Why Do We Need to Hack the Sidebar?

Question:

Since it seems that many people still rely on sidebar workarounds, I would like to understand the common use cases, the challenges encountered, and, most importantly, the strategies to avoid these workarounds by utilizing alternative approaches. This is related to the discussion on the end of JavaScript sidebar workarounds.

From my own experience, I’ve encountered several patterns that continue to be difficult to resolve with more official techniques. I will share my top use cases, primarily focused on UX and UI concerns, and would love for others to contribute their scenarios. I believe we can collaboratively develop strong and repeatable solution patterns for the most frequent use cases. Additionally, I am interested in hearing from those participating in the Aura pilot, as it may help eliminate the need for such workarounds altogether.

Answer:

A common workaround for embedding Visualforce pages with dynamic content is to use the postMessage() method for iframe resizing. While there are alternative strategies, this approach provides a seamless user experience with minimal code changes.

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Use Case: Embedded Visualforce Page on Layout

One of the most common issues is embedding Visualforce pages on standard layouts with dynamic content. The challenge is to set the height of the embedded iframe to 100% of its content, rather than using a fixed height in pixels. This dynamic content is often difficult to predict during design, and a fixed height leads to large empty spaces or multiple scrollbars, creating a poor user experience. This limitation has been open for over six years and is a widely known issue (see the related Idea on Salesforce’s Success Community).

Workaround:

The solution involves injecting an addEventListener("message",...) into the top-frame of the page and using postMessage() to request an iframe resize. This method sends a message each time the iframe content changes or when the iframe is resized (for instance, when the user resizes the browser window). The pattern is simple, requiring just a few lines of code. You can repeat postMessage() as necessary, ensuring that the iframe dynamically resizes.

A public App on the AppExchange used this workaround, although I haven’t checked whether it still works after recent enhancements in HTML-areas. Nevertheless, it’s an unmanaged package and can be easily modified with minimal code.

Result

The result is a smooth resizing of the iframe with no issues, leading to a near-perfect UX and design. This pattern can be applied to multiple iframes on a single layout.

Avoid Strategy:

An alternative approach to bypass this limitation is to override the entire page view with a Visualforce page. However, this is quite radical and has significant downsides. It removes customizability, and if you install two apps that both override the Opportunity page, you can only use the Visualforce page provided by one. Additionally, this approach removes the Force.com Quick Access Menu, which can significantly impact the user experience.

Conclusion:

Hacking the sidebar remains necessary due to persistent limitations in Salesforce’s standard layout customization. While workarounds like postMessage() provide seamless iframe resizing, they are unofficial and require maintenance. Until Salesforce offers a built-in solution, users must choose between imperfect hacks or restrictive full-page overrides.

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