Views Guide

What is a View?

dForge has two related view systems that work together:

Data views are saved multi-record screen configurations — grids, kanbans, calendars. They’re attached to menu items: when a user clicks a menu item, the matching data view loads.
Entity views are per-folder column configurations and form layouts for a single record. They control which columns a user can see when opening a record from a folder, and how the form is laid out.

Together they let the same entity look completely different in two folders — different columns, different forms, different filters — without duplicating the underlying table.

Data View Types

Type	Best for	Description
Grid	Lists of records	Spreadsheet-style table with sortable columns, inline editing, and selection. Always available.
Kanban	Pipeline tracking	Board grouped by a status/category field. Requires the entity to have a status field.
List	Compact browsing	Title + subtitle template, good for simple data and mobile.
Calendar	Date-based records	Month/week/day calendar. Requires a date field.
Timeline	Scheduled work	Gantt-style timeline. Requires start and end date fields.
Gallery	Image-heavy data	Card grid with image thumbnails. (Planned.)

The card view isn’t a data view type — it’s the single-record form rendered from an entity view’s layout when a user opens a row.

If a client receives a view type it doesn’t support — or one that doesn’t fit the entity (e.g., kanban without a status field) — it falls back to grid automatically.

Grid View

The default and most common view. Features:

Column configuration — choose which fields appear, their order, and width
Sorting — click column headers to sort ascending/descending
Inline editing — double-click a cell to edit in place
Selection — checkbox column for bulk operations
Aggregations — footer row with sum, count, average, min, max per column
Master-detail — expand a row to show related child records

Card (Single-Record Form)

The detail form for a single record. Layouts are defined per entity view, so the same entity can have different forms in different folders. Layouts are made up of two element types:

columnGroup — a section of fields rendered together. Maps to entity column groups, which can show as two-line headers in grids.
set — an inline detail grid for a child set field (master-detail), e.g., invoice lines inside an invoice form.

Both element types specify the exact list of fields to render, in order. Formula columns and generated aggregates display alongside physical fields.

Kanban View

Board layout grouped by a field value. Configuration:

Group field — which field determines the columns (e.g., Status, Stage)
Title field — what to show as the card title
Subtitle fields — additional fields shown on each card

Drag and drop a card between columns to update the group field value.

Calendar View

Displays records on a calendar. Configuration:

dateField — which field positions the event
titleField — what to show on the event

Timeline View

Gantt-style timeline. Configuration:

startField / endField — date range fields
titleField — bar label

List View

Compact list with title and subtitle template. Configuration:

titleField — the primary display field
subtitleField — secondary information

Data Sources

A data view declares one or more dataSources — the entities and columns it shows.

Single Entity (Most Common)

{
  "viewType": "grid",
  "dataSources": [
    {
      "entityCode": "product",
      "level": 0,
      "columns": ["name", "sku", "category", "price", "quantity"]
    }
  ]
}

Master-Detail (Hierarchical)

A parent entity at level: 0 with detail entities at level: 1+. The relationship follows a set field on the parent. Rows expand to show their children.

{
  "viewType": "grid",
  "dataSources": [
    { "entityCode": "order", "level": 0,
      "columns": ["order_number", "order_date", "status", "total"] },
    { "entityCode": "order_detail", "level": 1,
      "parentSetField": "details",
      "columns": ["product_id", "quantity", "price", "amount"] }
  ]
}

Same-Level Union

Multiple entities at level 0, shown together — works best when they share common columns (e.g., a unified “recent activity” list).

View Columns

Columns can be written as plain strings (just the column code) or as objects with overrides. Both forms can be mixed:

"columns": [
  "name",
  { "column_cd": "sku", "width": 120 },
  { "column_cd": "internal_note", "visible": false },
  "price"
]

Property	Description
`column_cd`	Column code (matches an `entity_column.column_cd`)
`width`	Column width in pixels (grid)
`visible`	Whether the column is shown by default

The string form is preferred in module packages for brevity; user-customized views serialize as objects to preserve widths and visibility.

Filters

Filter Composition

Every query is filtered by four layers that are AND-ed together at the database:

Layer	Source	Purpose
1. Folder filter	The folder’s `row_filter`	Scopes data to the folder’s context (e.g., warehouse, division)
2. View filter	The data view’s `filter`	Narrows to a view-specific subset (e.g., `amount > 1000`)
3. Security filter	Row-level security rules	Enforces access control (e.g., own records only)
4. User ad-hoc filter	UI filter bar	Temporary filters the user adds at runtime

This is why folders can be thought of as dynamic filtered views: the folder layer alone determines which records ever appear in any view inside it.

User Filters

Users can add filters per column at runtime:

Text: contains, equals, starts with
Number: equals, greater than, less than, between
Date: equals, before, after, between, today, this week, this month
Dropdown/Flags: is, is not, is any of
Lookup: is, is not (search-based)

Column-Level Security

Entity views also act as the column-level security layer. The entity_v_column rows for a view list which columns are accessible — anything not listed is hidden, and the user can’t query it. Different folders can bind the same entity to different entity views, so a Storekeeper folder can expose quantity and location while an Accounting folder exposes price, cost, and margin on the exact same product table.

Aggregations

Grid views can show footer aggregations per column. Available aggregation types depend on the field type:

Aggregation	Supported types
Sum	number, currency
Count	all types
Average	number, currency, percent
Min	number, currency, date, datetime
Max	number, currency, date, datetime

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