits the actions from the Quick Actions in the Salesforce Classic Publisher
section, plus any standard or custom buttons present on the layout, when you click to
override.

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4. Click the Mobile & Lightning Actions category in the palette and then adjust the actions in the
Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions section to match this list.
• Create a Case
• Log a Call
• New Contact
• New Opportunity
• New Task
• Post
• File
Because the Create a Case action is important to the mobile technicians, we put it first in the list
so that they can access it directly from the action bar.

Notice there’s also a New Case item in the palette. The New Case item is a global default action
associated with the Account object. We’re going to customize our object-oriented Create a Case
action, so we don’t need the redundant global action.

Tip: On object page layouts, the Mobile & Lightning Actions category contains all available
types of actions for the object, including quick actions, productivity actions, Lightning
component actions, and standard and custom buttons.

5. Click Save.
Our new Create a Case action appears in the action bar on account records in the Salesforce mobile app
for all the mobile technicians.
Now that’s all done, let’s go over global actions. Then we’ll revisit action layouts and customize our Create
a Case action.

About Global Quick Actions

Global create actions enable users to create object records, but the new record has no direct relationship
with other records. Actions tied to specific objects are only accessible from those objects’ record pages;
however, global actions can be added to any supported objects’ page layouts as well as to global layouts,
so they’re very useful for quickly creating records.

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Creating Global Quick Actions

You create global actions in a different place in Setup than you create object-specific actions. To create a
global action, from Setup, enter Actions in the Quick Find box, then select Global Actions.
They’re called global actions because they can be put anywhere actions are supported.

The Global Publisher Layout

Global publisher layouts determine the global actions that appear in the various Salesforce interfaces. In
Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience, these layouts customize the actions on global pages (like the
Home page) and on the Chatter page. Lightning Experience also uses these layouts to populate the Global
Actions menu. And in the Salesforce app, these layouts drive the actions that appear in the action bar on
the Feed and People pages. Global publisher layouts can include global actions only. You can assign
different global publisher layouts to different user profiles to customize which actions users see by default
on global pages.
In the Salesforce app, global actions appear in the action bar and action menu on pages to which the
global publisher layout applies. Before our global action will show up either in the full Salesforce site or in
the app, we need to add it to the global publisher layout.

Tell Me More: Actions

• If you add an action to a page layout, but a user assigned to the profile that uses that page layout can’t
see the action either in the full Salesforce site or in the Salesforce app, it might be because:
– If it’s a create action, the profile might not have access to create the record type of the action.
– The user doesn’t have both Read and Edit permission on the action’s relationship field. The
relationship field is the field that’s automatically populated on the target object when a user creates
a record using an action. For example, for an action on a case that lets users create child cases, the
default relationship field is Parent Case. To be sure that users can see the Create Child Case
action, check that they have both Read and Edit permissions on the Parent Case field.

• You can remove a required field from the action layout, but make sure that the field has a predefined
value. Otherwise, users can’t create records.
For more tips, see Action Guidelines and Best Practices on page 64.

About Action Layouts

Just as object record pages have page layouts that can be customized, actions have action layouts that
can be customized. We do this in the action layout editor.
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When you create an action, Salesforce populates its layout with a default set of fields. You can add, remove,
or reorder fields on the action layout to present only the essential items your users need when they’re
taking the action.

The upper part of the action layout editor is the palette, and below the palette is the action layout. The
palette contains fields from the action’s target object that you can add to the action layout, except for the
following unsupported field types:
• Record type fields
• Read-only field types such as roll-up summary, formula, and auto-number fields
• Read-only system fields such as Created By or Last Modified By
Inactive Fields
Fields that are already on the action layout still appear on the palette but are inactive. When you select
an inactive field on the palette, Salesforce highlights the field on the action layout.
Field Type Conversion
If you convert a field’s type from one that is supported for actions to a type that isn’t supported,
Salesforce removes the field from the action layout. If you convert the field back to a supported type

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without changing the action layout, Salesforce automatically adds the field back to the layout. If you
edit the layout, and then convert the field back to a supported type, add the field back to the layout
manually.
Layouts Used for Log a Call Actions
A Log a Call action takes the active task page layout except under the following conditions:
• Suppose that your organization has a custom Log a Call action for an object. The custom action
takes the custom action layout defined for it.
• Now suppose that your organization has a custom Log a Call global action. That action takes the
custom layout defined for it, unless you also have a custom Log a Call action for an object. (A
custom action on an object overrides a custom global action.)
To display the simpler New Task form to Salesforce mobile app users, enable the form in Activity
Settings and ensure that the layout used includes a subject field.
Layout Auditing
Salesforce tracks action layout customization in the setup audit trail history.

Try It Out: Customize an Object-Specific Action Layout

The first time you view the layout for an action you’ve created, certain fields are prepopulated: target object
default fields, standard required fields, and any custom universally required fields. We’re going to add more
fields to the Create a Case action so the mobile technicians can put more information into the case for the
Acme Wireless support reps.
1. In the object management settings for accounts, go to Buttons, Links, and Actions.
2. Click Layout next to our Create a Case action.
The action has four fields already set by default: Contact Name, Status, Subject, and
Description. The red asterisk next to the Status field shows that it’s a required field. Let’s
add a few more fields.

3. Click and drag Priority into position right after Status.

4. Click and drag Product into position right after Priority.
This field lets the technicians indicate what product the customer is having trouble with.

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5. Click Save.
Now when the Acme Wireless mobile technicians view an account in the Salesforce app, they can create
a case from any account record page. Let’s give it a try.

Test Out the Object-Specific Quick Action

When you create an action, assign it to a page layout, and customize its action layout, as we did, the
changes are reflected in Salesforce immediately.
1. Open Salesforce on your mobile device.
2. Tap to access the navigation menu.
3. In the Recent section, tap Accounts.
4. Tap Barbary Coast Wireless.
5. In the action bar, tap to access the action menu.
Create a Case, and the other actions we added, are now in the action menu.

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6. Tap the Create a Case action.

7. Tap the Contact Name field.
8. Tap Lloyd Benjamin to assign him to the case.
9. Leave its status as New.
10. Assign the case a low priority.
11. Tap Product, and select the first one on the list.
12. Enter a subject and description.
13. Tap Save.
OK, we’re back on the account record detail page. Tap Feed, and you should see a new feed item for the
case you just created.

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Nice work!

About Predefined Values in Actions

Setting up predefined values for certain fields on actions can increase your mobile users' productivity and
optimize the action for the mobile environment at the same time.
When you configure action layouts, it’s better to use fewer fields. Most users, especially mobile users, don’t
like to fill in a lot of required fields. They want to get things done and move on to their next task. A good
way to use fewer fields in action layouts is to set predefined values for as many fields as possible. The more
fields you can set predefined values for, the more you can remove from the layout and make the action
easier and quicker to use. Balance ease of use with the need for required information. However, don’t
remove required fields from an action layout without setting a predefined value for those fields, or when
a user applies that action, the record won’t save properly.
If you set predefined values for fields on object records created through an action, you don’t need to add
those fields to the action layout. For example, when you configure an action that lets users create
opportunities, set Prospecting as the predefined value for the Stage field. All new opportunities users

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create through that action are automatically assigned to the prospecting stage. You can remove the Stage
field from the action’s layout, because the field is going to be assigned a value automatically.
You can set predefined values for any field available in the action layout editor, with these exceptions.
• Multi-select picklists
• Read-only field types like auto-number, formula, and roll-up summary fields
Predefined values for fields on actions are different from default values that you can set for fields on records.
If a field is included in an action, it can have both a predefined value set for the action and a default value
set. If a field on an action has both a predefined value and a default value set, the action uses the predefined
value, not the default value.
Let’s set a predefined value for one of the fields on our Create a Case action.

Try It Out: Set a Predefined Field Value on an Action

When we customized our Create a Case action, the Status field was already present, because it’s a
required field for cases. Whenever Acme Wireless’ mobile technicians are out in the field and have to open
a case, the case status is always going to be “New” for them. Rather than require them to fill in the Status
field every time they open a case, let’s set up a predefined field value for it as “New”. Then we can remove
it from the action layout, and whenever the Create a Case action is used to create a case, the status will
automatically be set to “New”.
1. In the object management settings for accounts, go to Buttons, Links, and Actions.
2. Click Create a Case.
3. In the Predefined Values related list, click New.
4. From the Field Name drop-down list, select Status.
5. Set its value to New.
6. Click Save.
Now we need to remove the Status field from the action layout.
7. On the action detail page, click Edit Layout.
8. Click the Status field on the layout and drag it up to the palette.

Tip: You can remove a required field from the action layout, but make sure that the field
has a predefined value. Otherwise, users can’t create records.

9. Click Save.
OK, now let’s see it in action.

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Test the Predefined Value

1. Open Salesforce on your mobile device.
2. Tap to access the navigation menu.
3. In the Recent section, tap Accounts. You may have to tap More... to find it.
4. Tap Barbary Coast Wireless.
5. In the action bar, tap to access the action menu.
6. Tap the Create a Case action.
Notice the Status field is now gone.
7. Assign the case a High priority.
8. Tap Product, and select any of the products on the list.
9. Enter a subject and description.
10. Tap Save.
11. Tap Feed, and you should see a new feed item for the case you just created.
12. Tap the case number in the feed item, then tap Details.
In the record highlights area of the case record page, you’ll see the subject, priority (High), status
(New), and the case number. The Status field was populated for us, thanks to our predefined
value.

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All right! We’re almost done with actions. There’s one more type, custom actions, that we’ll go over briefly
for now.

About Custom Actions

Object-specific custom actions invoke Lightning components, flows, Visualforce pages, or canvas apps
that let users interact with or create records that have a relationship to an object record. The Visualforce
page for an object-specific custom action must include the standard controller for the relevant object. For
example, use the standard contact controller to create a custom action that lets users import a contact’s
Twitter profile and add that information to a contact record.
Use a Visualforce page, Lightning component, or a canvas app to create global custom actions for tasks
that don’t require users to use records that have a relationship to a specific object. Canvas apps that you
want to use as custom actions require Publisher as a location. To call Lightning components from custom
actions, you must have My Domain deployed in your org. Visualforce pages that you want to use as global
custom actions can’t use standard controllers. For example, you want a custom action that lets users enter
a street address and see a map, the local time, and the local weather. For this action, create a Visualforce
page that doesn’t use any of the standard controllers, and add it as a custom global action.

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 Chapter 7 Using Actions in the Salesforce App

We can’t create custom actions with point-and-click, so we won’t be working with them in our administrator
exercises. If you want to find out more about custom actions, see Adding Functionality with Visualforce
Custom Actions on page 93.

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CHAPTER 8 Guidelines and Best Practices for
Administrators
In this chapter ... We’ve covered the primary places you can use point-and-click tools to
optimize your organization for your mobile users. We enabled notifications,
• Action Guidelines created page layouts and compact layouts, set up quick actions, and
and Best Practices customized the navigation menu.
• Custom Icon
In this chapter, we’ll cover some suggestions and best practices for actions
Guidelines and Best
and custom icons that can make your mobile users’ experience that much
Practices
better. And in case you missed it, don’t forget to review the page layout
guidelines in Tips for Optimizing Page Layouts for Mobile on page 38.

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Chapter 8 Guidelines and Best Practices for Administrators

Action Guidelines and Best Practices

Actions are a great way to let your users get work done quickly. As an administrator, you're in a prime
position to give them the exact actions that they need.
When considering what kinds of actions to create, or even when creating the actions themselves, keep
these suggestions in mind.
• When customizing action layouts, consider what your users will do with them. Minimalism is key.
Include only the fields that are necessary for them and for whomever handles the cases, calls, or records
that result from those actions.
• Don’t use actions for simple navigation shortcuts. They're designed to perform a function.
• Give your actions task-oriented names that tell your users what they do. Use terms such as New, Create,
Share, Update, or Import. Keep names short and descriptive.

• Create a global action if you're contemplating something that your users need to do that isn't tied to
a specific object and that you want to be accessible from anywhere.
• Use the Description field to create notes for yourself about each action. Notes are especially
useful if you’re creating several similar actions for different record types, for example. The description
appears in the list of buttons, links, and actions for object-specific actions, or in the list of global actions,
as well as on the detail page for the action. Your notes aren’t visible to users.
• There is no hard limit to the number of fields you can add to an action layout. However, for optimum
usability, we recommend a maximum of 8 fields. Adding more than 20 fields can severely impact user
efficiency. To reduce the number of fields in your layout, you can create predefined values for the
required fields, and then remove those fields from your layout. You can set predefined field values
from the action detail page.

Custom Icon Guidelines and Best Practices

You can add custom icons to your actions or custom tabs if your organization has access to the Documents
tab.
If you decide to create your own action or tab icon, upload it to a Documents folder and make sure
Externally Available Image is selected.
When creating a custom icon, follow these image guidelines. The icon should:
• Be less than 10k in size
• Be 120 x 120 pixels
• Be a PNG with a transparent background

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 Chapter 8 Guidelines and Best Practices for Administrators

• Have a resolution of 72 dpi

• Not include a color background
• Not include outer shadows on the inner icon graphic
In addition, follow these visual guidelines.
• Center inner icon graphics within a 80 x 80 pixel area, leaving 20 pixels of spacing surrounding it in a
120 x 120 px final format.
• The icon graphic should be white, or lighter than the background color.
• Avoid heavy inner or outer shadows.
• Use simple and flat styling resembling the Salesforce icon family. See the Salesforce App Style Guide for
examples.
You assign custom icons using the Change Icon link when you create the action or tab.
You can also customize the icon that is used in the navigation menu for canvas apps. See Custom Icons
for Canvas Apps on page 145.

