Page Block Table With Dynamic Columns In Salesforce

This is something extensively used, but every time I need to look for some easy code.

So here is the solution (apologies as I've not covered the negative cases in code, and I hope you all are smart enough to take care of that). Requirement is to build the dynamic page block table with dynamic columns, but this is not it. It should be so dynamic that user can select the object and it's fields by himself and nothing should be hard-coded. So first of all I've provided a picklist with all objects (not all objects... why? Take a look at it Please Remove The System Objects From My sObject List)

Visualforce Page Code:

<apex:page controller="DynamicTableController">
<apex:pageBlock >
    <apex:form >
        <apex:actionFunction name="ObjectFileds" action="{!ObjectFields}"/>
        
        <apex:commandButton  value="Show Table" action="{!ShowTable}"/>
        
        <apex:pageBlockSection >
            <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
                <apex:outputLabel value="Select Object"/>
                <apex:selectList multiselect="false" size="1" value="{!SelectedObject}" onchange="ObjectFileds();">
                    <apex:selectOption itemLabel="--None--" itemValue="--None--"/>
                    <apex:selectoptions value="{!supportedObject}" />
                </apex:selectlist>
            </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
            
            <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
                <apex:outputLabel value="Select Field"/>
                <apex:selectList multiselect="true" size="5" value="{!SelectedFields}">
                    <apex:selectOption itemLabel="--None--" itemValue="--None--"/>
                    <apex:selectoptions value="{!fieldLableAPI}" />
                </apex:selectlist>
            </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
            
            <apex:pageBlockTable rendered="{!IF(ObjectList.size > 0 , true , false)}" value="{!ObjectList}" var="rec">
                <apex:column value="{!rec.Id}" rendered="{!IF(SelectedFields.size == 0 , true, false)}"/>
                <apex:repeat value="{!SelectedFields}" var="FieldLable">
                    <apex:column value="{!rec[FieldLable]}" rendered="{!IF(FieldLable != '--None--' , true, false)}"/>
                </apex:repeat>
            </apex:pageBlockTable>
            
            <apex:outputPanel rendered="{!IF(ObjectList.size < 1 , true , false)}">
                <apex:pageMessage severity="ERROR" summary="No records to display"/>
            </apex:outputPanel>
            
        </apex:pageBlockSection>
        
    </apex:form>
</apex:pageBlock>
</apex:page>

Apex Code (Class):

public class DynamicTableController
{
    //List displayed on UI
    public List<selectoption> supportedObject {get; set;}
    
    //Selected Object
    public String SelectedObject {get; set;}
    
    //Global describe
    Map<String, Schema.SObjectType> gd = Schema.getGlobalDescribe();
    Set<String> objectKeys = gd.keySet();
    
    //Field Select List
    public List<SelectOption> fieldLableAPI {get; set;}
    
    //Selected fields to be displayed in table
    public List<String> SelectedFields {get; set;}
    
    //List to maintain dynamic query result
    public List<sObject> ObjectList {get; set;}
    
    
    //Constructor
    public DynamicTableController()
    {
        //Initialize
        supportedObject = new List<selectoption>() ;
        SelectedObject = '' ;
        fieldLableAPI = new List<SelectOption>() ;
        SelectedFields = new List<String>() ;
        ObjectList = new List<sObject>() ;
        
        //Get only reference to objects
        for(Schema.SObjectType item : ProcessInstance.TargetObjectId.getDescribe().getReferenceTo())
        {
            //Excluding custom setting objects
            if(!item.getDescribe().CustomSetting)
            {
                //Adding to list
                supportedObject.add(new SelectOption(item.getDescribe().getLocalName().toLowerCase() , item.getDescribe().getLabel() ));
            }
        }
        
    }
    
    //Get fields of selected object
    public void ObjectFields()
    {
        if(SelectedObject != '--None--')
        {
            //Creating sObject for dynamic selected object
            Schema.SObjectType systemObjectType = gd.get(SelectedObject);
            //Fetching field results
            Schema.DescribeSObjectResult r = systemObjectType.getDescribe();
                
