Error: Invalid field for SObject when building a table in a Visualforce page

Error: Invalid field for SObject when building a table in a Visualforce page

This is a small error but for a newbie it can take lot of time in undertanding it and solving it so just thought to share it.

There is a tutorial in VF guide which works very fine.
It uses standard objects Accounts and Contacts

<apex:page standardController="Account">
   <apex:pageBlock title="Hello {!$User.FirstName}!">
      You are viewing the {!account.name} account.
   </apex:pageBlock>
   <apex:pageBlock title="Contacts">
      <apex:pageBlockTable value="{!account.Contacts}" var="contact">
         <apex:column value="{!contact.Name}"/>
         <apex:column value="{!contact.MailingCity}"/>
         <apex:column value="{!contact.Phone}"/>
      </apex:pageBlockTable>
   </apex:pageBlock>
</apex:page>

Now if we want to do the same thing for two custom objects say obj1__c and obj2__c
generally one would use

<apex:page standardController="obj1__c">
   <apex:pageBlock title="Hello {!$User.FirstName}!">
   </apex:pageBlock>
   <apex:pageBlock>
      <apex:pageBlockTable value="{!obj1__c.obj2__c}" var="o">
         <apex:column value="{!o.Name}"/>
         <apex:column value="{!o.fieldName}"/>
      </apex:pageBlockTable>
   </apex:pageBlock>
</apex:page>

this will give error Invalid field obj2__c for SObject obj1__c

This happens because child name is not referenced properly

Salesforce generates a child relationship name that can be referenced in the page. For Account to Contact it is Contacts. Salesforce asks for a relationship name when creating the lookup relationship or master detail relationship.
Relationship name can be checked in Salesforce Schema in Eclipse. Go to the parent Object, drill down to the child relationships and find the relationship name.

so by referencing obj1__c.obj2__r (at line 5 i.e. pageblock table value) the error can be solved.

<apex:pageBlockTable value="{!obj1__c.obj2__r}" var="o">

Savepoint, rollback and viewstate

I just came to know about how view state affects the buddies savepoint and rollback so just wanted to share about it.

Every time a page is called, it goes through a particular set of actions. One entire set of actions is a single transaction. When you view the page, Salesforce goes through a series of actions, which generally looks like the following:


1) Load the appropriate classes into memory, initialize memory heap, use an implied Database.setSavePoint().

2) If the View State is empty (i.e. you are visiting the page the first time), call the page's constructor methods.

3) If View State is not empty, load those memory variables into the object (deserialization).

4) If View State is not empty, call each of the Setter methods for all values that were rendered into the form from the last action.

5) If an "action" was called, perform the action.

6) Call the getter methods and render the page's output.

7) Set the view state for the form and output the total results (Serialization).

8) Call the implied Database.commit() if nothing went wrong in any prior step.


(These may not be precise order). A transaction is started before each page action, and completed at the end of each action.


Every time you call back to the server, it is one complete transaction. For example, if you press a "Next" button, then press a "Save" button, even though you're on the same page, with the same view state throughout, you've had three distinct database transactions (the initial load, the Next action, and the Save action). You can't roll back changes between each transaction, because the transaction is already complete.



This is the same inherent design with every major RDBMS out there on the market-- when one whole transaction is done, the data is committed. In every major database out there, each page served results in one entire transaction.


While View State can hold almost any data, the database can't place the transaction in a holding pattern indefinitely. It must immediately commit or rollback the entire transaction before the end of a single transaction unit, and the default is to commit unless there is an uncaught exception or error that causes it to rollback automatically, or the programmer manually rolls back a transaction.

While using savePoint and Rollback make sure that you are using it in same view state or else savepoint will change to null and it will give argument passed cannot be null at line database.commit().

Little things matter a lot!!!

No matter how you apply yourself to the larger picture, no matter how hard you toil overall, ultimately it is the smaller things you ignore that let you down. You get rapped on the knuckles for the little undone, rather than noticed for the vast you have done. For good or evil, it is the smaller things that betray you. The most meticulously planned murder or the most carefully executed project could equally end up in disaster for the protagonist because of the minutest detail that was left to chance.


Little things can be the most irritating in the world. But life is indeed about the smaller stuff. Each mood you adopt helps form your permanent temperament; each act builds up towards a habit; habits lay the foundation for personalities. Every word either helps form friends or enemies. And all these factors together decide your future. Considering this, how lightly we take every mood, every act and every word we utter! We do not pay attention to the little things that have the greatest impact on our lives. The difference between successful and non successful people sometimes is just that the former understand the importance of paying attention to the smaller details and improving day by day. Nobody becomes an "overnight" success. They reach the pinnacle only after paying attention to the "little things" for years

Look at the power of small. An ant is a small thing and yet can cause an elephant's death; termites are so miniscule, but can devour entire mansions; a small matchstick can burn up an entire building, and "little errors" can sink a ship that could never sink, the Titanic! Look at the positives of the "little things.
To improve your life - think positive, believe more, smile, be thankful for little bits of happiness! Small gestures enacted with love and understanding have a greater impact.

Perfection lies in trivia but perfection is not trivia
The world's best leaders and most successful people have the ability to focus their attention for extended periods on a single subject and paying acute attention to minute details