Unable to redirect to the VF Page using Page Reference method in the Controller

Question

I have an Apex controller which is exposed as REST API. In the above controller , there is page reference method.

Once the Page reference method gets invoked , Am passing the VF Page name and the Apex Page id in the below:

PageReference myVFPage = new PageReference('/apex/VFPageName=' + vfPageId);
   myVFPage.setRedirect(true);
   return null;

The page reference method is getting executed with no errors, however the VisualForce page name that was passed in the method is not loading. Please advice on how can the VF Page could be loaded.

Answer 1

Visualforce pages and REST APIs rarely go together, and in this combination they do not make sense.

• Returning a PageReference object to an API caller does not perform an HTTP redirect. To perform a redirect, you return a PageReference from a Visualforce action method that was initiated by user action on the page, which the user is already viewing.
• Even if it did perform such a redirect, a REST API client will usually not follow a link and then execute JavaScript found there.
• If a user is browsing Salesforce, they do not use a REST API call to access a Visualforce page; they can simply be directed through a link.
• You cannot link to a Visualforce page through its Id; at most, that link goes to the metadata definition of the Visualforce page (if you go to yourdomain.my.salesforce.com/0661R000006XXXX, where 0661R000006XXXX is the page's Id). The URL format is /apex/<name_of_page>.
• The URL you're constructing is invalid ('/apex/vfpAGE1=' + vfPageId).
• You're trying to catch a DMLException, but your code performs no DML, so this exception cannot be thrown and you will not see any debug statements in your logs.

I suspect this stems from a complex requirement you've been given that was communicated to you poorly and is confusing. However, the approach described here is non-viable. This is a great time to review the requirement in detail and try to re-frame the problem in light of the capabilities of the Salesforce platform.