Designing views
About this task
A view is a sorted or categorized list of documents. Views are the entry points to the data stored in a database. Every database must have at least one view, although most databases have more than one view.
Here are the general steps in planning your view.
Procedure
- Before you create the view, think about:
- Whether the view style will be an outline view or a calendar view.
- The type of view you want (shared, private, and so on).
- Whether the view will be displayed on the Web. If so you may want to consider creating an embedded view on a form, subform, page, or document or consider creating a view applet or an embedded view applet.
- The categories in the view.
- Create the view by clicking "New View" in Domino® Designer.
- Name the view.
- Add columns to the view.
- Set up the documents to display in the view by writing the view's document selection formula.
- Set up what will display in each column by programming the column value.
- Set up the sorting order for the columns.
- Set the style for the view, row, and columns.
- Save and close the view.
- Standard outline views
A standard outline view is a table of contents for a database and is the most common type of view. It organizes documents by rows and columns. Each column displays a type of information about the document, such as author or date of creation. Each row displays selected pieces of information from one document. One column in the view is usually the organizing element -- for example, a column entitled Date might organize the documents in chronological order. In a discussion database, you might use a column entitled Topic to display the contents of the Subject field for each document in the view. In a tracking database, a column might show the customer or product name. - Calendar views
A calendar view groups and displays documents in a calendar format. Such views are useful for organizing documents that keep track of schedules, meetings, and appointments. - Shared and private views
There are two types of views: shared (available to many users) and private (available to one person). You designate the view type when you create the view and cannot change it later. A shared view can become a private view on first use, but a private view cannot become a shared view without recreating it as such. - Creating a standard outline view
- Copying and deleting views
- Creating a default design for new views
- Designing folders
- Naming a view or folder
The name you choose for a view or folder is visible to Notes users in the View menu (unless the view is hidden) and in the folders pane. The view name is visible to Web users in the Views list. - Customizing the style of the inbox folder
- Selecting which documents display in a view
When you design a view, you can program it to show all documents or only certain documents in the database. Most databases have one view that shows all documents and other views that show a subset of documents. - Creating columns in a view
Columns display one type of information about the documents listed -- such as the document subject, author, or creation date. One column in a view is usually the organizing element -- for example, in a chronological view, the organizing column displays document creation dates. - Setting styles for a standard view or folder
- Display options for views
The Options tab of the View Properties box determines the initial display of a view and specifies how users can access and interact with the view. - Adding categories to views
- Identifying unread documents
To help users find new or modified documents, display the unread mark (an asterisk) next to unread documents in the view. A set of unread marks are maintained for each user, so even if one person has read a particular document, the asterisk still appears for other users who haven't read it yet. - Default views
A default view is the view users see when they open the database for the first time. Each database has a default view, which appears with an * (asterisk) in the Views list. - Allowing users to edit or create documents from a view
- Allowing users to set colors in a view
- Formulas that look for values in columns and views
Lookup formulas are useful in choice list field formulas to search for values in another database or in the same database. - Creating a calendar view
- Displaying views in Web applications
Views and folders created in Notes may not have the same features on the Web. For example, a view or folder will display as a full screen with default navigation buttons on the Web. - Hiding a view
- Refreshing view indexes
A view index is an internal filing system that builds a list of documents that belong in a view. When users add or change documents, the view index must be refreshed to show them which documents are new or changed. Refreshing a view index can occur manually when users press F9, as part of a condition built into the view design, or as part of the Updall (Update ALL) server process set up by the server administrator. - Adding a trash folder to an application
- Adding a view for soft deletions
- DB2 query views
Like other types of Notes views, query views are design elements that are part of Notes applications. However, a query view uses an SQL query to populate its data, instead of using a view formula that selects notes from a Notes database.
Parent topic: Application Design
Related concepts:
Related tasks:
Folders
Procedure
Folders are containers used to store related documents
or groupings of documents. Folders have the same elements as view
and are designed much the same way. For more information on designing
folders, see Notes Client
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