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05. View Structure

Once a query is built using the Query Builder, it can be saved as a View. Users should be able to see and use Views in Mathesar just like Tables.

This page describes how Views should work.

Users should be able to:

  • See all views in a given schema
  • Find the view they want
  • Open a view

Interacting with a Single View

Once the user has opened a view, it should support the following features.

View Data

  • The user should be able to see the View’s columns and rows.
  • Users should be able to apply filters, sorts, and groups to the view data, similar to tables.

Editing View Data

  • The user should be able to edit data in rows if the column is editable.
    • Columns that use Formulas have different editing behavior depending on the formula.
    • Columns that are direct representations of data from an underlying table should be editable.
  • The user should be able to open up a form to edit the record of any cell with a single record as a source.

Column Information

The user should be able to see all column information for each view column. Please see 06. View Columns for details.

Query

Users should be able to see the underlying SQL query that powers the view. This is read-only, but can be copied and pasted.

We could also potentially show a read-only breakdown of the query into Query Builder features, but I’m not sure if this is feasible or would be a good idea.

View Structural Updates

Users should be able to perform the following actions:

  • Save filters and sorts applied in the UI to the View query (permanently applying those sorts/filters)
  • Save filters and sorts applied in the UI to a new View
  • Create a new “summarized” view of any groupings applied
  • Open the current view in the query builder to edit its structure