Visualforce is a component-based user interface (UI) framework that enables the creation of dynamic, reusable interfaces.
The Visualforce framework is part of Salesforce's
Force.com Platform as a Service (
PaaS) offering, which is designed to simplify the development and deployment of
cloud applications and websites.
Developers define pages through specifying Visualforce
markup and a Visualforce
controller. The Visualforce
tag-based markup language looks and behaves similarly to
HTML. The markup embeds tags and web-enabled languages like HTML and
JavaScript within a single <apex:page> tag. The Visualforce markup controls what elements appear on the page and how they appear. Visualforce tags correspond to page elements, such as form fields or and images.
Controllers consist of
instructions that specify what happens when users interact with page components, such as when a user clicks a button. Page components can be controlled by the standard logic for Salesforce pages, or developers can associate their own logic with a controller class. Server-side standard controllers simplify basic database operations, such as queries and updates.