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DEVELOPING FOR THE SALESFORCE APP

CHAPTER 9 Welcome to Salesforce Platform

Development
In this chapter ... Welcome to development for the Salesforce Platform. In Part I, Salesforce
app Administration, you learned how to set up and configure your
• Our Scenario organization for the Salesforce app. You also learned how to customize
• Who This Part is For Salesforce for mobile users by using declarative programming features. In
• When to Use this part, you’ll learn how you can use the Salesforce Platform features to
Declarative vs. extend the Salesforce and add new functionality for your users with code.
Programmatic Tools Developing for mobile users in Salesforce means you can leverage your
to Create Salesforce existing skills to extend and customize the app for your users. You can use
Apps
the Salesforce Platform to extend your organization and then make those
• When to Use the changes available to both mobile users and users of the full Salesforce site.
Salesforce Platform
vs. Creating Custom
Apps
• Salesforce Platform
Development
Process
• Development
Prerequisites

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Chapter 9 Welcome to Salesforce Platform Development

Our Scenario
We’ll continue the business scenario of Acme Wireless and build functionality to meet the needs of their
mobile technicians and warehouse workers.
You’ll learn how to:
• Optimize the mobile experience for users by employing mobile-first user interface design.
• Implement Visualforce pages so that mobile users can access them from the navigation menu or action
bar, from a record, or from the publisher in the full Salesforce site.
• Create a Visualforce custom action to make a Visualforce page available from the action bar or from
the publisher in the full Salesforce site.
• Implement development best practices when extending the Salesforce app.

Who This Part is For

Part II of this book is geared towards all developers who need to customize the Salesforce app with code,
from beginner to seasoned pro.
If you’re familiar with programming in the Lightning platform or have done development using the Mobile
SDK, then you should be able to easily make the jump to developing in the Salesforce Platform.
If you’re new to the platform or have done mostly declarative programming, then don’t worry. Each chapter
takes you step-by-step through the process of implementing each feature for our fictitious business, Acme
Wireless. This way, you can learn by doing. These sections are titled “Try It Out.”
In each chapter you’ll also find information about what the feature is, how it works, and when to use it.
These sections are titled “Tell Me More.” Go there to delve into the details of the feature.

When to Use Declarative vs. Programmatic Tools to

Create Salesforce Apps
When developing functionality for your Salesforce mobile users, you can use declarative features (clicks)
or programmatic tools (code). Here are some points to consider before you start coding.
Salesforce features built with declarative tools:
• Are usually faster and cheaper to build.
• Generally require less maintenance.
• Receive automatic upgrades when the tools are improved.

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 Chapter 9 Welcome to Salesforce Platform Development

• Aren’t subject to governor limits.

Common declarative tools you can use in your Salesforce apps include:
• Quick Actions
• Page layout customization
• Formula fields and roll-up summary fields
• Validation rules
• Workflows and approval processes
• Custom fields and objects
We know it’s tempting to jump straight into coding. But just because you can doesn’t always mean you
should. Before you commit to developing a new feature using programmatic tools such as Visualforce,
consider whether you can implement your feature with declarative tools instead.
Of course, some apps can’t be built with declarative tools. Programmatic tools are often required for features
that:
• Support specialized or complex business processes.
• Provide highly customized user interfaces or customized click-through paths.
• Connect to or integrate with third-party systems.
So which tool do you choose? There’s no hard-and-fast rule for when to choose clicks over code. When
choosing, consider the problems you’re trying to solve and resources available to solve them.

When to Use the Salesforce Platform vs. Creating

Custom Apps
When it comes to developing functionality for your Salesforce mobile users, you have options. Here are
some differences between extending the Salesforce app and creating custom apps using the Mobile SDK
or other tools.

Salesforce Platform
• Defined user interface.
• Full access to Salesforce data.
• Possible integrated experience in the Salesforce app.
• Inclusion of your own apps and functionality with quick actions.
• Customized with point-and-click or programmatic tools.

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Chapter 9 Welcome to Salesforce Platform Development

• Programmatic functionality through Visualforce pages, Canvas apps, and the Lightning Component
framework.
• Defined navigation points, since customizations or apps adhere to the navigation menu. For example,
a Visualforce page can be called from the navigation menu or from a custom action in the action bar.
• Enables you to leverage existing Salesforce development experience, both point-and-click and
programmatic.
• Included in all Salesforce editions and supported by Salesforce.

Custom Apps
Custom apps can be either free-standing apps you create with Salesforce Mobile SDK or browser apps
using plain HTML5, CSS, and your choice of mobile-friendly JavaScript frameworks. With custom apps, you
can have:
• A custom user experience.
• Access to Salesforce data using REST APIs in native and hybrid local apps, or with Visualforce in hybrid
apps using JavaScript Remoting. In HTML5 apps, do the same using standard JavaScript APIs.
• A branded user interface, including a custom app icon, for increased exposure in customer-facing
apps.
• Standalone mobile app, either with native APIs using Java for Android or Objective-C for iOS, or through
a hybrid container using JavaScript and HTML5 (Mobile SDK only).
• App distribution through mobile industry channels, such as the Apple App Store or Google Play (Mobile
SDK only).
• Control of complex offline behavior (Mobile SDK only).
• Push notifications (available for Mobile SDK native apps only).
• A custom security container using your own OAuth module (Mobile SDK only).
Other important Mobile SDK considerations:
• Access to open-source SDK, downloadable for free through npm installers and GitHub. No licensing
required.
• Requires you to develop and compile your apps in an external development environment (Xcode for
iOS, Eclipse or similar for Android).
There’s no right or wrong answer when choosing between the Salesforce platform and the Mobile SDK.
Base your choice on which features are most important for your app.

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 Chapter 9 Welcome to Salesforce Platform Development

Salesforce Platform Development Process

The Salesforce app is designed to run on a mobile device, like a phone or tablet, but that doesn’t mean
you have to develop on one. Especially when you’re working with Visualforce pages that will apper in both
the app and the full Salesforce site, it’s convenient to develop on your desktop. By accessing the Salesforce
app in a device emulator, you can develop iteratively on your desktop, without having to pick up your
device to test each change.

Important: Running the Salesforce app in an emulator isn’t supported for normal use, and it’s not
a substitute for full testing of your custom apps and pages on your organization’s supported mobile
devices. During development you should regularly test your app on every device and platform on
which you intend to deploy.
To view your custom mobile pages and apps on a device emulator, download and install the appropriate
SDK for your supported devices.
• Apple iOS Simulator for iPhone and iPad
developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/IDEs/
Conceptual/iOS_Simulator_Guide/

• Android Virtual Device Emulator for Phone and Tablet

developer.android.com/tools/devices/emulator.html

You can’t use the standard https://<Salesforce_instance>/apex/yourPageName URL

to test Visualforce in the Salesforce app. You can only do that by accessing the page within the app.

Development Prerequisites
You’ll need to have these before you can start these exercises.
• Access to a Developer Edition organization.
If you aren’t already a member of the Lightning Platform developer community, go to
http://sforce.co/1om1gHf and follow the instructions for signing up for a Developer Edition
organization. Even if you already have Enterprise Edition, Unlimited Edition, or Performance Edition,
use Developer Edition for developing, staging, and testing your solutions against sample data to protect
your organization’s live data.

• The “API Enabled” permission must be enabled for your Developer Edition organization. This permission
is enabled by default, but might have been changed by an administrator.

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• The Warehouse data model must be installed in your Developer Edition organization and the Salesforce
app installed on a mobile device. If you haven’t already set up these items, see Setting Up Your Work
Environment on page 15.

Change the System Administrator Page Layout Assignment

We’ve created a custom page layout to help us illustrate some of the concepts in this book. Before we
begin, let’s switch the page layout assignment for our System Administrator profile to this new layout.
1. In Setup, enter Profiles in the Quick Find box, then select Profiles.
2. Select the System Administrator profile.
3. In the Page Layouts section, find Account, and click View Assignment.
4. Click Edit Assignment.
5. Click the System Administrator line item.
6. Select Warehouse Schema Account Layout from the Page Layout to Use drop-down list.
7. Click Save.
All right! Now we’re ready to roll.

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CHAPTER 10 Designing Mobile-First User Interfaces
In this chapter ... In this chapter, we’ll learn about user interface design considerations to
keep in mind when developing functionality for Salesforce mobile users.
• Design for Mobile
Designing your user interface with mobile in mind is critical to the success
• Keep Navigation
of your app. If users find your functionality easy to use and in alignment
Simple
with the experience they have with other mobile apps, they’ll be much
• Put Important happier with the app. The user interface guidelines in this chapter address
Information at the key differences in the mobile platform and the way users work in it:
Top
• Mobile devices have smaller screens.
• Minimize the
Number of Fields • Navigation is done with gestures like tapping and swiping.
• Use Field Defaults • Users typically perform focused tasks from mobile devices like adding
• Minimize User a new record.
Interface Text Throughout the examples in this book, we demonstrate these best
• Tap Target Size practices. As you develop and create your own customizations and apps
using the Salesforce Platform, keep these guidelines in mind.

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Chapter 10 Designing Mobile-First User Interfaces

Design for Mobile

When designing a user interface for Salesforce mobile users, keep the smaller form factor and the way
users work in mind from the start.
In the mobile paradigm, users work in quick bursts, spending not more than a minute or two on a task. So
be sure to design your app for the way users work.
Avoid taking forms and workflow designed for the desktop environment and simply making them available.
For example, it may be an acceptable user experience in a desktop Web browser to have a form with many
fields and related lists on it. However, that same form probably won’t provide a good user experience
when used from a mobile device.
Users will have a much better experience with forms that follow these user interface guidelines and are
designed specifically for the mobile environment.

Keep Navigation Simple

Design your customizations so that users can get to the screen quickly and know where they are within
the app.
When creating forms, be sure that they have a simple, logical flow. This helps users to know where they
are and keeps them from having to remember where they came from. For example, avoid creating a feed
item that links to another form that then links to another form.

Put Important Information at the Top

Put the most essential information at the top of the screen so that it’s immediately visible to the user and
easy to access.
For example, on a screen that the mobile technician uses to see all their repair appointments, put the most
important customer data such as name, address, and phone number at the top. For each screen, identify
what the user’s task is and what data they need to accomplish that task. Another example is if you’re
generating feed items, the text should be as concise as possible and the most important information
should be at the beginning of the post, as shown in the following example.

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Minimize the Number of Fields

When it comes to presenting fields on a screen, less is more. Give users only the fields they need to complete
the task at hand.
For example, if you’re creating a screen for adding a new warehouse, you might only want to surface the
warehouse name field. This way the user can quickly add a new warehouse. If the user has collected more
information, they can edit the new record and add it in the detail view.
This guideline is particularly important when displaying information that’s for viewing only. For example,
if you’re creating a form that the mobile technician uses to look up a customer, the technician probably
needs to see only the customer name, address, and a phone number. In our page to search for merchandise,
only two fields are needed: the merchandise name and delivery distance.

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Chapter 10 Designing Mobile-First User Interfaces

To reduce the number of fields on a screen, consider using default values for new records instead of having
the user enter the data.

Use Field Defaults

When you have fields on a screen that user must enter, create defaults for as many of them as you can.
For example, if you create a form with a multi-select picklist, consider defaulting the field to a particular
value. This way the user can change it if necessary, but otherwise can simply accept the default for quicker
workflow.

Minimize User Interface Text

Be mindful of device form factor and size, and keep labels and user interface text short and concise.
Keep field and menu labels as short as you can while still conveying enough meaning for users to understand
what the field is for. Use intuitive icons or symbols whenever possible so users can quickly understand

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your user interface. The goal with user interface text is to provide enough information so that users can
understand what they need to do while at the same time keeping the user interface clean and simple.
A common best practice is to place labels above fields and to show only one column of fields instead of
displaying fields side by side.
Any blocks of text should also be concise and to the point. For example, if you’re automatically creating a
feed item to be viewed, keep the text short and include only the necessary information.
In our warehouse scenario, when an order is fulfilled in the warehouse, a feed item appears in the customer
account feed that shows the key information such as invoice number and order number, along with a
short message and a link to the invoice.

Tap Target Size

Mobile users interact with the Salesforce user interface with their fingers, so be sure to design user interface
elements to be the optimal size.

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Screen controls should be large enough for users to tap easily and take into account that every user’s hands
are sized differently. Controls that are too small means users will need to tap multiple times, a frustrating
experience. But you don’t want controls so large that users can accidentally tap one when they meant to
tap another.
We recommend a minimum tap target size of 44 pixels wide by 44 pixels high. For more information about
custom icons, see Custom Icon Guidelines and Best Practices on page 64.

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CHAPTER 11 Extending the Salesforce App with
Visualforce Pages
In this chapter ... You can use Visualforce to extend the Salesforce app and give your mobile
users the functionality they need.
• Try It Out: Create a
Visualforce Page
In this chapter, we’ll extend the Acme Wireless organization and give
mobile technicians a way to find nearby warehouses. For example, if the
• Tell Me More: Where
technician is out on a call and needs a part, they can use this page to look
Visualforce Pages
for warehouses within a 20–mile radius.
Can Appear in the
Salesforce App While you could take an existing Visualforce page and surface it in the
• Tell Me More: About Salesforce app, you should consider how that page will look and function
the Code on a mobile device. Most likely, you’ll want to create a new page designed
especially for a mobile experience.
For more information about where Visualforce pages can appear in the
user interface, see Tell Me More: Where Visualforce Pages Can Appear in
the Salesforce App on page 86.
Now, let’s get started!

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Try It Out: Create a Visualforce Page

Now we’ll create a Visualforce page and make it available from the navigation menu.
This Visualforce page references these items.
• A static resource named googleMapsAPI
• An Apex class named FindNearby
These have been provided for you in the package that you downloaded and installed for this guide.
Also included in the package is the Visualforce page FindNearbyWarehousesPage. You can move
on to the next step, Create a New Tab on page 83, if you want to use the page included in the package.
The code for this page uses the location of the current user and integrates with Google Maps to display a
map with warehouses located within 20 miles. For each nearby warehouse, the map displays a pin along
with the warehouse name, address, and phone number.
1. In the Salesforce application, from Setup, enter Visualforce Pages in the Quick Find
box, then select Visualforce Pages.
2. Click New.
3. In the Label field, enter FindNearbyWarehousesPage.
The FindNearbyWarehousesPage page is included in the package you installed, so if
you’re copying this code to create a new page, you’ll want to name your page something different.

