Validation Rules and Custom Controllers

If a user enters data on a Visualforce page that uses a custom controller, and that data causes a validation rule error, the error can be displayed on the Visualforce page. Like a page that uses a standard controller, if the validation rule error location is a field associated with an <apex:inputField> component, the error displays there. If the validation rule error location is set to the top of the page, use the <apex:messages> component within the <apex:page> to display the error. However, to get the information to the page, the custom controller must catch the exception.

For example, suppose you have the following page:

1swfobject.registerObject("clippy.codeblock-0", "9");
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17<apex:page controller="MyController" tabStyle="Account">
18  <apex:messages/>
19  <apex:form>
20   <apex:pageBlock title="Hello {!$User.FirstName}!">
21     This is your new page for the {!name} controller. <br/>
22     You are viewing the {!account.name} account.<br/><br/>
23     Change Account Name: <p></p>
24     <apex:inputField value="{!account.name}"/> <p></p>
25     Change Number of Locations:
26     <apex:inputField value="{!account.NumberofLocations__c}" id="Custom_validation"/> 
27         <p>(Try entering a non-numeric character here, then hit save.)</p><br/><br/>
28     <apex:commandButton action="{!save}" value="Save New Account Name"/>
29   </apex:pageBlock>
30  </apex:form>
31</apex:page>

The ID of a valid account record must be specified as a query parameter in the URL for this page to render. For example, http://na3.salesforce.com/apex/myValidationPage?id=001x000xxx3Jsxb.

Note

You need to write a custom controller like the following:

1swfobject.registerObject("clippy.codeblock-1", "9");
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17public class MyController {
18  Account account;
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20  public PageReference save() {
21    try{
22        update account;
23       }
24    catch(DmlException ex){
25        ApexPages.addMessages(ex);
26       }
27    return null;
28  }
29
30  public String getName() {
31    return 'MyController';
32  }
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34  public Account getAccount() {
35    if(account == null)
36      account = [select id, name, numberoflocations__c from Account
37        where id = :ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('id')];
38      return account;
39
40  }
41}

When the user saves the page, if a validation error is triggered, the exception is caught and displayed on the page as they are for a standard controller.

Visualforce Developer’s Guide

Validation Rules and Custom Controllers