To define a custom component for use in a Visualforce page:
- In Salesforce from Setup, enter
Components in the Quick Find box, then
select Visualforce Components.
- Click New.
- In the Label text box, enter the text that should be used to
identify the custom component in Setup tools.
- In the Name text box, enter the text that should identify this
custom component in Visualforce markup. This name can contain only underscores and alphanumeric
characters, and must be unique in your org. It must begin with a letter, not include
spaces, not end with an underscore, and not contain two consecutive underscores.
- In the Description text box, enter a text description of the custom
component. This description appears in the component reference with other standard
component descriptions as soon as you click Save.
- In the Body text box, enter Visualforce markup for the custom
component definition. A single component can hold up to
1 MB of text, or approximately
1,000,000 characters.
- Click Version Settings to specify the version of Visualforce and
the API used with this component. You can also specify versions for any managed packages
installed in your organization.
- Click Save to save your changes and view the custom
component’s detail screen, or click Quick Save to save your
changes and continue editing your component. Your Visualforce markup must be valid before
you can save your component.
Once your component has been created, you can view it at
http://mySalesforceInstance/apexcomponent/nameOfNewComponent,
where the value of mySalesforceInstance is the host name of your Salesforce instance (for example,
na3.salesforce.com) and the value of
nameOfNewComponent is the value of the Name field on
the custom component definition.
The component is displayed as if it’s a Visualforce page.
Consequently, if your component relies on attributes or on the content of the component
tag’s body, this URL may generate results that you don’t expect. To more
accurately test a custom component, add it to a Visualforce page and then view the page.