4. Select the Available for Lightning Experience, Lightning

Communities, and the mobile app checkbox.
Selecting this checkbox designates that the page is mobile-ready.

5. Copy and paste this code into the Visualforce Markup tab.
<apex:page sidebar="false" showheader="false"
standardController="Warehouse__c"
recordSetVar="warehouses" extensions="FindNearby">

<apex:includeScript value="{!$Resource.googleMapsAPI}" />

<!-- This API key needs to be set up for there to be
no JS errors -->
<!--http://salesforcesolutions.blogspot.com/2013/01/
integration-of-salesforcecom-and-google.html-->
<script type="text/javascript"
src="https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/js?key=
AIzaSyAVrfZm7_NhbLjHrFPdl242BYV1PBmDPqs
&sensor=false">

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</script>
<!-- Set up the map to take up the whole window -->
<style>
html, body { height: 100%; }
.page-map, .ui-content, #map-canvas
{ width: 100%; height:100%; padding: 0; }
#map-canvas { height: min-height: 100%; }
</style>

<script>
function initialize() {
var lat, lon;

// Check to see if the device has geolocation

// detection capabilities with JS
if (navigator.geolocation) {
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(
function(position){
lat = position.coords.latitude;
lon = position.coords.longitude;

//Use VF Remoting to send values to be

//queried in the associated Apex Class
Visualforce.remoting.Manager.
invokeAction(
'{!$RemoteAction.FindNearby.getNearby}',

lat, lon,
function(result, event){
if (event.status) {
console.log(result);
createMap(lat, lon, result);
} else if (event.type ===
'exception') {
//exception case code
} else {

}
},
{escape: true}
);
});
} else {
//Set default values for map if the device

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Chapter 11 Extending the Salesforce App with Visualforce Pages

//doesn't have geolocation capabilities

/** San Francisco **/
lat = 37.77493;
lon = -122.419416;

var result = [];

createMap(lat, lon, result);
}

function createMap(lat, lng, warehouses){

//Grab the map div and center the map at
//the proper latitude/longitude
var mapDiv = document.getElementById(
'map-canvas');
var map = new google.maps.Map(mapDiv, {
center: new google.maps.LatLng(lat, lng),
zoom: 12,
mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
});

//Set up the markers for the map using the

//variable we queried for in our controller
var warehouse;
for(var i=0; i<warehouses.length;i++){
warehouse = warehouses[i];
console.log(warehouses[i]);
setupMarker();
}

function setupMarker(){
var content='<a href src="/'+ warehouse.Id +
'" >'+
warehouse.Name + '</a><br/>'+
warehouse.Street_Address__c +
'<br/>' + warehouse.City__c +
'<br/>' + warehouse.Phone__c;

//Create the callout that will pop up

//on the marker
var infowindow = new google.maps.
InfoWindow({
content: content

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});

//Place the marker

var marker = new google.maps.Marker({
map: map,
position: new google.maps.LatLng(
warehouse.Location__Latitude__s,
warehouse.Location__Longitude__s)
});

//Create an action to open the callout

google.maps.event.addListener(
marker, 'click', function(){
infowindow.open(map, marker);
});
}
}

//Run the initialize function when the window loads

google.maps.event.addDomListener(
window, 'load', initialize);

</script>

<body style="font-family: Arial; border: 0 none;">

<div id="map-canvas"></div>
</body>
</apex:page>

6. Click Save.
Now that we’ve created the Visualforce page for finding warehouses, the next step is to create a tab for it.
We’ll then add the page to the navigation menu.

Create a New Tab

Now we’ll create a new tab and add the Visualforce page you just created.
1. From Setup, enter Tabs in the Quick Find box, then select Tabs.
2. In the Visualforce Tabs section, click New.
3. In the Visualforce Page drop-down list, select FindNearbyWarehousesPage, or the page you created
in the previous step.

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4. In the Tab Label field, enter Find Warehouses.

This label appears on the navigation menu.

5. Click into the Tab Style field, and select the Globe style.
The icon for this style appears as the icon for the page in the navigation menu.

6. Click Next.
7. Click Next to accept the visibility defaults.
8. Deselect the Include Tab checkbox so that the tab isn’t included in any of the apps in the
organization. We only want this tab to appear when users are viewing it on their mobile device.
9. Click Save.
Now that you’ve created the Visualforce page and the tab, you’re ready to add the new tab to the navigation
menu.

Add the Tab to the Navigation Menu

In this step, we’ll add the tab as a navigation menu item. It will instantly become available to Salesforce
app users that have access to it.
1. From Setup, enter Navigation in the Quick Find box, then select Salesforce Navigation.
2. Select Find Warehouses and click Add to move it over to the Selected list.

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3. Move the Find Warehouses item to just below the Smart Search Items menu item.

Note: Menu items that you put below Smart Search Items appear in the Apps section of
the Salesforce navigation menu.

4. Click Save.
When your users log in, they’ll see the Find Warehouses menu item in the navigation menu. Now let’s test
it out.

Test the Visualforce Page

Now you’ll play the part of an Acme Wireless mobile technician and search for nearby warehouses on your
device.
1. Open Salesforce on your mobile device.
2. Tap to access the navigation menu.
You should see Find Warehouses under the Apps section.

3. Tap Find Warehouses.

4. Click OK when you see a prompt that asks to use your current location. A map that contains all
the nearby warehouse locations within 20 miles appears.

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The warehouses in our package sample data are all located in the San Francisco area. If you’re
testing this from another location, be sure to add a warehouse located within 20 miles. To add a
new warehouse, choose Warehouse from the Lightning Platform app menu, click the Warehouses
tab, and then click New in the Recent Warehouses section.

That’s it! You can see how easy it is to make standard pages and tabs available to your mobile users.
For more information about development guidelines for Visualforce pages, see Guidelines and Best Practices
on page 108.

Tell Me More: Where Visualforce Pages Can Appear

in the Salesforce App
When you create a Visualforce page, you can make it available from a number of places in the user interface.
• Navigation menu—available when you tap from the mobile app

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• Action bar and action menu—available from the bottom of any page that supports actions

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Chapter 11 Extending the Salesforce App with Visualforce Pages

• Record related information page (as a mobile card)—available when you navigate to a record

You can also reference, and link to, another Visualforce page in your Visualforce markup using the supported
navigation calls listed at Navigation with the sforce.one Object. Be sure to select Available
for Lightning Experience, Lightning Communities, and the mobile app
for all pages in a multi-page process.
If a referenced page doesn’t have Available for Lightning Experience, Lightning
Communities, and the mobile app selected, it doesn’t prevent the referencing, or parent,
page from appearing. However, when a user tries to access the nonmobile enabled page, they receive an
“Unsupported Page” error message.

Tell Me More: About the Code

Let’s take a look at some of the code behind our Visualforce page that finds warehouses.

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FindNearby Apex Class Query

This snippet is a dynamic SOQL query that uses variables passed in from the Visualforce page to find
warehouses within 20 miles of the device accessing the page. This page works on any mobile device and
HTML5–enabled desktop browser.
If the page is unable to obtain the location, the search is centered on San Francisco. If you test this from a
browser, you might have to approve that the page can access your location depending on your device
security settings.
String queryString =
'SELECT Id, Name, Location__Longitude__s,
Location__Latitude__s, ' +
Street_Address__c, Phone__c, City__c ' +
'FROM Warehouse__c ' +
'WHERE DISTANCE(Location__c,
GEOLOCATION('+lat+','+lon+'), \'mi\') < 20 ' +
'ORDER BY DISTANCE(Location__c,
GEOLOCATION('+lat+','+lon+'), \'mi\') ' +
'LIMIT 10';

Visualforce Page initialize Function

The initialize function in the Visualforce page uses the HTML5 geolocation API to get the coordinates
of the user. The browser gets the position without using any plug-ins or external libraries, and then uses
JavaScript remoting to invoke the getNearby function in the Apex controller and passes in the
coordinates.
function initialize() {
var lat, lon;

// Check to see if the device has geolocation

// detection capabilities with JavaScript
if (navigator.geolocation) {
navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(
function(position){
lat = position.coords.latitude;
lon = position.coords.longitude;

//Use VF Remoting to send values to be

//queried in the associated Apex Class
Visualforce.remoting.Manager.invokeAction(
'{!$RemoteAction.FindNearby.getNearby}', lat, lon,

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function(result, event){
if (event.status) {
console.log(result);
createMap(lat, lon, result);
} else if (event.type === 'exception') {
//exception case code
} else {

}
},
{escape: true}
);
});
} else {
//Set default values for map if the device doesn't
//have geolocation capabilities
/** San Francisco **/
lat = 37.77493;
lon = -122.419416;

var result = [];

createMap(lat, lon, result);
}

Visualforce Page Redirect Code

The page FindNearbyWarehousesPage uses the Google Maps JavaScript API v3 to plot the nearby
warehouses on a map. We resize the map based on the records returned by the SOQL query and plot each
record as marker on the map.
The most important piece of the code is where we determine whether or not the page is being viewed
in the Salesforce app. If it is, the redirect link to the warehouse record must be coded slightly differently.
If the page runs in the Salesforce app, we must use the navigateToSobjectRecord method to
go to the record detail page but still stay in the app. We can check this with a simple try/catch construct,
and then set the redirect link accordingly.
try{
if(sforce.one){
warehouseNavUrl =
'javascript:sforce.one.navigateToSObject(
\'' + warehouse.Id + '\')';
}
} catch(err) {

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console.log(err);
warehouseNavUrl = '\\' + warehouse.Id;
}
var warehouseDetails =
'<a href="' + warehouseNavUrl + '">' +
warehouse.Name + '</a><br/>' +
warehouse.Street_Address__c + '<br/>' +
warehouse.City__c + '<br/>' +
warehouse.Phone__c;

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Custom Actions
In this chapter ... Actions appear in the action bar and action menu in the Salesforce mobile
app, and are a quick way for mobile users to access commonly used tasks
• Custom Actions or functionality.
Scenario
We learned about standard actions that can be configured with
• Try It Out: Create a
point-and-click tools in Using Actions in the Salesforce App on page 45.
Visualforce Custom
In this chapter we’ll look at custom actions, which are actions that you
Action
define. There are two types of custom actions:
• Tell Me More: About
the Code • Visualforce—specifies a Visualforce page that’s called from the Chatter
publisher or the Salesforce app action bar.
• Canvas—specifies a canvas app that’s called from the Chatter publisher
or the Salesforce app action bar.
Custom actions aren’t specific to mobile users, and appear in both the
Salesforce app and in the full Salesforce site. In the Salesforce mobile app,
custom actions appear in the action bar. In the full Salesforce site, custom
actions appear in the Chatter publisher.

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Custom Actions Scenario

In this chapter, we’ll further extend the Acme Wireless organization and give mobile technicians a way to
quickly create an order. We’ll create a Visualforce page and make it available as a custom action from the
action bar. That way, if the technicians are out at a customer site and they want to order a part, they can
quickly navigate to the page.
The custom action enables the technician to enter the part name and a radius, and the Visualforce page
searches all warehouses within the given radius for that part. Once a warehouse is located, the technician
simply enters the quantity and taps a button to create the order. This is all done within the context of the
customer account.

Try It Out: Create a Visualforce Custom Action

First, we’ll create a Visualforce custom action that references a Visualforce page.
The custom action we’re creating uses these elements from the package that you downloaded and installed
for this guide.
• QuickOrderPage Visualforce page
• QuickOrderController Apex class
• Mobile_Design_Templates static resource used for styling the page
We’ll take an in-depth look at the code later in this chapter. But first, we’re going to create the action and
try it out.
The Visualforce code for this page uses the location of the current customer account to find warehouses
located within the specified distance (in miles) that also have a particular part in stock.
1. From the object management settings for accounts, go to Buttons, Links, and Actions.
2. Click New Action.
3. In the Action Type drop-down list, select Custom Visualforce.
4. In the Visualforce Page drop-down list, select QuickOrderPage.
5. In the Label field, enter Create Quick Order.
This is the action name that appears to the user in the action menu in the Salesforce app or in the
publisher in the full Salesforce site.

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6. Click Save.
Now that we’ve created the custom action, we’ll add the action to the Account page layout. This ensures
that the custom action appears in the publisher when you go to the page for a customer account.

Add the Visualforce Custom Action to the Page Layout

Now we’ll add the custom action to the Account page layout.
1. From the object management settings for Accounts, go to Page Layouts.
2. Click Edit next to the Warehouse Schema Account Layout.
3. Click the Mobile & Lightning Actions category in the palette.
4. In the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions section, click override the predefined
actions.
5. Drag the Create Quick Order element into the Salesforce Mobile and Lightning Experience Actions
section so that it appears as the first element on the left.
Our mobile technicians are going to use this custom action a lot, so we’re putting it at the start of
the list so it is one of the first actions they see in the action bar.

6. If it’s present, drag the Mobile Smart Actions element out of the section and back to the palette.
7. Click Save.
Now that we’ve created the custom action and added it to the page layout, we’re ready to see it in action.

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Test Out the Visualforce Custom Action

Now you’ll play the part of an Acme Wireless mobile technician on a customer call, and we’ll test out the
custom action in the Salesforce app.
1. Open the Salesforce app on your mobile device.
2. Tap to access the navigation menu.
3. From the navigation menu, tap Accounts and navigate to an account.
4. In the action bar, tap to access the action menu.
5. Tap the Create Quick Order action.

6. In the Merchandise Name field, enter the name of an item, such as iPhone 5.
7. In the Max Delivery Distance (miles) field, enter 10.
8. Tap Submit.

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9. In the Search Results section at the bottom, you’ll see a list of merchandise that matches what you
searched for. The list shows parts contained in warehouses within 10 miles of the current account.
Tap iPhone 5S Gold.
10. In the Quantity field, enter 1.
After identifying nearby warehouses that contain the part you’re looking for, this screen lets you
enter a quantity and creates an order for the part. The order is associated with the current account.

Tip: If you want to return to the search screen, be sure to use the Back button. If you tap
Cancel, an invoice with no line items is created.

