Create and edit views

 

Applies To: Dynamics CRM 2013

Use views to define how a list of records for a specific entity is displayed in the application. A view defines:

  • The columns to display

  • How wide each column should be

  • How the list of records should be sorted by default

  • What default filters should be applied to restrict which records will appear in the list

A drop-down list of views is frequently displayed in the application so that people have options for different views of entity data.

The records that are visible in individual views are displayed in a list, sometimes called a grid, which frequently provides options so that people can change the default sorting, column widths, and filters to more easily see the data that’s important to them. Views also define the data source for charts that are used in the application.

In This Topic

Types of views

Accessing view definitions

Specify default views

Create and edit views

Choose and configure columns

Edit filter criteria

Configure sorting

Remove views

Dependencies

Managed properties

Types of views

There are three types of views, personal, system, and public views.

Personal views

You and anyone else who has at least User level access to actions for the Saved View entity can also create personal views. As system administrator, you can modify the access level for each action in the security role to control the depth to which people can create, read, write, delete, assign, or share personal views.

Personal views are owned by individuals and, because of their default User level access, they are visible only to that person or anyone else they choose to share their personal views with. You can create personal views by saving a query that you define by using Advanced Find or by using the Save Filters as New Views and Save Filters to Current View options in the list of views. These views are typically included at the bottom in lists of system or public views that are available in the application. While you can create a new personal view based on a system or public view, you cannot create a system or public view based on a personal view.

This topic is about how system administrators and system customizers work with system and public views. For more information about personal views, see Create, edit, or save an Advanced Find search.

System views

As a system administrator or system customizer, you can edit system views. System views are special views the application depends on, which exist for system entities or are automatically created when you create custom entities. These views have specific purposes and some additional capabilities.

System Views

Description

Quick Find

The default view used when searches are performed using Quick Find. This view also defines which fields are searched when using search capabilities of Quick Find and Lookup views.

Advanced Find

The default view used to display results when using Advanced Find. This view also defines the columns used by default when new custom public views or personal views are created without defining a view to use as a template.

Associated

The default view that lists the related entities for a record.

Lookup

The view you see when you select a record to set for a lookup field.

These views are not shown in the view selector and you can’t use them in sublists in a form or as a list in a dashboard. You cannot delete or deactivate these views. More information: Remove views

System views are owned by the organization so that everyone can see them. For example, everyone has organization-level access to read records for the View (savedquery) entity. These views are associated with specific entities and are visible within the solution explorer. You can include these views in solutions because they are associated with the entity.

Public views

Public views are general purpose views that you can customize as you see fit. These views are available in the view selector and you can use them in sub-grids in a form or as a list in a dashboard. Some public views exist by default for system entities and for any custom entity. For example, when you create a new custom entity, it will have the following combination of public and system views.

Name

Type

Active <entity plural name>

Public

Inactive <entity plural name>

Public

Quick Find Active <entity plural name>

Quick Find

<entity name> Advanced Find View

Advanced Find

<entity name> Associated View

Associated

<entity name> Lookup View

Lookup

You can create custom public views. You can delete any custom public views you create in an unmanaged solution. You cannot delete any system-defined public views. Custom public views added by importing a managed solution may have managed properties set that can prevent them from being deleted, except by uninstalling the managed solution.

Accessing view definitions

There are several ways you can access view definitions if you are a system administrator or customizer. On any list view for an entity, in the command bar you will find the following commands after you click or tap the ellipsis (More commands) button:

  • View: Opens the definition of the current view in the default solution.

  • New System View: Opens a new window to create a new view for the current entity in the default solution.

  • Customize Entity: Takes you to the definition of the current entity in the default solution where you can then select Views.

  • System Views: Opens the same window as Customize Entity, except with Views selected.