            Map<String, Schema.SObjectField> M = r.fields.getMap();
            //Creating picklist of fields
            for(Schema.SObjectField fieldAPI : M.values())
            {
                fieldLableAPI.add(new SelectOption(fieldAPI.getDescribe().getName() , fieldAPI.getDescribe().getLabel())) ;
            }
        }
    }
    
    public void ShowTable()
    {
        //Creating dynamic query with selected field
        String myQuery = 'Select Id ' ;
        
        for(String field : SelectedFields)
        {
            if(field.toLowerCase() != 'id' && field.toLowerCase() != '--none--')
            myQuery += ','+ field + ' ' ;
        }
        
        //Limit is 100 for now you can change it according to need
        myQuery += ' from ' + SelectedObject + ' LIMIT 100' ;
        
        //Executing the query and fetching results
        ObjectList = Database.query(myQuery) ;
    }
}

Once user selects any object from the first picklist, filed picklist will be populated with all the field labels related to that object. Note, it's a multi-select picklist so user can select multiple fields. Once fields are selected and "Show Table" is clicked, page block table will display the field values (selected in field picklist) of all records (limit is 100 right now, you can change it according to your need).

There are some extra checks that needs to be implemented in code like "isQueryable" etc..

Please Remove The System Objects From My sObject List

Question is "Can I remove the system objects from list returned by describe?"

I need to identify on which all objects I can create approval process. First and only thought is to use describe and get the list of sObjects, but the problem is describe returns too many other objects on which we can not create approval process like "campaignfeed", "caseteamrole" etc.. So what is the use of showing them all. Why not we can show the list of only those object which are displayed when we create approval from native UI?

Here is the solution for this big time problem. Use this apex code to get the sObject List (use describe in a smart way)

public class ApprovalEnabledObjectsController
{
    //List displayed on UI
    public List<selectoption> supportedObject {get; set;}
    
    //Constructor
    public ApprovalEnabledObjectsController()
    {
        //Initialize
        supportedObject = new List<selectoption>() ;
        
        //Get only reference to objects
        for(Schema.SObjectType item : ProcessInstance.TargetObjectId.getDescribe().getReferenceTo())
        {
            //Excluding custom setting objects
            if(!item.getDescribe().CustomSetting)
            {
                //Adding to list
                supportedObject.add(new SelectOption(item.getDescribe().getLocalName().toLowerCase() , item.getDescribe().getLabel() ));
            }
        }
        
    }
}

Visualforce Page (Test page to show the picklsit)

Special thanks to Amit Jain who helped me with this :-)

Fetching sObject Type From Record Id

"How I can get the sObject Type from Record Id?". In many requirements I do have 15-digit or 18-digit Id and I want to know the sObject to which the Id belongs to. Answer is using Global Describe we can get the sObject type.


Am getting too many emails from folks from Community Forums regarding this, so here is the generic method which will help all.

public class KeyPrefix
{
    // map to hold global describe data
    private static Map<String,Schema.SObjectType> gd;
    
    // map to store objects and their prefixes
    private static Map<String, String> keyPrefixMap;

    // to hold set of all sObject prefixes
    private static Set<String> keyPrefixSet;
    
    private static void init() {
        // get all objects from the org
        gd = Schema.getGlobalDescribe();
        
        // to store objects and their prefixes
        keyPrefixMap = new Map<String, String>{};
        
        //get the object prefix in IDs
        keyPrefixSet = gd.keySet();
        
        // fill up the prefixes map
        for(String sObj : keyPrefixSet)
        {
            Schema.DescribeSObjectResult r =  gd.get(sObj).getDescribe();
            String tempName = r.getName();
            String tempPrefix = r.getKeyPrefix();
            keyPrefixMap.put(tempPrefix, tempName);
        }
    }
    
    public static String GetKeyPrefix(String ObjId)
    {
        init() ;
        String tPrefix = ObjId;
        tPrefix = tPrefix.subString(0,3);
        
        //get the object type now
        String objectType = keyPrefixMap.get(tPrefix);
        return objectType;
    }
}

Now how you can use this? Simply save the class and pass your object Id in method "GetKeyPrefix" like this 

//a0090000002QGKu will be your object Id
System.debug('::::::: '+ KeyPrefix.GetKeyPrefix('a0090000002QGKu') );

And it will return you the object API name.