11. Tap Save.

The order has been created. Swipe to the Related screen, and you’ll see the Invoices related list.
Tap it, and you’ll see the new invoice. You can tap the invoice, go to the Related screen, and then
tap Line Items to see the line item that was created for the iPhone 5S Gold part.

Success! You’ve gone through the entire process of enabling a mobile technician to quickly search for a
part in a warehouse and create an order.

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For more information about development guidelines for Visualforce pages, see Guidelines and Best Practices
on page 108.

Tell Me More: About the Code

There are two code objects behind our Visaulforce custom action: the Apex class
QuickOrderController and the Visualforce page QuickOrderPage.
The Apex class is the controller for the Visualforce page, and uses the @RemoteAction annotation on
the methods. When you use this annotation, the Visualforce page wraps the logic in a JavaScript-friendly
way. This is known as Visualforce remoting.
Visualforce remoting allows for quick and tight integration between Apex and JavaScript. This
communication model works asynchronously as opposed to the synchronous model in the traditional
Visualforce/Apex MVC paradigm. So after passing parameters into your controller, you can get the result
from a response handler function, and write any additional client-side logic before doing any DOM
manipulation or building your page with mobile templates or frameworks.
Visualforce remoting is ideal for mobile developers on the Salesforce Platform because it simplifies the
direct server-side access to Salesforce objects and allows you to use Apex tools such as SOQL, Apex methods,
and so on for rapid platform development. And, you don’t have to deal with view state, which makes pages
perform better.

Apex Class QuickOrderController

This class uses Visualforce remoting and contains the logic called by the Visualforce page to find warehouses
and create orders and line items.
global class QuickOrderController{
public static List<Merchandise__c> merchandise;
public static Line_Item__c quickOrder;

public QuickOrderController(ApexPages.
StandardController controller){
}

@RemoteAction
global static List<Merchandise__c> findWarehouses(String accId,
String merchName, String warehouseDist){
merchandise = new List<Merchandise__c>();
String queryString = '';

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String queryName = '%' + merchName + '%';

Account acc = [Select Location__Longitude__s,

Location__Latitude__s, Name, Id
from Account where Id =: accId];

//Finds warehouses nearby if you have location

//specified on the Account
if(acc.Location__Latitude__s != null &&
acc.Location__Longitude__s != null){
queryString = 'SELECT Id, (SELECT Id, Name, Quantity__c,

Warehouse__r.Name, Warehouse__r.Id,
Warehouse__r.Street_Address__c,
Warehouse__r.City__c '+
'FROM Merchandise__r WHERE Name
like :queryName) '
+'FROM Warehouse__c WHERE '
+'DISTANCE(Location__c, GEOLOCATION('
+acc.Location__Latitude__s+','
+acc.Location__Longitude__s+'), \'mi\')';
if(warehouseDist != null){
queryString += ' <'+ warehouseDist;
}

}
//If no location defined on the Account, this will run
//query against the merchandise name only
else {
queryString = 'SELECT Id, Name,
Location__Longitude__s,
Location__Latitude__s, '
+'(SELECT Id, Name, Warehouse__r.Name,
Quantity__c
FROM Merchandise__r WHERE Name
like :queryName) '
+'FROM Warehouse__c limit 25';

//This creates a list of merchandise

//to display in the search results
Warehouse__c[] warehouses = Database.Query(queryString);
for(Warehouse__c warehouse : warehouses){

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Merchandise__c[] merch =
warehouse.getSObjects('Merchandise__r');
if (merch != null) {
for (Merchandise__c m : merch){
merchandise.add(m);
}
}
}
return merchandise;

//This remote action creates the invoice for the quick order
@RemoteAction
global static Line_Item__c createQuickOrder(
String accId, String merchandiseId){
Invoice__c newInvoice = new Invoice__c();
newInvoice.Account__c = accId;
insert newInvoice;

quickOrder = new Line_Item__c();

Merchandise__c m = [Select Id, Name from Merchandise__c
where Id=: merchandiseId limit 1];
quickOrder.Merchandise__c = m.Id;
quickOrder.Invoice__c = newInvoice.Id;

return quickOrder;
}

//This remote action creates the line item related to the

//invoice for the quick order
@RemoteAction
global static Boolean insertQuickOrder(String o, String q){
try {
Integer quantity = integer.valueof(q);

Line_Item__c order = new Line_Item__c();

/* The order variable being passed in as a param is being
passed in the form of a JSON object. You need to use
the JSON deserialize method in Apex to convert it
into a SObject */
order = (Line_Item__c)JSON.deserialize(
o, Line_Item__c.class);

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order.Quantity__c = quantity;
insert order;

//Need to requery for the name for the post to chatter

//since it wasn't explicitly specified
Line_Item__c li = [Select Name, Merchandise__r.Name, Id,
Quantity__c, Invoice__c from Line_Item__c
where Id =: order.Id];

FeedItem post = new FeedItem();

post.ParentId = aId;
post.Body = UserInfo.getName() + ' just created a quick order';

post.type = 'LinkPost';
post.LinkUrl = '/' + li.Invoice__c;
post.Title = li.Merchandise__r.Name + ': ' + li.quantity__c;
insert post;
} catch(System.Exception ex) {
system.debug(ex.getMessage());
}
return true;
}

//This remote action handles deleting the invoice if

//the user doesn't want to insert the line item
@RemoteAction
global static Boolean goBack(String invoiceId){
// Delete created invoice and return to original
//search screen
Invoice__c cancelledInvoice = [select Id from Invoice__c
where Id=: invoiceId];
delete cancelledInvoice;

return true;
}

Note: Use static queries and binding variables to prevent a SOQL injection attack. For example, use
:queryName instead of \'%'+merchName+'%\'. For more information, see “Security
Guidelines for Apex and Visualforce Development“ in the Salesforce Help.

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The Apex controller also has an insertQuickOrder method that creates a feed item about the new
order in the account feed as shown in this code snippet. The feed item is a link post that links to the invoice.
FeedItem post = new FeedItem();
post.ParentId = aId;
post.Body = UserInfo.getName() + ' just created a quick order';
post.type = 'LinkPost';
post.LinkUrl = '/' + li.Invoice__c;
post.Title = li.Merchandise__r.Name + ': ' + li.quantity__c;
insert post;

Visualforce Page QuickOrderPage

This page calls the controller with the user input and then displays the merchandise and warehouse
information to the user. If the user wants to create an order, this page also calls the controller to create
the order associated with the customer account and add a line item. At the beginning of the page, the
code also does some styling of the page using the Salesforce mobile design templates.
<apex:page standardController="Account"
extensions="QuickOrderController" docType="html-5.0"
standardStylesheets="false" showheader="false" sidebar="false">

<!--Include stylesheets for the mobile look and feel -->

<apex:stylesheet value="{!URLFOR(
$Resource.Mobile_Design_Templates,
'Mobile-Design-Templates-master/
common/css/app.min.css')}"/>
<apex:includeScript value="{!URLFOR(
$Resource.Mobile_Design_Templates,
'Mobile-Design-Templates-master/common/js/
jQuery2.0.2.min.js')}"/>
<apex:includeScript value="{!URLFOR(
$Resource.Mobile_Design_Templates,
'Mobile-Design-Templates-master/common/js/
jquery.touchwipe.min.js')}"/>
<apex:includeScript value="{!URLFOR(
$Resource.Mobile_Design_Templates,
'Mobile-Design-Templates-master/common/
js/main.min.js')}"/>

<style>
/* Default S1 color styles */

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.list-view-header, .data-capture-buttons a {
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(
#2a93d5,#107abb);
background: linear-gradient(#2a93d5,#107abb);
box-shadow: 0 1px 3px rgba(0,0,0,.2),
inset 0 1px 0 rgba(255,255,255,.21);
color: white;
font-weight: bold;
}

#resultPage, #searchPage {
padding-bottom: 50px;
}
</style>

The QuickOrderPage also calls the Canvas SDK to enable the publisher Submit button and close
the publisher window.
First, it includes a reference to the SDK:
<!-- This needs to be included so the publisher can be used
to submit the action -->
<script type='text/javascript'
src='/canvas/sdk/js/publisher.js'></script>

Then it calls the setValidForSubmit method to enable the publisher Submit button:
//This method will activate the publish button
//so the form can be submitted
Sfdc.canvas.publisher.publish({
name: "publisher.setValidForSubmit",
payload:"true"});

After the setValidForSubmit is called and the user clicks Submit, this subscribe method fires.
This method invokes the final JavaScript function which uses JavaScript remoting to insert the line item
(thus completing the quick order) and then post a feed item to the account:
<script type='text/javascript'>
Sfdc.canvas.publisher.subscribe({name: "publisher.post",
onData:function(e) {
//This subscribe fires when the user hits
//Submit in the publisher
insertQuickOrder();
}});
</script>

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Finally, after the callback from the remoting method returns successfully, this method closes the publisher
window:
// Success - close the publisher and refresh the feed
Sfdc.canvas.publisher.publish({name: "publisher.close",
payload:{ refresh:"true"}});

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CHAPTER 13 Development Guidelines and Best
Practices
In this chapter ... You’ve had a chance to learn the major concepts of developing for the
Salesforce app, and to see how you can easily add customized functionality
• When to Use the for your mobile users. This chapter focuses on some conceptual guidelines
Navigation Menu or and specific best practices for developing advanced custom actions and
the Action Bar pages using the programmatic tools available to all Salesforce Platform
• Guidelines and Best developers.
Practices
Whether you’re creating Visualforce pages to add as custom actions or
• Canvas Guidelines mobile cards, or creating or integrating canvas apps into the Salesforce
and Best Practices
app, these principles and practices will help you provide the best
experience for your mobile users.

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When to Use the Navigation Menu or the Action Bar

As we’ve seen throughout the examples in this book, you can extend and customize the Salesforce app
and make your new functionality accessible to users from either the navigation menu or from the action
bar. Here we’ll look at when you should use one method over another.
Navigation menu

The navigation menu appears when you tap . This menu is available in the global context. For
example, if users log in and are viewing items in the feed, they can tap and open the navigation menu,
and it displays menu items. Typically, these menu items lead to more complex business processes that
don’t take place in the context of any particular object.
Menu items in the navigation menu should bring users to a fully functional page or app. So if you have
a page or app that contains many fields through which the user would need to scroll and perform a
more complex process, you’ll want to make your page or app available from the navigation menu.
An example from this book is the Find Warehouses Visualforce page that we made available from the
navigation menu in Extending the Salesforce App with Visualforce Pages on page 79. When the mobile
technician taps the menu item, a page appears that contains a Google map and displays any nearby
warehouses. The functionality of this page is global—not in the context of any particular object in our
schema.

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Action Bar
The action bar and its action menu appear on all pages that support actions The action bar is for
accessing custom functionality that displays small amounts of data and allows users to perform short,
quick actions. If you have functionality that occurs in the context of an object, you’ll want to add it as
an action in the action bar.
An example from this book is the Create Quick Order action, available from the action bar within a
customer account. While the mobile technicians are servicing a customer account, they can tap the
action and then enter in just the merchandise name and distance to find warehouses with a part in
stock. Then the technicians enter the quantity and a customer order is created. The functionality of
this Visualforce page occurs within the context of a customer account. The user interaction with the
page is quick, and it’s a simple process to search and create an order because the action contains only
a few fields.

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Guidelines and Best Practices

Visualforce pages aren’t automatically mobile friendly in the Salesforce app. The standard Salesforce header
and sidebar are disabled in favor of the mobile controls, and a JavaScript API is available to make it possible
for Visualforce pages to connect with mobile navigation management. In other respects the pages remain
as they are and, although usable within the app, desktop focused Visualforce pages will feel desktop
focused.
Fortunately, making your apps look great in the Salesforce app is straightforward. You can either revise
your code so that your pages work in both the full Salesforce site and the app, or you can create
mobile-specific pages.
In this chapter, you’ll learn best practices for how to:
• Share Visualforce pages between mobile and desktop.
• Exclude Visualforce from mobile or desktop.
• Choose the best architecture for your Visualforce pages.
• Choose an effective page layout for your pages.
• Manage user input and navigation.
• Use Visualforce pages as custom actions.
• Tune your pages for the best performance.

Sharing Visualforce Pages Between Mobile and Desktop

Revise Visualforce pages that appear in both the Salesforce app and in the full Salesforce site to support
both environments. This includes Visualforce pages used as custom actions, and Visualforce pages added
to standard page layouts, except those added to the Mobile Cards section of a page layout.
Visualforce pages that need to work in both environments include:
• Pages used as custom actions. Custom actions appear in the action bar in the Salesforce app, and in
the publisher menu in the full Salesforce site.
• Pages added to normal page layouts, when Available for Lightning Experience,
Lightning Communities, and the mobile app is enabled for the page.
• Custom Visualforce buttons or links added to normal page layouts.
• Standard button overrides with Visualforce pages for the New, Edit, View, Delete, and Clone actions.
Overriding standard list and tab controls isn’t supported in the app. Button overrides won’t appear in
the app unless Available for Lightning Experience, Lightning
Communities, and the mobile app is enabled for the page.

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Note: Standard buttons that are overridden with a Visualforce page disappear from record
detail pages and record lists in the app if Available for Lightning Experience,
Lightning Communities, and the mobile app isn’t selected for the Visualforce
page that overrides the corresponding button.

Excluding Visualforce Pages from Mobile or Desktop

To display your Visualforce pages only in the Salesforce app, add them to the Mobile Cards section of your
page layout. To add Visualforce pages to either the app or the full Salesforce site, use tab and navigation
settings.
Visualforce pages that can be configured to be desktop-only or mobile-only include:
• Pages added as mobile cards on page layouts. These only appear in the Salesforce app.
• Pages added to normal page layouts, when Available for Lightning Experience,
Lightning Communities, and the mobile app is disabled for the page. These only
appear in the full Salesforce site.
• Pages used in Visualforce tabs. You add tabs to mobile navigation separately from adding them to the
full Salesforce site navigation.

