Views

Article
01/29/2024

Views in Dynamics 365 Business Central are used on list pages to define a different view of the data on a given page. Views can be defined for Pages, Page Extensions, and Page Customization. Views are defined on page extension objects to provide an alternative view of data and/or layout on an existing page. In views on page customization objects, they can be used to provide an alternative view for a certain profile.

A view offers:

Filtering on multiple table fields on the source table defined for the page.
Sorting of the data on multiple table fields, but only in one direction; either ascending or descending.
Layout changes, modifying page columns, moving them, etc.

Views are defined directly in code, on the list page that they modify. The defined view or views are available to the user through Filter Pane on a page and appear in the sequence that they're defined in code.

Note

allowDebugging doesn't apply to views. Views defined in an extension with allowDebugging set to false can still be copied using Designer.

Syntax

The following code snippet shows the syntax for defining a view on a page extension object. This view filters the Approved field to only show records that have been approved in a list. The code sets the Caption property to Approved and the Filters property to filter on the Approved field. The Filters property uses the where keyword to define the filter.

...
views
{
    view(OnlyApproved)
    {
        Caption = 'Approved';
        Filters = where(Approved = const(true));
    }
}
...

Snippet support

Typing the shortcut tview creates the basic layout for a view when using the AL Language extension for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central in Visual Studio Code.

Filtering and sorting

You can filter on the data in a view by using the Filters property. The following code is an example of the syntax:

Filters = where ("Balance (LCY)" = filter (> 500), Name = filter ('G*'));

For more information, see Filters.

You can sort on the data in a view by using the OrderBy property. The following code is an example of the syntax:

OrderBy = ascending ("Balance (LCY)", Name);

For more information, see OrderBy.

Note

All filters are applied to the table field(s), not the page field(s), which allows filtering on a table field not shown on the page.

Layout changes

By default, a view has same field layout as the page's All view, which means it shows the same columns, in the same order, with the same widths. The layout also has the same freeze column. This behavior is a basic experience in the case where defining a specific layout for the view isn't important. It's controlled by the SharedLayout property on the page view, which in this case is set to true. This layout is referred to as a shared layout view. The following example code illustrates a shared layout view:

view(SharedLayoutView) 

{ 
    // This view only define filters, but no specific layout. 
    // User personalization are applied on this view. 
    Caption = 'View With Shared Layout'; 
    Filters = where ("Balance (LCY)" = filter (> 500), Name = filter ('G*')); 
}

By contrast, you set the SharedLayout to false to design a unique layout view that defines its own layout and is independent from all other views. Any changes coded in the layout section are applied in the view. User personalizations made on the page aren't applied on the view. For example:

view(UniqueView)
{
    Caption = 'View With Unique Layout';
    Filters = where ("Balance (LCY)" = filter (> 500), Name = filter ('G*')); 
    // By setting this property to false, the view gets its own independent layout.
    // User personalization aren't applied on this view.
    // Instead, the layout defined below is applied.
    SharedLayout = false;
    
    layout
    {
        movefirst(Control1; "Balance Due (LCY)")
    }
}

Important

SharedLayout must be set to false to use a custom layout on the view (the layout section). A compiler error is reported otherwise.

View example

The following example shows a page customization of the Customer List page, which is available for a specific role center only; the My Role Center. Change the role center view under My Settings. The definition of the view adds a caption that's displayed on the left side in the UI. The view sorts the customer balance in ascending mode and the view modifies the layout by moving the customer balance first and adding a freeze column after it.

Important

The definition of the view section must come after any definition of layout and actions, otherwise you get a compiler error AL0577.

profile MyProfile
{
    Caption = 'My Role Center';
    RoleCenter = "Order Processor Role Center";
    Customizations = MyCustomization;
}

pagecustomization MyCustomization customizes "Customer List"
{
    layout
    {
        // Change the layout of the page
    }

    actions
    {
        // Add any actions to the page
    }

    views
    {
        addfirst
        {
            view(BalanceLCY)
            {
                Caption = 'Ordered Balance LCY';
                OrderBy = ascending ("Balance (LCY)");
                Filters = where ("Balance (LCY)" = filter (> 500), Name = filter ('G*'));
                SharedLayout = false;

                layout
                {
                    // Change the layout of the view

                    movefirst(Control1; "Balance (LCY)")

                    modify(Control1)
                    {
                        FreezeColumn = "Balance (LCY)";

                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }

Limitations

In general, views can in several ways be compared to page customizations. Here are the limitations of views:

For views, you can modify the same control properties as for page customization objects independently of where the view has been defined (page, page extension, or page customization level). This condition is validated by the compiler.
It isn't possible to use variables or methods in a view. When writing client-side expressions for properties like Visibility, it is only possible to use constant values or table field references. This condition is validated by the compiler.
It isn't possible to create new controls for a page from a view.