RemoteAction Insert Error: "Please provide an id or sobjectType value"

Question

I posted this to Twitter a couple of times but I'm still stumped.

I have an Apex class called "TestRemoteActionClass" with a method marked as a @RemoteAction that looks something like this:

@RemoteAction
public static List<sObject> insertRecords(List<sObject> records) {
    insert records;
    return records;
}

In my Visualforce page, I call it like this:

Visualforce.remoting.Manager.invokeAction(
    'TestRemoteActionClass.insertRecords',
    records,
    function(result, event) {
        console.log(result);
        console.log(event);
    }
);

Every time I try this, I get the following error back:

"Please provide an id or sobjectType value"

I understand the issue is related to the RemoteAction method taking a List as parameters, so it would make sense that the method needs some context to describe the SObjectType of the incoming list of records. If I change the "insertRecords" methods to take a concrete SObjectType (Account, Contact, etc), then it works fine.

However, I cannot figure out how to pass an "sobjectType" value with the parameters. I have tried the following as the "records" parameter with the same error:

[{"attributes":{"type":"Account"},"Name":"foo"}]
[{"attributes":{"sobjectType":"Account"}, "Name":"foo"}]
[{"sobjectType":"Account","Name":"foo"}]

In addition, I have tried numerous permutations of uppercase vs. lowercase combos for the 'sobjectType' parameter name. Still no luck.

Can anyone help? This issue is keeping me from creating a List "insert" call via RemoteActions, which would be huge to streamline things.

If this approach is just not possible, please let me know that too!

Answer 1

Looks like this may be a bug that will be fixed soon.

http://boards.developerforce.com/t5/Visualforce-Development/SObject-JS-Remoting-Error-Please-provide-an-id-or-sobjectType/m-p/565745#M60287

Answer 2

You can also have JavaScript Remoting send you a list to work with, and then send the list back. Like:

@RemoteAction
static public List<Contact> pullCurrentContacts() {
     List<Contact> contacts = [SELECT Id, LastName, Account.Name from Contact WHERE Account.Name != ''];
     return contacts;   
}

@RemoteAction
static public Boolean updateContacts(List<Contact> contacts) {
        update contacts;
        return true;
}   

Answer 3

According to the VF Developer Guide, you can insert generic sObjects via RemoteAction calls:

Declaring a Remote Method In your controller, your Apex method declaration is preceded with the @RemoteAction annotation like this:

@RemoteAction global static String getItemId(String objectName) { ... }

Your method can take Apex primitives, collections, typed and generic sObjects, and user-defined Apex classes and interfaces as arguments. Generic sObjects must have an ID or sobjectType value to identify actual type. Interface parameters must have an apexType to identify actual type.

Unfortunately, it does not provide an example.

However, it may be worth breaking the method up into separate methods for each typed sObject and going that route if you can't get the generic sObject to work.

Answer 4

Have you tried using this format:

[
    {
        "id": "003xxxxxxx", //Not needed in your example but put here for reference
        "type": "Contact",
        "fields": {
             "Name": "Bob"
        }
    }
]

Answer 5

Instead of List< Sobject> as parameter change it to List< String> And Use deserialize() method.

List< Account> obj = (List< Account>) Json.deserialize(a, List< Account>.class)

Try This:

< apex:page showHeader="true" sidebar="true" controller="RemotingSObject">
    < input value="Click Me" onclick="doRemote();" type="button"/>

    < script type="text/javascript">

    function doRemote(){
        var obj = '[{"attributes":{"type":"Account"},"Name":"Acc1"},{"attributes":{"type":"Account"},"Name":"Acc2"}]';

            //You can see there is a value of sbojectType set
        console.log(obj);
       Visualforce.remoting.Manager.invokeAction('{!$RemoteAction.RemotingSObject.receiveSObject}',
                 obj, function(result, event){
                            console.log(event);
                    console.log(result);
                   });
              }

       < /script>
< /apex:page>

Class:

public with sharing class RemotingSObject {

   @RemoteAction
   public static void receiveSObject(String param) {
     List< Account> obj = (List< Account>) Json.deserialize(param, List< Account>.class)
     system.debug(obj); 
   }
}