Choosing an Architecture for Visualforce Pages in the

Salesforce App
There are several ways to design and structure Visualforce pages, each with different trade-offs with respect
to development time, developer skill required, and how thoroughly you want your custom functionality
to match the Salesforce app.
Use one of the following approaches for the structure of your pages:
• Standard Visualforce Pages on page 109
• Mixed Visualforce and HTML on page 111
• JavaScript Remoting and Static HTML on page 113

Standard Visualforce Pages

Normal Visualforce pages render well on mobile browsers, and can be used as-is, with a modest reduction
of the user experience compared to mobile-optimized Web pages. Pages display as they would on the
full Salesforce site, and won’t visually match other Salesforce app features.

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Limitations
Limitations to the user experience include:
• Tap targets—buttons, links, form fields, and so on—are optimized for mouse cursors, and can be
difficult to hit accurately with a fingertip.
• The visual design is unchanged, and may not fit with the mobile-optimized, modern visual design of
the Salesforce app.
If your development timeline is aggressive, you might find these limitations acceptable.

Example: Example of a Standard Visualforce Page

The following code provides a sample for a standard Visualforce page that allows a user to edit a
warehouse record. The edit feature is provided by the standard controller for the object.
<apex:page standardController="Warehouse__c">

<apex:form>

<apex:pageBlock title="{! warehouse__c.Name }">

<apex:pageBlockSection title="Warehouse Details" columns="1">

<apex:inputField value="{! warehouse__c.Street_Address__c

}"/>
<apex:inputField value="{! warehouse__c.City__c }"/>
<apex:inputField value="{! warehouse__c.Phone__c }"/>
</apex:pageBlockSection>

<apex:pageBlockButtons location="bottom">
<apex:commandButton action="{! quickSave }" value="Save"/>
</apex:pageBlockButtons>

</apex:pageBlock>

</apex:form>

</apex:page>

This page can be used in both the Salesforce app and the full Salesforce site. It displays as a standard
desktop Visualforce page in both contexts.

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Mixed Visualforce and HTML

Combine Visualforce tags for form elements and output text with static HTML for page structure to create
mobile-friendly pages that more closely match the visual design of the Salesforce app. For mobile-only
pages, you can quickly convert an existing Visualforce page, but this doesn’t work as well for pages that
are used in both the Salesforce app and the full Salesforce site.
Visualforce pages designed this way are still “standard” Visualforce, in that they use the standard
request-response cycle, standard controller functionality, <apex:inputField> for form fields,
POSTBACK and view state, and so on. The main difference from authoring pages for the full Salesforce site
is the reduced or eliminated use of Visualforce tags to add structure to the page, in favor of static HTML.
That is, replacing <apex:pageBlock>, <apex:pageBlockSection>, and so on, with <div>,
<p>, <span>, and so on.
This approach also requires creating CSS stylesheets to manage the look-and-feel of the page elements,
instead of using the built-in, automatically applied styles provided when you use the Visualforce
components. While this can take some time, it allows you to much more closely match the visual design
of the Salesforce app. This also means that pages designed this way won’t match the full Salesforce site
visually.

Applying this Approach to Your Visualforce Pages

To use this approach for creating pages to use in the Salesforce app, follow a few general rules.
• Don’t use the following Visualforce tags:
– <apex:pageBlock>
– <apex:pageBlockButtons>
– <apex:pageBlockSection>
– <apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
– <apex:pageBlockTable>

• Use <apex:form>, <apex:inputField> or <apex:input>, and

<apex:outputLabel> for forms.
• Use <apex:outputText> or Visualforce for non-editable text.
• Use your preferred HTML to construct the structure for the page: <div>, <span>, <h1>, <p>,
and so on.
• Use CSS styling to apply your preferred visual design.

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Advantages and Limitations

The advantages of this approach include:
• Reasonably fast development time, and you use the normal Visualforce development tools and
processes.
• It’s reasonably easy to repurpose existing pages.
• You can more closely match the Salesforce app’s look and feel.
Some limitations to keep in mind:
• This approach makes the usual Visualforce request round trips, with larger data payloads, compared
to a fully mobile-optimized approach using JavaScript remoting.
• It’s extra work to add CSS styles that replace the styles automatically added by <apex:pageBlock>
and related components.

Example: Example of a Mixed Visualforce and HTML Page

The following code sample shows a mixed HTML and Visualforce page that allows a user to edit a
warehouse record. The edit feature is provided by the standard controller for the object.
<apex:page standardController="Warehouse__c">

<style>
html, body, p { font-family: sans-serif; }
</style>

<apex:form >

<h1>{!Warehouse__c.Name}</h1>

<h2>Warehouse Details</h2>

<div id="theForm">
<div>
<apex:outputLabel for="address" value="Street Address"/>

<apex:inputField id="address"
value="{! warehouse__c.Street_Address__c}"/>
</div>
<div>
<apex:outputLabel for="city" value="City"/>
<apex:inputField id="city"
value="{! warehouse__c.City__c}"/>
</div>

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<div>
<apex:outputLabel for="phone" value="Phone"/>
<apex:inputField id="phone"
value="{! warehouse__c.Phone__c}"/>
</div>
</div>

<div id="formControls">
<apex:commandButton action="{!quickSave}" value="Save"/>
</div>

</apex:form>

</apex:page>

This page can be used in both the Salesforce app and the full Salesforce site. It displays as a standard
page on the full Salesforce site, but without the full Salesforce styling for the form. In the Salesforce
app, it displays roughly matching the Salesforce app’s visual style. With additional styles, the page
can approximate the visual style for both versions.

JavaScript Remoting and Static HTML

Combine JavaScript remoting and static HTML to offer the best user experience, with the best performance
and user interface match to the Salesforce app. This architecture avoids most Visualforce tags in favor of
rendering page elements in JavaScript. This option requires the most developer expertise, and can take a
little longer to set up than standard Visualforce or mixed Visualforce and HTML. Use the Salesforce Mobile
Packs for a fast start and to work with the very latest in mobile Web application technology.
Visualforce pages designed this way eschew many of the automatic, simplified features of standard
Visualforce, in favor of taking more control over the request-response cycle, and performing page updates
using JavaScript instead of page reloads. This can substantially improve the performance of the page,
especially over the lower bandwidth, higher latency wireless network connections that make mobile
devices so, well, mobile. The downside is that there is more code to write, and you need expertise in
JavaScript, JavaScript remoting, HTML5, your mobile toolkit, and CSS, in addition to Apex and Visualforce.
The upside of the downside is that you’re working with the latest, most advanced tools for mobile
development, and the pages you can build are the best, most complete way to “snap in” custom
functionality that fully integrates with the app.
You can build desktop Visualforce pages using this approach as well as pages for the Salesforce app. It’s
even possible to share such pages between the two environments by customizing the styling, though it’s
a challenge to closely match the full Salesforce site look and feel. Most importantly, the pages you design
can be fully responsive, adapting and working across a range of devices and form factors.

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Applying this Approach to Your Visualforce Pages

To use this approach for creating pages for the Salesforce app, follow this general process:
1. Install your preferred Salesforce Mobile Pack (available on Salesforce) into your organization as a
static resource.
2. Set your page’s docType to html-5.0. Strongly consider disabling the standard stylesheets and
header. For example:
<apex:page standardController="Warehouse__c"
extensions="WarehouseEditor"
showHeader="false" standardStylesheets="false"
docType="html-5.0">

3. Add scripts and styles from your chosen mobile toolkit to the page using Visualforce resource tags.
For example:
<apex:includeScript
value="{!URLFOR(
$Resource.Mobile_Design_Templates,
'Mobile-Design-Templates-master/common/js/
jQuery2.0.2.min.js'
)}"/>

4. Use HTML5 and your mobile toolkit’s tags and attributes to create a page skeleton.
5. Add JavaScript functions to the page as handlers to respond to user interaction. Use JavaScript
remoting to call Apex @RemoteAction methods that retrieve records, perform DML, and so
on.
6. Add additional JavaScript functions to handle user actions and page updates. Perform page updates
by constructing HTML elements in JavaScript, and then adding or appending them to the page
skeleton.

Example: Example of a JavaScript Remoting and Static HTML Page

The following code sample shows a remoting + HTML Visualforce page that allows a user to edit a
warehouse record. The edit feature is provided by a controller extension with @RemoteAction
methods that respond to JavaScript remoting requests.
<apex:page standardController="Warehouse__c"
extensions="WarehouseEditor"
showHeader="false" standardStylesheets="false"
docType="html-5.0" applyHtmlTag="false" applyBodyTag="false">

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<!-- Include Mobile Toolkit styles and JavaScript -->

<apex:stylesheet
value="{!URLFOR($Resource.Mobile_Design_Templates,
'Mobile-Design-Templates-master/common/css/app.min.css')}"/>

<apex:includeScript
value="{!URLFOR($Resource.Mobile_Design_Templates,

'Mobile-Design-Templates-master/common/js/jQuery2.0.2.min.js')}"/>

<apex:includeScript
value="{!URLFOR($Resource.Mobile_Design_Templates,

'Mobile-Design-Templates-master/common/js/jquery.touchwipe.min.js')}"/>

<apex:includeScript
value="{!URLFOR($Resource.Mobile_Design_Templates,
'Mobile-Design-Templates-master/common/js/main.min.js')}"/>

<head>
<style>
html, body, p { font-family: sans-serif; }
input { display: block; }
</style>

<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
// Load the record
loadWarehouse();
});

// Utility; parse out parameter by name from URL query string

$.urlParam = function(name){
var results = new RegExp('[\\?&]' + name + '=([^&#]*)')
.exec(window.location.href);
return results[1] || 0;
}

function loadWarehouse() {
// Get the record Id from the GET query string
warehouseId = $.urlParam('id');

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// Call the remote action to retrieve the record data

Visualforce.remoting.Manager.invokeAction(
'{!$RemoteAction.WarehouseEditor.getWarehouse}',
warehouseId,
function(result, event){;
if(event.status){
console.log(warehouseId);
$('#warehouse_name').text(result.Name);
$('#warehouse_address').val(
result.Street_Address__c);
$('#warehouse_city').val(result.City__c);
$('#warehouse_phone').val(result.Phone__c);
} else if (event.type === 'exception'){
console.log(result);
} else {
// unexpected problem...
}
});
}

function updateWarehouse() {
// Get the record Id from the GET query string
warehouseId = $.urlParam('id');

// Call the remote action to save the record data

Visualforce.remoting.Manager.invokeAction(
'{!$RemoteAction.WarehouseEditor.setWarehouse}',
warehouseId, $('#warehouse_address').val(),
$('#warehouse_city').val(),
$('#warehouse_phone').val(),
function(result, event){;
if(event.status){
console.log(warehouseId);
$('#action_status').text('Record updated.');
} else if (event.type === 'exception'){
console.log(result);
$('#action_status').text(
'Problem saving record.');
} else {
// unexpected problem...
}
});

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</script>
</head>

<body>

<div id="detailPage">
<div class="list-view-header" id="warehouse_name"></div>
<div id="action_status"></div>

<section>
<div class="content">
<h3>Warehouse Details</h3>
<div class="form-control-group">
<div class="form-control form-control-text">
<label for="warehouse_address">
Street Address</label>
<input type="text" id="warehouse_address" />
</div>
<div class="form-control form-control-text">
<label for="warehouse_city">City</label>
<input type="text" id="warehouse_city" />
</div>
<div class="form-control form-control-text">
<label for="warehouse_phone">Phone</label>
<input type="text" id="warehouse_phone" />
</div>
</div>
</div>
</section>

<section class="data-capture-buttons one-buttons">

<div class="content">
<section class="data-capture-buttons one-buttons">
<a href="#" id="updateWarehouse"
onClick="updateWarehouse();">save</a>
</section>
</div>
</section>
</div> <!-- end detail page -->

</body>

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</apex:page>

The static HTML provides the shell of the page, including empty form fields. JavaScript functions
load the record, fill in the form fields, and send updated form data back to Salesforce.
Although this page can be used in the full Salesforce site, it’s designed as a Salesforce app page and
looks very different than a normal Visualforce page.

Example: Example of a JavaScript Remoting and Static HTML Controller

Unlike the other two approaches to creating mobile pages, the remoting + HTML approach doesn’t
use standard controller functionality to retrieve data from and save data to Salesforce. Instead, you
create a controller extension, or custom controller, to add any @RemoteAction methods your
page requires. Here’s a simplified controller extension that supports the above page.
global with sharing class WarehouseEditor {

// Stub controller
// We're only using RemoteActions, so this never runs
public WarehouseEditor(ApexPages.StandardController ctl){ }

@RemoteAction
global static Warehouse__c getWarehouse(String warehouseId) {

// Clean up the Id parameter, in case there are spaces

warehouseId = warehouseId.trim();

// Simple SOQL query to get the warehouse data we need

Warehouse__c wh = [
SELECT Id, Name, Street_Address__c, City__c, Phone__c

FROM Warehouse__c
WHERE Id = :warehouseId];

return(wh);
}

@RemoteAction
global static Boolean setWarehouse(
String whId, String street, String city, String phone) {

// Get the warehouse record for the Id

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Warehouse__c wh = WarehouseEditor.getWarehouse(whId);

// Update fields
// Note that we're not validating / sanitizing, for
simplicity
wh.Street_Address__c = street.trim();
wh.City__c = city.trim();
wh.Phone__c = phone.trim();

// Save the updated record

// This should be wrapped in an exception handler
update wh;

return true;
}
}

Visualforce Components and Features to Avoid in the

Salesforce App
Most core Visualforce components (those components in the apex namespace) function normally within
the Salesforce app. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean they’re optimized for mobile, or that every feature
works with the app. You can improve the mobile user experience of your Visualforce pages by following
some straightforward rules.
In general, avoid structural components, like <apex:pageBlock> and child components, and other
components that mimic the Salesforce look and feel, such as <apex:pageBlockTable>. If you must
use these components, set them to one column, using <apex:pageBlockSection
columns="1">, instead of the default of two columns.
Avoid wide, non-wrapping components, especially <apex:detail>, <apex:enhancedList>,
<apex:listViews>, and <apex:relatedList>, which are all unsupported. Keep device width
in mind when creating tables with <apex:dataTable>.
Avoid using <apex:inlineEditSupport>. Inline editing is a user interface pattern that works well
for mouse-based desktop apps, but it’s difficult to use on a touch-based device, especially on phones
where the screen is small.
Using <apex:inputField> is fine for fields that display as a basic input field, like text, email, and
phone numbers, but avoid using it for field types that use an input widget, such as date and lookup fields.
Don’t use <apex:scontrol>. sControls aren’t supported anywhere in the Salesforce app.

