Due to its traditional approach of maximizing the use of auto-generated controllers, many developers turn to Salesforce’s Visualforce. Aside from the potential of its 100 or so components, Visualforce allows developers to engineer their own components. It also enables embedding of formula languages for PDF generation, mobile rendering, component binding interaction, data, and action.
An Overview
Visualforce is a simple yet powerful user interface framework (component-based) for Force.com. As such, it delivers instructions via a markup language – quite similar to HTML but tag-based.
This markup language works in accordance with a coarse user interface component (e.g. a field and an area of a webpage). Therefore, you can use it together with a special type of code for the customization of a user interface – and for writing extensions to controllers. Alongside, it can raise an existing application’s value.
Standard Components
Moreover, with the use of the MVC (or Model View Controller) paradigm, Visualforce can provide integration to a database. For it to support this kind of integration, it is designed for flexibility and the incorporation of both Visualforce and HTML components.
The functions of its standard components are as follows:
- AJAX – improves the level of interaction for an interface
- Input – creates field-type awareness, editability, formatting, and requiredness (based on field definition
- Output – creates a “div” element
Visualforce vs. Apex
Due to their interaction, Visualforce and Apex are sometimes mistaken to be one and the same. However, these 2 are separate subjects, and differ in concepts.
Visualforce is a framework. It is mainly a markup language, which offers support for formulas. You can consider it responsible for HTML on the server’s side.
Meanwhile, Apex is a code, and in fact, it is the special code used for customization. As a programming language, it can be used in the Visualforce framework to perform particular functions. You can consider it as the main source of interaction with a server.