Is there a way to reference a custom settings via $Setup without the namespace for the fieldname?

Question

Background: We develop a managed package and are auditing the code for hardcoded references to the namespace. We want to use static/resolved references of objects/fields/pages/custom settings instead of the hardcoded namespace strings in order to support a multi-org/developer lifecycle.

I'm having trouble finding an alternative to referencing a hierarchy custom settings in a VF page without having to use the namespace for the field name.

Example:

Custom Settings (type = hierarchy): System_Preferences__c
Field Name: Default_Email__c
Namespace: abc

//within javascript

var defaultEmail = '{!$Setup.System_Preferences__c.abc__Default_Email__c}';  // works

var defaultEmail = '{!$Setup.System_Preferences__c.Default_Email__c}';  // returns null

Is there another way to do this? Or is this a current limitation?

Thanks,

Brian

Answer 1

When I was working on a managed package, we always had to use an apex:outputText element to get the correct value to merge. Try this:

var defaultEmail = '<apex:outputText value="{!JSENCODE($Setup.System_Preferences__c.Default_Email__c)}" />';

Not only does this pattern avoid migration problems, but also the occasional installation/execution problem in installed orgs.

Besides that clunky solution, you could also just grab the value in an extension or controller and emit it directly.

Answer 2

It's not perfect but we have used $Organization.Name before.

Basically we'd set the org. name in the package, source & related sandboxes / dev. orgs to specific values and then check for the presence of any of those vales in $Organization.Name. If present, don't use a namespace.

I'm sure I came up with a more elegant solution before but I can't for the life of me remember what is was right now.

Answer 3

I had the same scenario but I found another way to do it. First I identified the namespace which will be based on the org. If it's dev org then namespace will be blank but for the subscriber or package org it will be there. This part was done in the controller.

So once you found the namespace then it's quite easy to get the custom setting values.

{!$Setup[namespace + 'Custom_Setting_API_Name__c'][namespace + 'Field_API_Name__c']}

For the namespace, you just need to find whether your code is executing in the managed package or not. I did it using a code snippet in the controller.

public String getNamespace() { 

    String nameSpacePrefix;
    ApexClass cs =[select NamespacePrefix from ApexClass where Name ='NamespaceDemoCompController'];
    if(cs.NamespacePrefix != null){
        nameSpacePrefix = cs.NamespacePrefix+'__';
    }
    else{
        nameSpacePrefix = '';
    }

    return nameSpacePrefix;
}

For more details, please check my blog - https://sfcure.com/2018/01/22/salesforce-cookies-8/