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PDF rendering, by setting renderAs="PDF" on <apex:page>, isn’t supported for pages in the
Salesforce app.

Unsupported Visualforce Components

Here’s a list of Visualforce components that aren’t supported in the Salesforce app, and shouldn’t be used
in Visualforce pages that will be used with the Salesforce app.
• <analytics:reportChart>
• <apex:detail>
• <apex:emailPublisher>
• <apex:enhancedList>
• <apex:flash>
• <apex:inputField> for field types that use a widget for input, instead of a basic form field
• <apex:listViews>
• <apex:logCallPublisher>
• <apex:relatedList>
• <apex:scontrol>
• <apex:sectionHeader>
• <apex:selectList> for picklist fields
• <apex:tabPanel> (and, as a consequence, <apex:tab>)
• <apex:vote>

Warning: Embedded Visualforce pages—that is, those added to a page layout—that contain an
<apex:enhancedList> component may cause the Salesforce app to crash on iOS.
Standard components outside the apex namespace, for example, <liveagent:*>, <chatter:*>,
and so on, aren’t supported in the app.
Custom components can be used in Visualforce in the app, as long as they themselves don’t use
unsupported components.

Choosing an Effective Page Layout

Design Visualforce pages that look good and work well within the Salesforce app by using a page layout
appropriate for the context that the page is used in. Pages added as main navigation tabs or as custom
actions in the action bar can use nearly the full screen of the device, and can scroll vertically, while
Visusalforce added to an object’s page layout has to fit within a specific, limited space.

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In general, Visualforce added to page layouts works best if it’s read-only, at-a-glance information. Put
features that require user interaction, like multi-field forms, on full screen pages by adding them as tabs
in the main navigation, or as custom actions from the action bar.

Mobile Card Layout

Mobile cards have the most limited layout, both in size and placement. Visualforce pages added as mobile
cards on an object’s page layout appear on the related lists page for the object in the Salesforce app, as
the first items on the page, below the header.

1. The record header displays when an record is loaded, but can be scrolled up and off the screen
by the user. When on screen, it’s 158 pixels high on all devices, and takes the full width of the
screen. You can’t control the display of the record header.
2. Mobile cards display above all of the related items on the record.
3. Set the width to 100%; the element sizes automatically, minus some padding on either side. The
content of mobile cards can’t be scrolled, so make sure it fits in the space you provide to it.
4. Control the height of the mobile card by setting the height in pixels in the page layout editor. The
mobile card area uses exactly that height, even if the mobile card’s content is shorter. In that case,
the extra area is blank. If the card’s content is taller, the content is clipped. As a best practice, don’t
create mobile cards taller than the smallest device screen you intend to support. Be sure to set the
height of screen elements relevant to your environment.
5. The record’s related items are displayed after all mobile cards.

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While you can add multiple mobile cards, it quickly becomes a user experience challenge to scroll past
them to the related lists. It’s a best practice to add only one or two. If you need a full screen to display your
page, consider moving it to a custom action on the object instead.
The normal Salesforce header and sidebar are automatically removed from Visualforce pages added as
mobile cards. You may find it useful to explicitly turn them and the full Salesforce site stylesheets off while
you’re developing the page. Additionally, if your page uses the Google Maps API, Google recommends
using an HTML5 doctype. Here’s an <apex:page> tag that does all of these things:
<apex:page standardController="Warehouse__c"
docType="html-5.0" showHeader="false" standardStylesheets="false">

Visualforce on a Page Layout

Visualforce pages added to an object’s page layout display on the record details page. Unlike mobile cards,
you can control the Visualforce element’s placement on the mobile record details screen, putting fields
and other record details above and below it, by changing its placement on the object’s page layout.
Visualforce pages added this way follow the same rules for ordering that fields and other elements do.

1. The record header displays when an record is loaded, but can be scrolled up and off the screen
by the user. When on screen, it’s 158 pixels high on all devices, and takes the full width of the
screen. You can’t control the display of the record header.
2. Record controls and details, automatically generated by the Salesforce app.

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3. A Visualforce page added to the object’s page layout.

4. Set the width to 100%; the element sizes automatically, minus some padding on either side.
5. Control the height of the Visualforce page’s area by setting the height of the item in pixels in the
page layout editor. The Visualforce element uses exactly that height, even if the content is shorter.
In that case, the extra area is blank. If the page’s content is taller, the content is clipped. As a best
practice, don’t set inline Visualforce pages to be taller than the smallest device screen you intend
to support.
As is the case with multiple cards, although you can add multiple inline Visualforce pages to a page layout,
it quickly becomes a user experience challenge to scroll past them to see the rest of the page. It’s a best
practice to never add more than two Visualforce page elements in a row; separate Visualforce elements
with a regular page element, such as a field. If you need a full screen to display your page, consider moving
it to a custom action on the object instead.
Visualforce pages added to page layouts automatically have the normal Salesforce header and sidebar
removed. You may find it useful to explicitly turn them and the full Salesforce site stylesheets off while
you’re developing the page. Additionally, if your page uses the Google Maps API, Google recommends
using an HTML5 doctype. Here’s an <apex:page> tag that does all of these things:
<apex:page standardController="Warehouse__c"
docType="html-5.0" showHeader="false" standardStylesheets="false">

Full Screen Layout

Visualforce pages added to the Salesforce app navigation menu, or as custom actions to the action bar,
can use almost the entire screen, allowing more information, and more complex user interfaces.

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1. The Salesforce header, which provides access to the main navigation menu, is 42 pixels high. The
contents of the header can’t be changed.
2. The rest of the device screen is dedicated to your Visualforce page.
When displayed in the Salesforce app, the standard Salesforce header and sidebar are automatically
removed, like Visualforce pages used as mobile cards or added to page layouts. However, Visualforce pages
used as custom actions in the action bar are shared with the full Salesforce site, and pages added to the
navigation may or may not be shared. Pages shared with the full Salesforce site shouldn’t have the standard
Salesforce header and sidebar explicitly removed unless removing the header and sidebar is the standard
practice for all Visualforce on your site.

User Input and Interaction

Use <apex:input>, the type attribute, and pass-through HTML attributes to create mobile-friendly
forms and user interfaces that are efficient and take advantage of native mobile browser features.
Without a keyboard and mouse, standard HTML forms can be difficult for users to fill out and interact with
on mobile devices, especially phones. For Visualforce pages that don’t use JavaScript remoting to make
requests, choose Visualforce components for form input with an eye towards mobile users. No other
change you can make to your Visualforce pages will have a larger usability impact than taking advantage
of new HTML5 and mobile browser features to improve your forms and user interface controls.

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Choose Efficient Input Elements

Use <apex:input> to get user input whenever possible. <apex:input> is an HTML5-ready,
mobile-friendly, general-purpose input component that adapts to the data expected by a form field. It’s
even more flexible than <apex:inputField> because it uses the type attribute to allow client
browsers to display type-appropriate user input widgets, such as a date picker, or use a type-specific
keyboard that makes entering input on a mobile device much easier.
You can also use <apex:inputField> to create an HTML input element for a value that corresponds
to a field on a Salesforce object. <apex:inputField> adapts the HTML generated to correspond
with the data type of the underlying sObject field. Usually this is what you want, but if it isn’t, use the
type attribute to override the automatic data type detection. However, be aware that
<apex:inputField> generates a lot of HTML, and requires additional resources to load, which
means it’s not the most efficient component to use over a mobile wireless connection.

Use the type Attribute to Create Mobile-Friendly Input Elements

Set the type attribute on <apex:input> components—and <apex:inputField>, if you’re
using it—to display data-type-specific keyboards and other input user interface widgets that are easier to
use on touchscreens. The value is passed through to the generated HTML <input> element, for display
in the Salesforce app.
As users step through form elements, the input method for that form element adapts for the type of data
expected. Text fields show the standard keyboard, email fields show an email-specific keyboard with
characters like the “@” sign and “.com” assigned to keys, date fields show a date picker, and so on.
Here’s an example of a form that illustrates how this works:
<apex:form >

<apex:outputLabel value="Phone" for="phone"/>

<apex:input id="phone" value="{!fPhone}" type="tel"/><br/>

<apex:outputLabel value="Email" for="email"/>

<apex:input id="email" value="{!fText}" type="email"/><br/>

<apex:outputLabel value="That Number" for="num"/>

<apex:input id="num" value="{!fNumber}" type="number"/><br/>

<apex:outputLabel value="The Big Day" for="date"/>

<apex:input id="date" value="{!fDate}" type="date"/><br/>

</apex:form>

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As the user moves through the form fields, either by tapping into them or tapping the Next button, the
keyboard changes to match the expected data for the field.

These type-specific keyboards make filling in forms much easier for people using their mobile devices.
<apex:input> allows the following explicit type values to be set:
• date
• datetime
• datetime-local
• month
• week
• time
• email
• number
• range
• search
• tel
• text
• url
You can also set type to auto, and the data type of the associated controller property or method is used.
The HTML type attribute, including new HTML5 features, is a standard part of HTML. For additional
details about the type attribute, what you can use it for, and how it relates to mobile development, see

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WHATWG’s list of input type attribute values and descriptions. Not all values are supported on Visualforce
input components. If you want to use a value not supported by Visualforce, use static HTML instead of a
Visualforce tag.

Use HTML5 Pass-Through Attributes for Client-Side Validation

Set pass-through attributes on your <apex:input> and other Visualforce components to enable other
HTML5 features, such as client-side validation. By performing basic validation on the client side, you can
avoid sending a request to the server and waiting for a response, when there are easily-corrected errors
on a form.
Attributes prefixed with html- are passed through to the generated HTML, with the prefix removed. To
enable client-side validation, set an html-pattern attribute on the <apex:input> tag to match
expected form values. This will add a pattern attribute to the generated <input> tag, enabling
client-side validation for that field.

Note: Client-side validation requires that the Visualforce page be set to API version 29.0 or later,
and the page docType be set to html-5.0.
Validation patterns are regular expressions. Form input is checked against the expression, and if it matches,
the field input is considered valid. If it doesn’t match, the input is considered invalid; an error message is
displayed, and the form won’t be submitted to the server. Here’s an example of a field that requires an
email address from a specific domain:
<apex:input id="email" value="{!fText}" type="email"
html-placeholder="you@example.com"
html-pattern="^[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+@example.com$"
title="Please enter an example.com email address"/>

Other useful HTML5 attributes that can be set as pass-through attributes include:
• placeholder (set using the html-placeholder attribute)—adds ghost text to the field to
show sample input to the user.
• title (set using the title attribute on <apex:input>, and the html-title attribute
on components without a title attribute)—adds an error message to use if the field fails client-side
validation.
For inspiration for how you can use attributes to enhance the usability of HTML <input> elements,
HTML5 Forms Introduction and New Attributes is a good survey of the new features in HTML5. For further
details, especially for mobile users, and details of client-side forms validation, see Client-side form validation
and Improving the user experience on mobile devices in WHATWG’s HTML: The Living Standard.

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Managing Navigation
The Salesforce app manages navigation using events. The navigation event framework is made available
as a JavaScript object that provides a number of utility functions that make creating programmatic navigation
that “just works” a breeze. The advantage is a navigation experience that’s more natural for a mobile
context. It also makes creating post-completion navigation, such as redirecting to an order page after the
order is successfully submitted, easier for Salesforce developers.
In the Salesforce app, programmatic navigation for Visualforce pages generally works something like this:
1. A user invokes a Visualforce page, usually from the navigation menu, or from an action in the action
bar.
2. The Visualforce page loads and runs, including any custom controller or extension code called by
the page.
3. The user interacts with the page in some way: for example, to fill in some form values.
4. The user submits the form, or performs some other action on the page that commits a change.
5. Controller or extension code runs, saving the changes to Salesforce, and returning the results of
the action.
6. The Visualforce page, using JavaScript response handlers, receives the results of the action, and
when successful, responds by redirecting the user to a new page that shows the results of their
action.
This scenario is easily handled by the app’s navigation framework.
Another common use case is simply adding links or other user interface controls to a page, which move
from that Visualforce page to another page in the app. This navigation is also easily managed by the app’s
navigation framework.
In these cases, navigation is handled by a special utility JavaScript object, sforce.one. The
sforce.one object is automatically added to all Visualforce pages when they run inside the Salesforce
app. This object provides a number of functions that trigger navigation events when they run. To use these
functions, you can call them directly from your page’s JavaScript code, or you can attach calls as click
handlers to elements on the page.
Here’s a JavaScript function that creates markers to add to a Google map.
function setupMarker(){

// Use JavaScript nav function to determine if we are

// in the Salesforce app and set navigation link appropriately
var warehouseNavUrl =
'sforce.one.navigateToSObject(\'' + warehouse.Id + '\')';

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// Wrap the warehouse details with the link to

// navigate to the warehouse details
var warehouseDetails =
'<a href="javascript:' + warehouseNavUrl + '">' +
warehouse.Name + '</a><br/>' +
warehouse.Street_Address__c + '<br/>' +
warehouse.City__c + '<br/>' +
warehouse.Phone__c;

// Create a panel that will appear when a marker is clicked

var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({
content: warehouseDetails
});

// ...
}

The very first line builds a string, warehouseNavUrl, that, when used as a JavaScript URL, navigates
to the detail page for the warehouse. The link is created around the warehouse name, and appears in the
information panel (put together in the warehouseDetails string) that appears when you click a
marker. Clicking the warehouse name takes you to the detail page for that warehouse (the omitted part
of the function code deals with the Google Maps API calls to create a marker and add it to the map).
If you have JavaScript code or HTML markup that runs inside of the Salesforce app, keep these considerations
in mind:
• Don’t directly manipulate the browser URL using window.location.href. This doesn’t work
well with the app’s navigation management system.
• Don’t use target="_blank" in navigation URLs; you can’t open new windows inside the app.

