Salesforce Content - Programmatically Uploading Content

Building up to this through a series of recent posts, I've demonstrated how to set up and configure a workspace and how to work with Content Types and publish using Guided Tagging. This post will go through the steps to programmatically insert Content related to a Custom Object within the previously defined workspace and using the previously defined Content Types.

The first step is to write your Apex Code (remember to use version 17.0 or higher of the Salesforce API). Here's the code:

public class ImageController {

public ContentVersion myImage {get;set;}
Bird__c bird;

Map workspaceMap = new Map {
'Species Images' => '058S0000000CaaY'
};
Map contentTypeMap = new Map{
'Species Images' => '012S00000000Kpe'
};
public ImageController(ApexPages.StandardController controller){
bird = (Bird__c)controller.getRecord();
bird = [select Id, Name, Binomial_Nomenclature__c from Bird__c where Id = :bird.Id ];
myImage = new ContentVersion();
}
public PageReference upload(){
if (myImage.PathOnClient != null){
myImage.Title = bird.Name;
myImage.RecordTypeId = contentTypeMap.get('Species Images');
myImage.FirstPublishLocationID = workspaceMap.get('Species Images');
myImage.Bird__c = bird.Id;
insert myImage;
return new PageReference('/'+ bird.Id);
}
else{
return null;
}
}
public PageReference cancel(){
return new PageReference('/' + bird.Id);
}
}

There's a member variable for the Content (myImage), two member maps to get the right IDs for the Workspace and the ContentType, two Page Actions (one to save, the other to eliminate a cul-de-sac and allow the user to return to the Bird layout) and a constructor that fills the Context record and instantiates the ContentVersion.

Now you write a VF Page (also using Version 17.0 or higher of the API). Here's that code (I removed the leading "<"s from the apex tags to allow this to show inline.

apex:page standardController="Bird__c" extensions="ImageController">
apex:pageBlock title="Upload Image">
apex:pageMessages />
apex:form >
apex:inputFile value="{!myImage.VersionData}" filename="{!myImage.PathOnClient}"/>
br />
apex:commandButton action="{!upload}" value="Upload"/>
apex:commandButton action="{!cancel}" value="Cancel"/>
/apex:form>
/apex:pageBlock>
/apex:page>

This is a simple page that uses the Bird object as the standard controller, uses the Apex code we wrote before as the extension and has a form. The form has an inputFile tag to allow you to browse to the image using explorer and two command buttons that call the page actions defined in our previous page.

If you like, you can add to the page action for upload the error condition and put that in your page messages. this allows for elegant trapping when you don't browse to a file. The final step is to wire all this up.

Add a Custom Button to the Bird Object that uses the Visualforcepage as the Content Source



Then add that button to your Custom Object's layout




Note the presence of the button with no image



And upload the image to an instance of your Custom Object using the VF page



And finally, note that the image is there and related to your object instance



And the picture of the picture related to the Bird (a pretty Yellow-crowned Euphonia)



Voila...

P.S. - Note that you'll need to add the Class and the Page to any profiles using this capability, otherwise you'll get the fun 'Insufficient Privileges' puke