6. User Interfaces

Force.com’s native user interface provides a consistent and simple way to search, create, update, and delete database records. It combines the definition of database objects with user interface metadata such as page layouts to produce user interfaces through configuration rather than code. For developers and administrators, this makes customization straightforward. For users, the uniformity means that learning to use one screen in Force.com provides the experience to learn all screens with minimal incremental effort.

For applications that require a greater level of control over the appearance and behavior of the user interface, Visualforce offers a solution. Visualforce is a technology in the Force.com platform for building custom user interfaces. Visualforce user interfaces can be built to look nothing like Force.com, exactly like Force.com, or your own unique blend of the two.

This chapter covers the basics of Visualforce in the following sections:

Introduction to Visualforce—Learn the concepts and terminology of Visualforce.

Visualforce controllers—See how controllers contain the business logic that drives the user interface.

View components—Learn how view components define the appearance of Visualforce pages.

Visualforce and the native user interface—Understand where and how Visualforce pages coexist with the native user interface of Force.com.

Visualforce in production—Look at how security, governor limits, error handling, and testing are handled with Visualforce.

Sample application—Implement a feature of the Services Manager sample application called the Skills Matrix. It is a Visualforce page for viewing and editing the skill sets of consultants.