How do I call the standard New Note or New Attachment pages?

Question

I have a requirement where I need to provide New Note and New Attachment buttons on a Visualforce page and cannot use the standard related list. Every method I've tried so far has led to an error:

• Using URLFOR($Action.Note.New), but that $Action does not exist.
• A direct link to /002/e?parent_id=[record id], but that gives a "Data Not Available" error message (tried with and without confirmation token)

• Using an <apex:commandButton> where the following controller method provides a redirect also yields "Data Not Available":

  public PageReference NewNote(){
    PageReference redirect = new PageReference('/002/e');
    redirect.getParameters().put('parent_id', sfObject.Id);
    redirect.getParameters().put('retURL', this.ReturnUrl);
    redirect.setRedirect(true);
    return redirect;
  }
  

Is there any way to invoke the pages for New Note and New Attachments without using the standard related list?

Answer 1

For the Note case, /002/e?parent_id=[record id] doesn't work for me with the 18 digit id (Data Not Available) but does with the 15 digit id.

For the Attachment case, /p/attach/NoteAttach?pid=[record id]&retURL=... works, though as an even less "documented" URL pattern you may not want to risk it. 15 digit id again.