Have you been wondering how to check whether a record has been locked? I thought there might be a field which says that. But i was not able to find any such field. Instead i found that ProcessInstance table can be used to find if a record has been locked. But that looks very tedious and complex.

How about a very simple way. Here it is!!

Step1 : Create a field (say FLAG) of type Checkbox. Set the default value to UNCHECKED.

Step2: In your Approval Process in the INITIAL SUBMISSION Action , create a Field Update. Update the FLAG to TRUE.

Step3: In your FINAL APPROVAL and REJECTION Actions, create a Field Update. Update the FLAG back to FALSE.

Step4: And done!!!! You can now find whether a record has been locked simply by checking the FLAG value. Be it in your Apex Class or Visualforce Page.

Comments and queries welcome!!

Hello ppl,

Post your questions on Visualforce development and any other related topics on Salesforce that you need quick help with.

Expect the quickest of quick response!!!

Common, lets jump straight into the Visualforce sea!!

You want to create your first VisualForce page? . Before that see this

Setup --> My Personal Information --> Personal Information --> Development Mode . This should be checked,if not set it to true.

Once done, go to your URL bar ( see image ).



Modify the URL . Ex ( https://ap1.salesforce.com/home/home.jsp would be modified to https://ap1.salesforce.com/apex/welcomepage ) and hit ENTER.



When you see this screen, click on the "Create Page" link. And done, your page has been created and you will see an editor window at the bottom of your browser. You will see some code that has been generated by default. These are called tags.

<apex:page> is the very first tag you have to learn. You cannot create a page without this tag.

There are three main attributes for this tag.

• Standardcontroller
• Controller
• Extensions

Standardcontroller is used when you want to use the standard functionality of any object (custom or standard). By standard functionality i mean SAVE, VIEW, DELETE etc. You cannot override the SAVE functionality or anything else, you do not have any control in the backend processes. But you can very well control the UI (user interface), you can display marvellous content which is otherwise not possible with the standard PageLayout.

<apex:page standardcontroller="Account">
   <apex:inputfield value="{!Account.Name}"/>
   <apex:commandbutton value="Update" action="{!Save}"/>
</apex:page>

Type this code in the editor (I know you would copy & paste) and hit SAVE icon. You can see that your new page is now developed. But wait, there doesn't appear a Account Name to edit and Save.

https://xxx.salesforce.com/apex/welcomepage?id=00190000002GA5n . Id should be a valid Account Id.

Dont be afraid that you have to modify the URL all the time, there is lot more to explore.

Controller (often called Custom controller) is used when you want to perform something extraordinary when hitting the "SAVE" button.

Here is a simple example using Custom controller ... Click here!!!

Extensions is used when you want to perform a combination of both ( Standardcontroller and Cutom)

We will dive deep into the Controller and Extensions attributes in the coming posts. But for now expand the basic code provided, add as many tags as possible and post your queries.

Some tags which come to my thought:

<apex:pageblock>

<apex:pageblocksection>

<apex:outputfield>

<apex:outputlabel>

<apex:commandlink>

Note: Use the Component Reference link in the editor window for more information.