Call Record's JS onclick button from a VF page

Question

I have created a custom button on a record that calls onClick JS to update the record. I would like to call the same JS button's function, from a VisualForce page. The purpose for this is so that I only need to maintain the button in one place (config). I would rather stay away from inline JS, or Apex.

I have tried the below, with little success...

<apex:commandbutton styleClass="btn-action" action="{!URLFOR($Action.Application__c.Approve,Application__c.id)}" value="Approve"/>

Do I need to use actionFunction?

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

This image should help. In the "standard" button row, there is an Approve button. In the blue banner below (a visualforce page), there is an Approve button, which needs to perform the same task (a field update on the record).

Answer 1

Just to mark this as complete, I was unable to find a definitive answer to the original question. In the end, I rewrote the JS in the VF Component/Class.

Answer 2

In this document it says "All objects support basic actions, such as new, clone, view, edit, list, and delete. The $Action global also references actions available on many standard objects." Based on which, Submit for Approval can not refer to Custom objects.

Alternatively you can try a inline javascript button that simply open up the approval process page as discussed in here

Good Luck!