Navigation Methods within the Canvas Framework

If you’re using Canvas, there’s a simpler way to control navigation around canvas apps and canvas personal
apps in the Salesforce app.
You can use Lightning Platform methods to control navigation in the app. These methods within the
Canvas framework are events that reside in the JavaScript library. When you call one of the navigation
methods from your canvas code, you send an event into Salesforce that reads the payload and directs the
user to the specified destination.
Reference the navigation method as an event variable, with name and payload. For example:
var event = {name:"s1.createRecord", payload: {entityName: "Account",
recordTypeId: "00h300000001234"}};

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For more information about using the new methods, see Salesforce App Navigation Methods for Use with
Canvas Apps in the Canvas Developer Guide.

Navigation and Messaging with the sforce.one Object

The Salesforce Platform includes an event mechanism for navigation and messaging. This is exposed in
Visualforce as a JavaScript object called sforce.one. It’s available in any page that appears in the
Salesforce app.
The sforce.one object provides the following functions. Reference the function using dotted notation
from the sforce.one object. For example: sforce.one.navigateToSObject(recordId,
view).
Further details of the underlying events fired by these functions can be found in the Lightning Aura
Components Developer Guide.

Function Description
back([refresh]) Navigates to the previous state that’s saved in the sforce.one
history. It’s equivalent to clicking a browser’s Back button.
refresh is optional. By default, the page doesn’t refresh. Pass true
to refresh the page if possible.

navigateToSObject( Navigates to an sObject record, specified by recordId. This record

recordId[, view]) “home” has several views, which in the Salesforce app are available as
slides that the user can swipe between.
view is optional and defaults to detail. view specifies the slide
within record home to display initially.

Note: Record IDs corresponding to ContentNote SObjects aren’t

supported.
The possible values are as follows.
• detail: the record detail slide
• chatter: the Chatter slide
• related: the view of related slide

navigateToURL(url[, Navigates to the specified URL.

isredirect]) Relative and absolute URLs are supported. Relative URLs are relative to
the Lightning domain, and retain navigation history. External URLs—that

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Function Description
is, URLs that are outside the Lightning domain—open in a separate
browser window.

Note: Depending on the user’s device platform, device settings,

version of Salesforce, and authentication requirements for the
external URL being opened, the separate browser window might
require authentication or re-authentication.
Use relative URLs to navigate to different screens within your app. Use
external URLs to allow the user to access a different site or app, where
they can take actions that don’t need to be preserved in your app. To
return to your app, the separate window that’s opened by an external
URL must be closed when the user is finished with the other app. The
new window has a separate history from your app, and this history is
discarded when the window is closed. This also means that the user
can’t click a Back button to go back to your app; the user must close
the new window.
mailto:, tel:, geo:, and other URL schemes are supported for
launching external apps and attempt to “do the right thing.” However,
support varies by mobile platform and device. mailto: and tel:
are reliable, but we recommend that you test any other URLs on a range
of expected devices.
isredirect is optional and defaults to false. Set it to true to
indicate that the new URL should replace the current one in the
navigation history.

Note: Be careful when using navigateToURL within the

onClick handler of an <apex:commandButton> or
any <button type="submit"> or <input
type="submit">. Even if isredirect=true, the
default click action of the command button is a form post. In
this scenario, the command button performs a form post and a
navigateToURL action, requiring the user to click the back
button twice to navigate to the previous page. To prevent the
default click action, configure the onClick handler to either
call event.preventDefault() or return false.

Note: URLs corresponding to ContentNote SObjects aren’t

supported.

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Function Description
navigateToFeed( Navigates to the feed of the specified type, scoped to the
subjectId, type) subjectId. For some feed types, the subjectId is required
but ignored. For those feed types, pass the current user’s ID as the
subjectId.
type is the feed type. The possible values are as follows.
• BOOKMARKS: Contains all feed items saved as bookmarks by the
context user. Pass the current user’s ID as the subjectId.
• COMPANY: Contains all feed items except feed items of type
TrackedChange. To see the feed item, the user must have
sharing access to its parent. Pass the current user’s ID as the
subjectId.
• FILES: Contains all feed items that contain files posted by people
or groups that the context user follows. Pass the current user’s ID
as the subjectId.
• GROUPS: Contains all feed items from all groups the context user
either owns or is a member of. Pass the current user’s ID as the
subjectId.
• NEWS: Contains all updates for people the context user follows,
groups the user is a member of, and files and records the user is
following. Contains all updates for records whose parent is the
context user. Contains every feed item and comment that mentions
the context user or that mentions a group the context user is a
member of. Pass the current user’s ID as the subjectId.
• PEOPLE: Contains all feed items posted by all people the context
user follows. Pass the current user’s ID as the subjectId.
• RECORD: Contains all feed items whose parent is a specified record,
which could be a group, user, object, file, or any other standard or
custom object. When the record is a group, the feed also contains
feed items that mention the group. When the record is a user, the
feed contains only feed items on that user. You can get another
user’s record feed. Pass the record’s ID as the subjectId.
• TO: Contains all feed items with mentions of the context user.
Contains feed items the context user commented on and feed items
created by the context user that are commented on. Pass the current
user’s ID as the subjectId.

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Function Description
• TOPICS: Contains all feed items that include the specified topic.
Pass the topic’s ID as the subjectId. This value is supported in
Salesforce for mobile web only. Topics aren’t available in Salesforce
for iOS or Salesforce for Android.

navigateToFeedItemDetail( Navigates to the specific feed item, feedItemId, and any associated
feedItemId) comments.

navigateToRelatedList( Navigates to a related list for the parentRecordId. For example,

relatedListId, to display a related list for a Warehouse object, the
parentRecordId) parentRecordId is Warehouse__c.Id.
relatedListId is the API name or ID of the related list to display.

navigateToList( Navigates to the list view that’s specified by the listViewId, which
listViewId, is the ID of the list view to be displayed.
listViewName, scope) listViewName sets the title for the list view. It doesn’t need to
match the actual name that’s saved for the list view. To use the saved
name, set listViewName to null.
Set scope to the name of the sObject in the view, for example,
“Account” or “MyObject__c”.

createRecord( Opens the page to create a record for the specified entityName,
entityName[, for example, “Account” or “MyObject__c”.
recordTypeId][, recordTypeId is optional and specifies the record type for the
defaultFieldValues]) created object. Calling createRecord without providing a
recordTypeId may result in an error.
defaultFieldValues is optional and, if provided, prepopulates
fields on a record create panel, including fields not displayed on the
panel. Users must have create access to fields with prepopulated values.
Errors during saving that are caused by field access limitations don’t
display error messages.

editRecord(recordId) Opens the page to edit the record specified by recordId.

showToast({toastParams}) Shows a toast. A toast displays a message below the header at the top
of a view. The toastParams object sets the attributes for the toast.

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Function Description
Use any attribute available for the force:showToast Aura event.
For example:
sforce.one.showToast({
"title": "Success!",
"message": "The record was updated
successfully."
});

Keep the following in mind when using the sforce.one object:

• Calls to sforce.one.navigateToURL may result in an “Unsupported Page” error if the URL
references standard pages for objects or Chatter pages. To avoid this error, ensure that the URL begins
with a forward slash (/_ui instead of _ui).
• The sforce.one.createRecord method doesn’t respect Visualforce overrides on the standard
action.
• While developers can use the PageReference class to control navigation for the full site, it isn't
supported for the Salesforce mobile app and may not work as expected. Some pages load using
PageReference, but that may change with any update.

How sforce.one Handles API Versions

The sforce.one object is frequently improved in new releases. To maintain backward compatibility,
sforce.one provides version-specific behavior, and you can use a specific version of sforce.one
in your apps.
By default, sforce.one uses the same version as the API version of the requested Visualforce page.
For example, if a Visualforce page has an API version of 30.0, JavaScript on that page that uses
sforce.one by default uses the API version 30.0 of sforce.one.
This means that when a Visualforce page is updated to a new API version, the page automatically uses the
updated version of sforce.one. In the preceding example, if that Visualforce page is updated to API
version 31.0, app functionality that uses sforce.one uses the API version 31.0 of sforce.one.
If updated behavior in a new API version of sforce.one causes compatibility problems with the page’s
features, you have three options for correcting the problem.
• Revert the Visualforce page’s API version to the prior version. This action requires no code changes.

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• Update the code for the page’s features to fix the problem. This solution is best, but it might require
some debugging, and it will definitely require code changes.
• Use a specific version of sforce.one. This solution often requires minimal code changes.

Note: sforce.one was added in Winter ’14 (API version 29.0) and wasn’t versioned until Summer
’14 (API version 31.0). All versions of sforce.one earlier than version 31.0 are identical to version
31.0. You can specify a version of sforce.one for any version that’s valid for Visualforce, that is,
from version 15.0 to the current API version.

Using a Specific Version of sforce.one

To use a specific version of sforce.one, use the sforce.one.getVersion() function and
provide it with the API version and a callback function that needs to use a specific version of sforce.one.
The appropriate versions of sforce.one are automatically loaded by this call.
The signature for sforce.one.getVersion() is:

sforce.one.getVersion(versionString, callbackFunction);

versionString is the API version that your application requires. It’s always two digits, a period, and
one digit, such as “30.0”. Calls with invalid version strings fail silently.
callbackFunction is a JavaScript function that uses a specific version of sforce.one.
sforce.one.getVersion() operates asynchronously, and your callback function is called when
it finishes loading the requested version of sforce.one. Your callback function receives a single
parameter, an sforce.one object for the specified API version. Use the object passed in instead of the
global sforce.one to make calls to sforce.one that conform to the API version that your app
requires.

Examples of Using a Specific Version of sforce.one

The next examples all add a Create Account function to the following input button:
<input type="button" value="Create Account" onclick="btnCreateAccount()"
id="btnCreateAcct"/>

Defaulting to the Visualforce Page’s API Version

App code that should use the default version of sforce.one—the version that corresponds to the
Visualforce Page’s API version—doesn’t need to ask for a version. Using that version happens automatically,
and the code is straightforward.
<script>
function MyApp() {

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this.createAccount = function() {
sforce.one.navigateToURL("/001/e");
};
}

var app = new MyApp();

function btnCreateAccount() {
app.createAccount();
}
</script>

App functionality is created in a MyApp object, and then an event handling function calls the app function
when that event, a button click, occurs. Separating application functionality from application event handling
is a best practice, and it sets you up for using version-specific versions of sforce.one.
Using a Specific sforce.one API Version (Simple)
To use a specific version of sforce.one, get and save a reference to a versioned instance of the object.
Then use this object to make sforce.one calls. The simplest way is to save it in the MyApp object.
In the next sample, references to the versioned instance of sforce.one are in bold.
<script>
function MyApp(sfone) {
this.createAccount = function() {
sfone.navigateToURL("/001/e");
};
}

var app30 = null;

function btnCreateAccount() {
// Create our app object if not already defined
if(!app30) {
// Create app object with versioned sforce.one
sforce.one.getVersion("30.0", function(sfoneV30) {
app30 = new MyApp(sfoneV30);
app30.createAccount();
});
return;
}
app30.createAccount();
}
</script>

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In the preceding example, the event-handling function is expanded from the first example to include the
creation of a version-specific instance of sforce.one. If your app needs to mix multiple versions, you
can create multiple MyApp instances with appropriate versions and names. More than one or two, though,
are cumbersome to manage. We recommend the next approach instead.
Using a Specific sforce.one API Version (Best)
A better way to organize your app code is to create version-specific instances of sforce.one in an
app initialization block of code so you can keep the event handling separate.
<script>
function MyApp(sfone) {
this.createAccount = function() {
sfone.navigateToURL("/001/e");
};
}

var app30 = null;

// Initialize app: get versioned API, wire up clicks

sforce.one.getVersion("30.0", function(sfoneV30) {
// Create app object with versioned sforce.one
app30 = new MyApp(sfoneV30);

// Wire up button event

var btn = document.getElementById("btnCreateAcct");
btn.onclick = btnCreateAccount;
});

// Events handling functions

// Can't be fired until app is defined
function btnCreateAccount() {
app30.createAccount();
}
</script>

In this sample the app initialization is separated only by white space and comments, but you can separate
it into functions for better encapsulation.
Using a Specific sforce.one API Version (Synchronous)

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You can trigger a synchronous mode for sforce.one by manually including the specific version of
sforce.one’s JavaScript on your page. The format for the URL to the library
is:/sforce/one/sforceOneVersion/api.js. Here’s an example:
<script src="/sforce/one/30.0/api.js"></script>
<script>
function MyApp(sfone) {
this.createAccount = function() {
sfone.navigateToURL("/001/e");
};
}

var app = null;

sforce.one.getVersion("30.0", function(sfoneV30) {
app = new MyApp(sfoneV30);
});

// Events handling function

// Can't be fired until app is defined
function btnCreateAccount() {
app.createAccount();
}
</script>

Although some situations require synchronous mode, the asynchronous version is preferred. If you forget
to manually include the correct versions of the sforce.one library, your code will contain bugs that
are difficult to diagnose.

Using Visualforce Pages as Custom Actions

If your Visualforce page is used as a custom action, design it so that it either acts upon a single record
provided by a standard controller, or finds and acts upon a record, or records your custom controller code
retrieves.

Custom Actions on an Object

A Visualforce page added as a custom action on an object is invoked in the context of a record of that
object type. The custom action is passed a specific record ID—the record the user was looking at when
the user clicked the custom action. Design the page to act on that specific record type.

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Visualforce pages used as custom actions on an object must use the standard controller for that object.
Use controller extensions to add custom code, including @RemoteAction methods you can call using
JavaScript remoting.
Your custom code could do more than make updates to the originating record. For example, the Create
Quick Order custom action searches for matching merchandise. It then creates an invoice and line item,
all as part of creating an order for a part. That logic occurs in the context of the originating account
record—the invoice is associated to the account record where the quick order action was invoked.
When you redirect to a URL internal to your org, the action dialog closes upon completion or
programmatically navigating away. If you set up the redirect to point to an external URL, the behavior can
vary because an external URL opens in a new browser tab.

