URL Hack: Pass additional parameters into the saveURL

Question

I'm pretty good with URL hacks to set field values in a record, save=1, saveURL/retURL, etc... But I'm getting stuck on something I've never tried before and I don't even know if it is possible. Is it possible to add parameters into the saveURL string?

e.g. /id/e?field1=blah&save=1&saveURL=aDifferent.Id/e?field2=blah&field3=yada

So in other words, what I'm interested in doing is, Update a field on one record with an auto-save, then return to a related ID of a different record on the edit page (all good up to this point). However, I can only seem to pass a single field update after the ? and anything after the ?field2=blah gets dropped and the edit screen won't show the &field3=yada update.

Ultimately, I'd also like to add in an &save=1 on the saveURL string also, so one button can modify and save one record, then modify and save another record. I'm trying to accomplish this without code if I can. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Easy :)

Just urlencode your params again. That way they'll get decoded when SF is examining your saveURL. For example:

1. URL to make new Task: /00T/e?tsk5=Hi%20SF%20Stack!&tsk6=Look%20Ma,%20no%20hands!
2. Go to http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/dencoder/ or any other tool of your choice (URLENCODE function, javascript's encodeURIComponent... pick your poison).
3. You should end up with something like %2F00T%2Fe%3Ftsk5%3DHi%2520SF%2520Stack!%26tsk6%3DLook%2520Ma%2C%2520no%2520hands!
4. That's your saveURL.

The only problem is that this seems to somehow skip the code that generated "Recent Items" in the sidebar. So after I've saved an Account and I eventually end up on this new Task page, I don't see it in the sidebar. Only when I'll navigate to any other page it pops up.

Answer 2

Say for eg you are trying to auto populate the record when you are creating a new account

Every field has a ID and you can find that by inspecting the field in chrome

Paste the formula in the button script

{!URLFOR($Action.Account.New,'',[acc2="test",acc5="123"])}

$Action.Account.New - This represents the target URL

'' - this represents the ID and since we are passing most of the params throught the 3rd options lets ignore this [] - this is where you put in multiple params.

Just in case you want to update an account use:

{!URLFOR($Action.Account.Edit,Account.Id,[acc2="test",acc5="123"])}

If you want to autosave the records save="1" / save ="x"are not supported by SF/ not working as of today. The only alternative is using ajax refer the doc below:

http://help.salesforce.com/apex/HTViewSolution?id=000176169&language=en_US

Paste the below script in the button script area and choose option for behavior as " Execute Javascript"

{!REQUIRESCRIPT("/soap/ajax/22.0/connection.js")} 
var newRecords = []; 
var a = new sforce.SObject("account"); 
var accountid ;
a.name = 'Test_Pass';
accountid = a.id;
newRecords.push(a); 
result = sforce.connection.create(newRecords);
if (result[0].getBoolean("success")) {
    alert('new account created with id ' + result[0].id);
  } else {
    alert('failed to create account '+ result[0]);
  }window.location.reload();