Alternatively, you can navigate to the view definitions in the default solution by using the following steps:

Open a view

  1. On the nav bar, click or tap Microsoft Dynamics CRM > Settings.

  2. In the Navigation Pane, click or tap Settings > Customization > Customizations. Then click or tap Customize the System.

  3. Under Components, expand Entities, and then expand the entity you want.

  4. Click Views.

  5. Double-click the view you want to open.

This list of views has four filters you can use to find the views you want more easily:

  • All Active Views

  • Active Public Views

  • Inactive Public Views

  • Active System-Defined Views

If the entity that the view is associated with is part of an unmanaged solution, you can still create or edit views for that entity in the default solution. System views are associated with an entity and are not available as separate solution components. Unlike fields, views do not use a customization prefix in a unique name that should be consistent in a solution, so you do not need to create views in the context of a solution.

Specify default views

Unless someone has ‘pinned’ a different view as their personal default, they will see the default view that you specify. You can set any of the public views as the default view for an entity.

Set the default view for an entity

  1. Navigate to Views as described in Accessing view definitions.

  2. Select a Public view.

  3. On the menu bar, click More Actions > Set Default.

  4. Click Publish All Customizations.

Create and edit views

You can create custom public views by editing existing views and saving them with a different name or by creating a new view.

Also see Create or edit a public view for an entity.

Create a new view

  1. As described in Accessing view definitions, from a list view for the entity, on the command bar, select New System View.

  2. In the View Properties dialog box, provide a Name and optionally a Description for the view.

  3. After you close the properties dialog you can do the following:

    • Choose and configure columns.

    • Edit filter criteria.

    • Configure sorting.

  4. When you are finished, click Save and Close.

  5. Click Publish All Customizations.

Edit a view

  1. In the Navigation Pane, click or tap Settings > Customization > Customizations. Then click or tap Customize the System.

  2. Click or tap Customizations > Customize the System.

  3. Under Components, expand Entities, and then expand the entity you want.

  4. Click Views.

  5. Double-click the view you want to edit.

  6. To change the Name or the Description for the view, click View Properties.

  7. Do the following:

    • Choose and configure columns.

    • Edit filter criteria.

    • Configure sorting.

  8. When you are finished, click Save and Close.

  9. Click Publish All Customizations.

Create a new view from an existing view

Follow the procedure to edit a view, except instead of clicking Save and Close, clickSave As and enter a new Name and Description for the view.

Choose and configure columns

Along with the filter criteria, the columns visible in a view are very important to the value provided by the view. When Create and edit views you can perform the following tasks with columns:

  • Add columns

  • Remove columns

  • Change column width

  • Move a column

  • Enable or disable presence for a column

  • Add find columns

Add columns

You can include columns from the current entity or any of the related entities that have a 1:N entity relationship with the current entity.

For example, perhaps you want to display the owner of a user-owned entity in a column. You can choose the Owner field of the current entity to display the name of the owner. This will appear as a link to open the User record for the person who is the owner. In this case, you also have the option to Enable or disable presence for a column.

If you want to display the phone number for the owner of the record, you must select Owning User (User) from the Record type drop-down and then select the Main Phone field.

Add columns to views

  1. While Create and edit views click Add Columns and the Add Columns dialog box appears.

  2. Select the Record type if you want to include fields from related entities.

  3. You can select multiple fields, even from related entities.

  4. When you have selected the fields you want, click OK to close the Add Columns dialog box.

As you add columns, you will increase the width of the view. If the width of the view exceeds the space available to show it in the page, horizontal scrollbars will allow people to scroll and see the hidden columns.

Tip

If your view filters on data for a certain field so that only records with a certain value are shown, don’t include that column in the view. For example, if you are only showing active records, don’t include the status column in the view. Instead, name the view to indicate that all the records shown in the view are active.

Note

When you add columns to Lookup views for updated entities, only the first three columns will be displayed.