Custom Global Actions

Visualforce pages used as global actions can be invoked in many different places and don’t have a specific
record associated with them. They have complete “freedom of action,” which means it’s up to you to write
the code.
More specifically, Visualforce pages used as global actions can’t use any standard controller. You must
write a custom controller to handle the page. Your code might create one or many records, modify found
records, and so on.
When a global action completes, the user should be either redirected to a parent record created as part
of the action or returned to where they started.

Creating Visualforce Pages That Work in Mobile and

Desktop
Create Visualforce pages that work well in both the Salesforce app and the full Salesforce site by writing
code that adapts to the context it’s running in.
The Salesforce app provides a framework for handling various navigation controls and events. That
framework isn’t available to Visualforce pages when they run on the full Salesforce site, because the
sforce object is injected onto pages only inside the app. This means that, for pages shared between
the Salesforce app and the full Salesforce site, you’ll want to write code that uses the sforce object
when it’s available, and standard Visualforce navigation when it’s not.
For example, here is a bit of JavaScript that runs after a JavaScript remoting request successfully returns
from the @RemoteAction method that creates a quick order. This code is from a Visualforce page
that’s used as a custom action, which adds it to the action bar in the Salesforce app and the publisher

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menu in the full Salesforce site. It needs to work in both places. The intent of the code is to navigate to
the detail page for the account for whom the order was placed:
// Go back to the Account detail page
if( (typeof sforce != 'undefined') && sforce && (!!sforce.one) ) {
// Salesforce app navigation
sforce.one.navigateToSObject(aId);
}
else {
// Set the window's URL using a Visualforce expression
window.location.href =
'{!URLFOR($Action.Account.View, account.Id)}';
}

The if statement checks to see if the sforce object is available and usable. This is only true if the page
is running inside the app. If sforce is available, the mobile navigation management system is used to
go to the account’s detail page.
If the sforce object isn’t available, trying to use it to navigate anywhere results in a JavaScript error,
and no navigation. So, instead, the code sets the window’s URL using a Visualforce expression that returns
the URL for the account’s detail page. You don’t want to do this in the app because the navigation event
will be lost by the framework, but it’s required in normal Visualforce.

Note: It’s a best practice to factor out common tests like this one into their own helper function.
You could add something like the following to a JavaScript static resource, and then just call
ForceUI.isSalesforce1() in your if conditions. Then, if the detection logic changes, you
only have to update it in one place.
(function(myContext){
myContext.ForceUI = myContext.ForceUI || {};

myContext.ForceUI.isSalesforce1 = function() {
return((typeof sforce != 'undefined') && sforce &&
(!!sforce.one));
}
})(this);

Performance Tuning for Visualforce Pages

Performance is an important aspect of mobile Visualforce pages. Visualforce has a caching mechanism to
help you tune the performance of your pages.

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To enable caching for a page, use this statement:

<apex:page cache="true" expires="600">

The parameters for page caching are:

Attribute Description
cache Boolean value that specifies whether the browser should
cache the page. If not specified, defaults to false.

expires Integer value that specifies the period of cache in seconds.

For more information, see Force.com Sites Best Practices on Developerforce

More Resources
Here are some more resources to help you tune the performance of your Salesforce apps:
• Inside the Force.com Query Optimizer (webinar)
• Maximizing the Performance of Force.com SOQL, Reports, and List Views (blog post)
• Force.com SOQL Best Practices: Nulls and Formula Fields (blog post)

Canvas Guidelines and Best Practices

There are some additional best practices and guidelines to keep in mind when exposing your applications
as canvas apps and making them available to mobile users.
Canvas makes it easy for you to integrate Web applications with the Salesforce app at the user interface
level. However, the user experience in the app is different than in the full Salesforce site. You’ll want to
make sure you design your canvas apps for mobile users and be sure to test them in the mobile environment.

Canvas Apps in the Chatter Publisher and Salesforce App

Action Bar
Keep these best practices and guidelines in mind when making your canvas apps available in the publisher
and action bar.

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• When you access a canvas app from the publisher in the full Salesforce site, the user interface is different
than when you access a canvas app from the action bar or action menu in the Salesforce app. For
example, in the feed in the full Salesforce site, the Share button is at the bottom of the feed item.

In the Salesforce app, the Share button is at the top of the screen.

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• When creating a canvas custom action, the height available for that action in the full Salesforce site is
much greater than the height for that action in the app. Use the Dimensions object in the Canvas SDK
to render your canvas app in the correct size.
• Keep the labels for canvas custom actions concise. Longer labels may not fully display in the publisher.
• When you access a canvas app from the publisher, the What are you working on? pane
appears above the canvas app. This pane remains fixed, even if your canvas app scrolls.
• When the request comes into your Web application that’s exposed as a canvas app, you can determine
the type of device that’s making the request. Use this information to render your app based on the
requesting device for a better user experience. For example, you can add logic so that if the request
comes from a mobile phone, only four lines of text are displayed; if the request comes from a tablet,
ten lines of text are displayed.
• In most cases, you’ll want to specify 100% for the canvas app height and width in your CSS. This ensures
that the canvas app takes up the maximum available screen space.
• Canvas apps appear in an iFrame, so you can format the app appearance as you would any standard
iFrame.

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Canvas Apps in the Feed

Keep these best practices and guidelines in mind when making your canvas apps available in the feed.
• On a mobile device, the link text and description for a feed item display fewer characters than in the
full Salesforce site. Keep this in mind when programmatically creating feed items.
• When a canvas app is contained in a feed item, the feed item appears with a link to the canvas app.
On a mobile device, the canvas app doesn’t appear in the feed; instead, a new page opens and displays
the canvas app.
• In Salesforce for mobile web, the screen changes if the device is rotated. Your canvas app should
support rotation, if possible, to maintain a seamless user experience. Note that Salesforce for iOS and
Salesforce for Android doesn’t rotate.
• If your canvas app appears as a feed item, keep in mind that it will display in the feed on a mobile
device so you’ll want to render a mobile-friendly user interface.

Canvas Apps Context

When you display a canvas app inside the Salesforce app, keep these considerations in mind.
When you display a canvas app inside of the feed or publisher, the canvas context you receive (either from
the signed request or from the getContext call) contains information specific to the Salesforce app
publisher.
• You can verify you’re on either the feed or publisher by looking at the displayLocation value
in the environment section. For publisher, displayLocation is set to Publisher. For the
feed, displayLocation is set to ChatterFeed.
• When creating a canvas feed item, you can specify a JSON string as the parameter’s value. When the
context is sent, any value in the parameter’s field on the feed item is sent in the parameters of the
environment section of the context.
• As with any canvas app, the context contains information about the app dimensions. Since the Salesforce
app is designed for mobile, the sizes we provide are different than for the full Salesforce site.
• For a single-finger touch scrolling experience:
– Ensure that the outermost div elements contain the following properties:
• min-height: 250px;
• overflow: scroll;
• width: 100%;
• -webkit-overflow-scrolling: touch;
• -webkit-transform: translated(0%,0px,0px);

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– Set the height attribute to the clientHeight value delivered in the signed request. For
example:
//Where sr is a parsed signed request object
var h = parseInt(sr.context.environment.
dimensions.clientHeight, 10);
Sfdc.canvas.byId('divElementId').style.height = h;

– The clientHeight value can be very small, particularly in a phone’s landscape mode, and
users may not be able to see any content. Use min-height set to the desired height in pixels
to ensure a good user experience.

Custom Icons for Canvas Apps

Keep these best practices and guidelines in mind when you add custom icons to your canvas apps.
You can customize the icon that is used in the Salesforce navigation menu. You set this icon in the Icon
URL entry in the Basic Information section of the connected app settings for your canvas app. From Setup,
enter Apps in the Quick Find box, then select Apps and click Edit for your connected app. The
icon URL must be a secure HTTPS URL that points to an icon image file. The image file must be in the GIF,
JPG, or PNG file format. For the Salesforce navigation menu, the icon cannot be larger than 60 pixels high
by 60 pixels wide.
The custom icon that is used in the Salesforce navigation menu is also used in the Chatter tab and the
Canvas App Previewer. If your canvas app will be shown in the navigation menu, we recommend that you
use a 60x60 pixel size icon and let Salesforce automatically resize the icon to the smaller size that is needed
for the Chatter tab and the Canvas App Previewer.
You can also customize the icon that is used in the action bar for a canvas app. The action bar uses the
custom icon set for the action that accesses the canvas app, not the custom icon that is associated with
the connected app. See Custom Icon Guidelines and Best Practices on page 64 for more guidelines on
custom action icons.

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CHAPTER 14 Learning More
In addition to this guide, there are many resources available to help you in your Salesforce Platform
development journey.

Admin Resources
Salesforce Help & Training Portal
A site devoted to the help documentation for Salesforce. Get help for what you’re working on, find
answers to your questions, and download tip sheets and other guides.
Salesforce Trailblazer Community
Home to a set of extremely useful tools to help you get your Salesforce work done. Connect with
Salesforce customers, partners, product specialists and employees to learn, get answers to your
questions, and share new ideas.

Salesforce Developers Website

Our premier developer site is a one-stop shop for all things related to Salesforce Platform development.
On Salesforce Developers you’ll find documentation, code samples, tools, articles, discussion boards, and
other resources to help you get started with mobile development.

Developer Documentation
You’ll find all these guides and more on our developer site at
http://developer.salesforce.com/docs.
Quick Actions Implementation Guide
Learn about the default actions, how to create object-specific actions, and how to configure publisher
layouts. Find out how you can extend the Chatter publisher and the Salesforce mobile action bar with
Visualforce custom actions and Canvas custom actions.

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Chapter 14 Learning More

Mobile App Developer Guide

Learn about native iOS and Android, HTML5, and hybrid mobile development. This guide also includes
information about more advanced topics such as authentication, geolocation, and distributing your
mobile apps.
Lightning Platform REST API Developer’s Guide
Learn to use the REST-based API to retrieve, create, update, and delete data in Salesforce. You’ll learn
how to get up to speed quickly with quick starts, about the available REST API resources, and how to
make calls and work with data.
Visualforce Developer’s Guide
Learn how to use Visualforce to customize and extend the Salesforce user interface.
SOQL and SOSL Reference
Learn how to use SOQL and SOSL to build powerful queries and text searches.

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INDEX

A B
About Acme Wireless 12 business scenario, Acme Wireless 68
About the sample scenario 12
About this book C
audience 12 Canvas
how do I begin? 12 best practices 141, 144–145
Actions Compact layouts
about action layouts 52 creating 40
about custom actions 60 find out more 43
about predefined values 57 overview 39
assigning to a global page layout 51 overview for mobile 31
assigning to a page layout 50 test it out 42
create actions 46 try it out 40
creating 49 Configuring and enabling offline access 20
creating a global action 51 Configuring Salesforce app 17–18
creating an object-specific action 50 Create a Visualforce page 80
custom actions 48 Create a Visualforce tab 83
customizing an action layout 54 Custom actions
default actions 48 add the Visualforce custom action to the page
global actions 46 layout 95
guidelines and best practices 64 business scenario 94
log a call actions 46 create a Visualforce custom action 94
mobile smart actions 48 introduction 93
object-specific actions 46, 50, 55 test the Visualforce custom action in the
overview for mobile 45 Salesforce app 96
predefined values for actions 59 custom actions introduction 93
setting a predefined field value 58
standard actions 48 D
tell me more 52 development process for the Salesforce app 71
testing in Salesforce app 55, 59
update actions 46 G
what they are 46 Guidelines and best practices
Add the Visualforce tab to the navigation menu 84 actions 64
Audience for Part II, developer guide 68 custom icons 64
for administrators 63

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Index

Guidelines and best practices (continued) Salesforce app (continued)

for developers 105 enabling offline access 20
notifications, about 19
I notifications, enabling 19
Introduction 1 overview 9
what it looks like 4
L Salesforce app development
Learning more about the Visualforce page code 88
development resources 147 business scenario 68
introduction 67
M prerequisites 71
Mobile 19 Visualforce pages 79–80, 83–84
who this part is for 68
N Salesforce app navigation menu
Navigation menu about 24
when to use 106 configuring 26
Notifications overview 23
about 19 tell me more 28
enabling 19 test it out 27
try it out 26
P Salesforce mobile development
Page layouts about the Visualforce custom action code 98
creating a mobile-optimized layout 35 best practices 105–106, 141, 144–145
how they work in Salesforce app 32 Canvas 105, 141
optimizing for mobile 38 Canvas apps in the feed 144
overview for mobile 31 Canvas apps in the publisher 141
rethinking for mobile 33 Canvas context 144
test it out 37 Canvas custom icons 145
Prerequisites for Salesforce app development 71 custom actions 93–96
Publisher custom actions scenario 94
when to use 106 development process 71
Visualforce 105
S Salesforce Platform
Salesforce app features 2
about 4 overview 2
comparison to other mobile apps 9 Salesforce Platform development
configuring 17–18 clicks vs. code 68
configuring offline access 20 learning more 147
defining users 18 Salesforce Platform vs. custom apps 69

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 Index

Setting up your work environment Visualforce custom actions (continued)

downloading and configuring Salesforce app add the Visualforce custom action to the page
16 layout 95
importing warehouse data model 16 create a Visualforce custom action 94
setting your default page layout 72 test the Visualforce custom action in the app
96
U Visualforce pages in the navigation menu
User interface guidelines about the controller and page code 88
design for mobile 74 add the tab to the navigation menu 84
introduction 73 create a page 80
keep navigation simple 74 create a tab 83
minimize the number of fields 75 introduction 79
minimize user interface text 76 Visualforce pages introduction 79
put important information at the top 74
tap target size 77 W
use field defaults 76 When to use the Mobile SDK 69
When to use the Salesforce Platform 68–69
V When to use Visualforce 68
Visualforce custom actions
about the custom action code 98

151