object Name being replaced with object ID

Question

So, the relevant snippets of code are:

function doFunction(choice) { switch (choice) { case "changename": changeName(document.getElementById("makeNewName").value); break; } }

<apex:form >
    <apex:pageBlock mode="edit" title="Clone Job" >
       <apex:actionFunction name="changeName" action="{!saveCloneObjects}">
              <apex:param name="newName" value="" />
            </apex:actionFunction>
         <apex:pageBlockButtons >
         <button type="button" onclick="doFunction('changename');" id="saveButton" value="Clone Job">Clone Job</button>
             <!--<apex:commandButton action="doFunction('changename');" id="saveButton" value="Clone Job" />-->
            <apex:commandButton action="{!cancel}" id="cancelButton" value="Cancel" style="float:right;" />
        </apex:pageBlockButtons>
        <apex:pageBlockSection title="Insert New Job Title" columns="3">
            <input type="text" value="insert new job name" onFocus="this.value=''" id="makeNewName"/>
        </apex:pageBlockSection>
    </apex:pageBlock>
</apex:form>
</html>

public jobCloneClass(ApexPages.StandardController stdController){
j = (Job__c)stdController.getRecord();
}
...
...
...
clonedJob = (Job__c)clonedSObjects[0];
String newName = Apexpages.currentPage().getParameters().get('newName');
clonedJob.Name = null;
clonedJob.Name = newName;
...
...
...
upsert clonedJob;
PageReference jobPage = new PageReference('/' + clonedJob.id);
jobPage.setRedirect(true);
return jobPage;

where clonedJob was made by using sObject.clone() on the existing record, and all fields were selected in the relevant query.

Now, when I click the "clone job" button, a new record is indeed created, but instead of the cloned record updating it's name to be the string living in the text box id="makeNewName", the new record instead updates it's name to be it's ID.

I cannot figure out for the life of me why this is happening... does anyone have any insight?

Answer 1

When the Name field on an SObject is not populated during an insert the platform uses the Id of the new record instead. So it quite likely Apexpages.currentPage().getParameters().get('newName'); is returning null.

apex:param seems to have lots of varying behaviors as a child of apex:commandButton, apex:commandLink and apex:actionFunction. I suspect using its HTTP POST parameter form is maybe getting lost in the AJAX routing in the case.

As zjeh has said, I personally would also try using apex:param's assignTo attribute to get the value placed into your view state and access it that way. I've got a few things doing this with apex:actionFunction and it seems to work.

Apex

public String newName {get;set;}

clonedJob.Name = this.newName;

Visualforce

<apex:actionFunction name="changeName" action="{!saveCloneObjects}">
    <apex:param name="newName" value="" assignTo="{!newName}" />
</apex:actionFunction>