Pass hardcoded strings as parameters from command button and use in an Apex Class

Question

Newbie to salesforce so please excuse any errors or wrong syntax. Essentially we have a dirty workaround manual menu that allow users to download a PDF letter from command buttons.

At the moment the Apex controller has multiple PageReference classes that manually (hardcoded) references a VisualForce Page for every letter that needs converted to PDF. for example

public PageReference saveLetter1(){
//visualforce page to create PDF from
pageReference pdf = Page.ltr_one_generalexample;

I want to create a reusable class by simply passing the VF Page name as a string value in the command button and use it in the apex class, but cannot seem to grab the value (always null).

<apex:commandButton action="{!saveLetter1}"  styleClass="btn-info btn-lg" 
value="Download Letter">
<apex:param name="VPName" value="!ltr_ws_addbin_new_refusal" assignTo=" 
{!VPName}"/>
 </apex:commandButton>

And in Apex class

public String VPName{get;set;}
//and use as 
pageReference pdf = Page.VPName;

Can this be done and can a page reference use a string variable as indicated. If there is an easier way??

Gareth Jordan Gareth Jordan · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-04T15:13:30

Your Visualforce looks accurate along with the property but for the page Reference it should be

PageReference pdf = new PageReference('/'+VPName);//or '/apex/'+VPName if apex page

Pass hardcoded strings as parameters from command button and use in an Apex Class

3 Answers