Filtered lookup fields don't work in Visualforce when records wrapped in Object

Question

I have a grid Visualforce component that displays records as rows where fields are editable as apex:inputField. The component works for generic SObjects and uses fieldsets to defined editable fields.

In one usage each record has two dependent Lookup fields, where one defines a Filter on the other.

The problem is one of the fields is not rendered correctly (gray background to show dependency) and the other has a Lookup button that produces a JS error in a Salesforce-internal class main.js.

I could boil the problem down to see where the root cause is. The problem is passing the apex:inputField value attribute an SObject wrapped in a Wrapper object and using the generic map-method to access the field.

<apex:component controller="ComponentCtrl" allowDML="true"> 
    <apex:attribute name="originalRecords" type="SObject[]" assignTo="{!recordList}" required="true" description=""  />

   {!getInit} <!-- Pseudo Constructor -->

    <apex:pageBlock >
        <h1>No wrapper class and it works!</h1>

        <apex:pageBlockTable value="{!originalRecords}" var="originalRecord">
            <apex:column >
                <apex:inputField value="{!originalRecord['LookupField1__c']}" />
                <apex:inputField value="{!originalRecord['LookupField2__c']}" />     
          </apex:column>
       </apex:pageBlockTable>

        <h1>With wrapper class and it FAILS!</h1>

        <apex:pageBlockTable value="{!wrappedRecords}" var="wrapper">
            <apex:column >
                <apex:inputField value="{!wrapper.record['LookupField1__c']}" />
                <apex:inputField value="{!wrapper.record['LookupField2__c']}" />     
          </apex:column>
        </apex:pageBlockTable>

    </apex:pageBlock>

</apex:component>

I think this problem might be connected to this Known Issue: Lookup Filter doesn't allow lookup window to open due to javascript error on order product multi-line edit page

Answer 1

After weeks I got a solution by Salesforce.com Support stating that this is NOT a bug but an "order of execution" problem. And indeed there solution fixed it:

According to the current code:

• The dependent data for filter lookup is generated in Step 2, which is "Evaluate constructors on Controllers, extensions, and expressions on attribute definitions."

• The "{!init}" expression is evaluated in Step 3, which is "Evaluate expressions, action attribute, and other method calls."

• So, in this scenario, the dependent data for filter lookup is generated even before the {!init} expression is evaluated, which results in the issue being faced.

In order to make this work correctly I change my Component Controller code (simplified) from:

public with sharing class SFDCComponentCtrl { 
  public List recordList { get; set; } 
  public List rows { get; private set; } 

  public void getInit() { 
    rows = new List(); 

    for(SObject record : recordList) { 
    rows.add( new SObjectRow(record) ); 
    } 
  } 


  public with sharing class SObjectRow { 
    public SObject record { get; set; } 

    public SObjectRow(SObject record) { 
      this.record = record; 
    } 
  } 

}

to

public with sharing class SFDCComponentCtrl { 
  public List recordList { get; set { recordList = value; getInit(); } } // CHANGED
  public List rows { get; private set; } 

  public void getInit() { 
    rows = new List(); 

    for(SObject record : recordList) { 
    rows.add( new SObjectRow(record) ); 
    } 
  } 


  public with sharing class SObjectRow { 
    public SObject record { get; set; } 

    public SObjectRow(SObject record) { 
      this.record = record; 
    } 
  } 

}