17 Creating and Configuring Data Views

By the end of this exercise you will be able to:

  • Understand the components of a view
  • Create a grid view

Finding Tables and Table Data

  1. Click Analysis in the header to show the list of Analysis Models.
  2. Find and open the model Screens and Forms 01-08: Views, filters and screens.
  3. In the model place your mouse over the table Overall Debt Levels.
  4. A hover menu will appear, press  Show view and select Default View.
  5. The data contained in the table will appear.

Create New View

You will create a new grid view to show the data in the table in a table format:

  1. Create Screen:
    1. Click on Screen on the Header bar.
    2. Click  Add New.
    3. Set the screen name to Overall Debt Levels.
    4. Select a Template e.g. Tile No Buttons.
    5. Click the Create Screen button.
    6. A new screen will appear.
  2. Now create a new view on the screen:
    1. Use the tabs to navigate back to the analysis model Screens and Forms 01-08: Views, filters and screens.
    2. Double click on the table Overall debt levels.
    3.  Pin this table's settings tab.
    4. Using the tabs, select the screen you just created (Overall Debt Levels) to bring this back to the front.
    5. Drag the table icon  Table from the top of the table settings (see below) onto the screen.
    6. A popup box will ask you how you would like to display the attributes - choose  Grid.
    7. This creates a view on the screen, and the properties opens on the right.
    8. An Available Attributes box will appear - drag the attributes you want (in this case, all of them) from the list onto the view.
    9. Close the Available Attributes box.

You can also see your new view in the list of views for the table:

  1. Hover over the table Overall Debt Levels in the Screens and Forms 01-08: Views, filters and screens model.
  2. From the hover menu press  Show view and select Overall Debt Levels.

Editing a View

  1. Click on the tab for the screen Overall Debt Levels.
  2. Right click on the grid in the screen, select  Show view configuration
  3. You can edit details of the view in the settings on the right, but there are a number of changes you can make directly to the view in the screen:

Re-order Columns

To re-order columns:

  1. Grab a column heading
  2. Drag it, drop it in a new position.

Freeze Rows

You can freeze a number of columns.

First prepare some data:

  1. Open the analysis model Screens and Forms 11-13. Actions to update, insert, delete.
  2. Run analysis on the table Wisteria Books Inventory - this will load data into the table.
  3. Create a new view:
    1. Create a new screen: Wisteria Books Inventory
    2. Template: Blank
    3. Drag the table Wisteria Books Inventory onto the screen
    4. Select Grid view
    5. Add all of the attributes
  4. Widen the columns so that you can see all (or most) of the text in each column - eventually you will see a horizontal scroll bar appear at the bottom of the view.

Freeze a column:

  1. Freeze the second column (this should be Subject): right-click on the column heading and select Freeze column.
  2. Slide the horizontal scroll bar - you will see the first 2 columns are frozen.

Set Width

You can fix the width of a column. By default, columns are flex, which means they will consume the available space. To fix a column width:

  1. Grab the right hand edge of a column heading and move it to set the width.
  2. Click on  Lock in the toolbar.
  3. Maximise the view - you will see that the set column stays the same size, while the remaining columns flex.
  4. Right click on your screen and select  Unlock to continue editing your screen.

Set Flex

If you fix the width of a column, you can return it to being a flex column:

  1. Right-click on a column heading.
  2. Select Set flex column.

Column Filtering

As well as building permanent filters (you will do this in the next exercise), column filters (sometimes called quick filters) are available to you and the users you are creating this view for. To use a column filter:

  1. Hover over a column heading
  2.  Filter.
  3. You can select operators and enter values to filter on the values in that column.
  4. You can add clauses to this filter.
  5. You can additionally filter on other columns, and these filter will apply together to further filter the data.

Column Sorting

As well as building permanent sort orders (you will do this in a future exercise), you can apply a column sort:

  1. Right click on a column heading in the table view
  2. Select Sort Ascending or Sort Descending