Inserting sObject Dynamically in Salesforce

I spend most of my time over Community, best place to learn and share knowledge. There are many questions related to sObject, and out of all a very interesting one is "How I can insert sObject record dynamically?"


I will provide a user interface with two text fields which will take "Object Name" and "Record Name" as string from user. And when I click on Save the record with Name entered should be inserted in the provided Object. Is this possible, of-course it is.


Here is the Visualforce Page code :

<apex:page controller="InsertDynamicSobjectController">
    <apex:form >
        <apex:pageBlock >
            <apex:pageBlockButtons >
                <apex:commandButton value="Save" action="{!Save}"/>
            </apex:pageBlockButtons>
            <apex:pageMessages />
            <apex:pageBlockSection >
                <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
                    <apex:outputLabel value="Enter Object Name"/>
                    <apex:inputText value="{!ObjectName}"/>
                </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
                <apex:pageBlockSectionItem >
                    <apex:outputLabel value="Enter Name for Record"/>
                    <apex:inputText value="{!RecordName}"/>
                </apex:pageBlockSectionItem>
            </apex:pageBlockSection>
        </apex:pageBlock>
    </apex:form>
</apex:page>

Here is the Apex Code :

public class InsertDynamicSobjectController
{
    public String ObjectName {get; set;}
    
    public String RecordName {get; set;}
    
    public InsertDynamicSobjectController()
    {
        ObjectName = '' ;
        RecordName = '' ;
    }
    
    public PageReference Save()
    {
        //use GlobalDecribe to get a list of all available Objects
        Map gd = Schema.getGlobalDescribe();
        Set objectKeys = gd.keySet();
        if(objectKeys.contains(Objectname.toLowerCase()))
        {
            try
            {
                //Creating a new sObject
                sObject sObj = Schema.getGlobalDescribe().get(ObjectName).newSObject() ;
                sObj.put('name' , RecordName) ;
                insert sObj ;
                
                PageReference pg = new PageReference('/'+sObj.Id) ;
                return pg ;
            }
            Catch(Exception e)
            {
                ApexPages.addMessages(e) ;
                return null ;
            }
        }
        else
        {
            ApexPages.addmessage(new ApexPages.message(ApexPages.severity.ERROR,'Object API name is invalid')) ;
            return null ;
        }
    }
}

Code provided is flexible and you can extend it according to your need.

Binding Values of Map on Visualforce Page

I was totally messed up with this and thanks to Bob Buzzard for providing me the solution to it.


What exactly the problem is? I was trying to display values of Map on visualforce page. This code snippet will help you to understand more.

<apex:repeat value="{!MyMap}" var="M">
 <apex:repeat value="{!MyMap[M]}" var="temp">
  <apex:outputLabel value="{!temp.Test_Curr__c}"/>
 </apex:repeat>
</apex:repeat>

"MyMap" is in my controller having list of account (Map<String , List<Account>>). I just want to bind the currency field value of account with outPutField like this :

<apex:repeat value="{!MyMap}" var="M">
 <apex:repeat value="{!MyMap[M]}" var="temp">
         <apex:outputField value="{!temp.Test_Curr__c}"/>
 </apex:repeat>
</apex:repeat>

But compiler gifted me this : "Error: Could not resolve the entity from <apex:outputField> value binding '{!temp.Test_Curr__c}'. outputField can only be used with SObject fields."


Now it is mandatory for me to bind the value with outPutField as I want the formatting of currency field on my visualforce page.


Using outPutLabel doesn't provide formatting either :

<apex:repeat value="{!MyMap}" var="M">
 <apex:repeat value="{!MyMap[M]}" var="temp">
  <apex:outputLabel value="{!temp.Test_Curr__c}"/>
 </apex:repeat>
</apex:repeat>

So finally I need the Community help, and trust me it is the best place to get your answers quickly.


Workaround for this is using <apex:column> as it provides the sObject field behaviour. So my final code looks something like this :

<apex:pageBlockTable value="{!MyMap}" var="M">
 <apex:repeat value="{!MyMap[M]}" var="temp">
  <apex:column value="{!temp.Test_Curr__c}" />
 </apex:repeat>
</apex:pageBlockTable>

For reference click here to get community post.


Hope this flaw will be fixed soon as there might be some cases where we do not want to use pageBlockTabel.


Cheers