Retrieve salesforce instance URL instead of visualforce instance

Question

From a visualforce page, I need to retrieve our organization's salesforce instance's URL, and not the visual force URL.

For example I need https://cs1.salesforce.com instead of https://c.cs1.visual.force.com

Here's what I've tried so far and the outcome I got:

Accessed the Site global variable from the VF Page:

<apex:outputText value="{!$Site.Domain}" /> returns null

Sidenote: Everything in $Site.xxx seems to return null.

From the Apex controller:

public String getSfInstance()
{
  return ApexPages.currentPage().getHeaders().get('Host');
}

and

public String getSfInstance()
{
  return URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().toExternalForm();
}

returns c.cs1.visual.force.com and https://c.cs1.visual.force.com, respectively.

Question: How do I retrieve what I want: https://cs1.salesforce.com?

$Site is only for salesforce sites (http://developer.force.com/sites) — mmix, Feb 21 '12 at 08:40

score 11 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 10 '12 at 09:24

11

Here's something that I used within my Apex Trigger

System.URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().getHost().remove('-api' );

This gives me proper URL

answered Dec 10 '12 at 09:24

Shivanath D

121
1
7

2

As of Winter'19 there's a new function available that works without relying on brittle string manipulation - `System.URL.getOrgDomainUrl().toExternalForm()` – Tim Lewis Mar 15 '19 at 20:53

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 21 '12 at 09:12

This is a known issue, the URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl() should provide this information but it does not. However in reality this has very limited functional impact.

Their instance and apex domains are interchangeable in the sense that requesting a URL that does not belong to one gets redirected to the other.

for example if you seek /apex/myPage from cs1.salesforce.com you'll get redirected to c.cs1... and vise versa requesting /ID from apex domain will get you redirected to instance domain (unless detail action has been overridden)

If this does not help you there is one workaround, albeit very ugly :) create a custom object to store the base url and create before insert/update trigger which will set the baseURL field to URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().toExternalForm(). Apparently trigger is the only place on the platform where this will work (aside from execute anonymous which is not of much use). When setting up the app insert something into that table and later use SOQL to retrieve base url.

Redirection between c.cs1... and cs1.salesforce.com works great except any anchor information (c.cs1.../apex/test#myAnchorInformation) seem to be removed in certain browsers such as Safari on ipad. This means that in situations with anchor values, it's not possible to rely on the platform redirect. — sorenkrabbe, Aug 02 '13 at 08:11

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 15 '12 at 15:03

Here is an Apex property that you can throw into a Utility class that will reliably return the instance for your org. Using this, you can easily construct your organization's Salesforce URL by appending ".salesforce.com" to the Instance:

public class Utils {

 // Returns the Salesforce Instance that is currently being run on,
 // e.g. na12, cs5, etc.
public static String Instance {
    public get {
        if (Instance == null) {
            //
            // Possible Scenarios:
            //
            // (1) ion--test1--nexus.cs0.visual.force.com  --- 5 parts, Instance is 2nd part
            // (2) na12.salesforce.com      --- 3 parts, Instance is 1st part
            // (3) ion.my.salesforce.com    --- 4 parts, Instance is not determinable

            // Split up the hostname using the period as a delimiter
            List<String> parts = System.URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().getHost().replace('-api','').split('\\.');
            if (parts.size() == 3) Instance = parts[0];
            else if (parts.size() == 5) Instance = parts[1];
            else Instance = null;
        } return Instance;
    } private set;
}

// And you can then get the Salesforce base URL like this:
public static String GetBaseUrlForInstance() {

     return 'https://' + Instance + '.salesforce.com';

}

FYI: For Scenario (1), the 1st of the 4-part hostname can get really complicated, but you'll always be able to find the Instance name as the 2nd part. For those who are interested, the syntax of Scenario 1 follows this pattern:

     <MyDomain>--<SandboxName>--<Namespace>.<Instance>.visual.force.com

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 04 '12 at 13:54

3

Here you have a quite nice and small snippet, that does, what it should for VisualforcePages :-)

        String sUrlRewrite = System.URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().getHost();
        //  Example: c.cs7.visual.force.com
        sUrlRewrite = 'https://'
                + sUrlRewrite.substring(2,6) 
                + 'salesforce.com'
                + '/'
                + recordId;

// Returns: https://cs7.salesforce.com/00kM00000050jFMIAY

answered Aug 04 '12 at 13:54

Alex_E

31
1

Instance could be cs87 or eu3, In this case hardcoded numbers won't work. Also as mentioned by zachelrath, we could have domain name. So, this would fail in such scenarios. – Raul Jun 12 '16 at 06:14

Matt and Neil · Answer 5 · 2021-07-04T14:50:17.730

Use: `Url.getOrgDomainUrl().toExternalForm()`

_{Thanks, Tim Lewis}

Note behaviour changes between releases and is sensitive to My Domain settings:

@Future context returns https://na1.salesforce.com
Visualforce context returns https://na1.salesforce.com
Force.com Site context returns https://na1.salesforce.com
@Future context returns https://mydomain.my.salesforce.com
Visualforce context returns https://mydomain.my.salesforce.com
Force.com Site context returns https://mydomain.my.salesforce.com

My Domain is mandatory in new orgs effective Winter '21.
Enhanced Domains is mandatory in all orgs effective Summer '22.

// Not to be confused with Url.getSalesforceBaseUrl()
// http://na1.salesforce.com (can happen in async apex)
// https://c.na1.visual.force.com (local Visualforce Page)
// https://ns.na1.visual.force.com (packaged Visualforce Page)
// https://custom.my.salesforce.com (org has My Domain enabled)
// https://sandbox-mydomain.na1.force.com (sandbox site with My Domain...)

See also the Salesforce Identity API which attests the pod/instance endpoint.

This works except for the case when the code is called from a trigger. Unfortunately. — Dmitry Nikolaev, Jan 14 '15 at 07:04
As of Winter'19 there's finally a simple solution: `System.URL.getOrgDomainUrl().toExternalForm()` — Tim Lewis, Mar 15 '19 at 20:55

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Jun 03 '13 at 17:14

Fix to Alex_E snippet:

    String sUrlRewrite = System.URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().getHost();
    String sfBaseProtocol = System.URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().getProtocol();

    //remove namespace
    integer firstDotPos = sUrlRewrite.indexOf('.');
    sURlRewrite = sURlRewrite.substring(firstDotPos+1);

    //replace visual.force with salesforce
    sURlRewrite = sURlRewrite.replace('visual.force', 'salesforce');
    sUrlRewrite = sfBaseProtocol+'://'+sURlRewrite;

serverURL = sUrlRewrite;

score 0 · Answer 7 · edited May 11 '15 at 12:52

0

This works for me:

String sUrlRewrite = System.URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().getProtocol() 
    + '://' + System.URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().getHost() 
    + '/' + record.Id;

edited May 11 '15 at 12:52

kerem

2,699
1
32
37

answered May 11 '15 at 12:16

Felipe Echanique Torres

1

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Feb 18 '16 at 01:00

0

Here is something to do with regex

public String getURL() {
    return String.format(
      'https://{0}.salesforce.com',
      new String[]{
        URL.getSalesforceBaseUrl().getHost().substringAfter('.').substringBefore('.')
      });
}

answered Feb 18 '16 at 01:00

ahtnasah.li

134
7

Retrieve salesforce instance URL instead of visualforce instance

8 Answers8

Use: Url.getOrgDomainUrl().toExternalForm()

Use: `Url.getOrgDomainUrl().toExternalForm()`