Remove columns

  1. While Create and edit views, click the column you want to remove.

  2. In the Common Tasks area, click Remove.

  3. In the confirmation message, click OK.

Change column width

  1. While Create and edit views, click the column you want to change.

  2. In the Common Tasks area, click Change Properties.

  3. In the Change Column Properties dialog box, click an option to set the column width, and then click OK.

Move a column

  1. While Create and edit views, click the column you want to move.

  2. In the Common Tasks area, use the arrows to move the column left or right.

Enable or disable presence for a column

When the following conditions are true, people can a see a Microsoft Lync online presence control in lists that shows if the person is available and allows people to interact with them by IM:

  • People use Internet Explorer.

  • People have the Lync application installed.

  • People have Microsoft ActiveX enabled in Internet Explorer.

  • Your organization has enabled presence for the system in the system settings.

The presence control and the setting to enable it are available only for columns that display primary fields for email-enabled entities (users, contacts, opportunities, leads, or custom entities).

Enable or disable Lync presence for a column

  1. While Create and edit views, click the column you want to change.

  2. In the Common Tasks area, click Change Properties.

  3. In the Change Column Properties dialog box, select or deselect Enable presence for this column, and then click OK.

Add find columns

Find columns are the columns searched by the application when people use the search for records text box displayed for lists or whenever there is the ability to search for records for an entity in the application, such as when people are searching for a record for a lookup field.

  1. Open a Quick Find view as described in Create and edit views.

  2. Click Add Find Columns to open the dialog box.

  3. Select the fields that contain the data that you want to search for.

  4. Click OK to close the Add Find Columns dialog box.

Edit filter criteria

Along with the columns displayed in the view, the filter criteria that are applied to a view are a critical part of the value provided by the view.

  1. While Create and edit views, click Edit Filter Criteria.

  2. The dialog shows a user interface similar to Advanced Find. You can use AND and OR clauses to specify and group criteria.

  3. Click OK to close the Edit Filter Criteria dialog box.

More information: Create, edit, or save an Advanced Find search

Configure sorting

  1. While Create and edit views, click Configure Sorting.

  2. In the Configure Sort Order dialog box, in the Sort By list, select the column you want to sort, then click Ascending Order or Descending Order.

  3. Click OK to close the Configure Sort Order dialog box.

Remove views

Sometimes you have a view that you don’t want people to see. Depending on the type of view, you can either delete it or deactivate it.

Delete a view

You can delete any custom public view. Use the steps in Accessing view definitions to find the view you want to delete and use the delete Delete command. Once you verify that you really want to delete it, the view will be permanently deleted.

If you don’t want to delete the view permanently, you can deactivate it instead.

Deactivate or activate views

You cannot delete or deactivate any System views, including public views the system created. You can deactivate any public view, including public views the system created

Deactivate or activate a public view

  1. Navigate to System Views as described in Accessing view definitions.

  2. Select a public view. To see inactive views, use the Inactive Public Views view.

  3. On the menu bar, click More Actions, and then click either Deactivate or Activate.

  4. Click Publish All Customizations.

Dependencies

Views are dependent on the fields that they display. The fields are required components for a view. If you have a custom field that is included in a view, you will not be able to delete that field while it is included in the definition of a view. Because views are usually presented as a list, other solution components are usually not dependent on a specific view. A chart may use a view as a data source, but it can use any of the views for an entity.

View the solution components with dependencies on views

  1. Navigate to System Views as described in Accessing view definitions.

  2. Select a view.

  3. On the menu bar, click More Actions > Show Dependencies.

The Dependencies dialog box will list any dependent or required solution components for the view.

Managed properties

If you create a custom public view that you want to include in a managed solution that you will distribute, you have the option to limit the ability of anyone who is installing your solution from customizing the view.

By default, most views have their Customizable managed property set to true so that people can customize them. Unless you have a very good reason to change this, we recommend you allow people to customize views you create.

Set managed properties for a view

  1. Navigate to System Views as described in Accessing view definitions.

  2. Select a custom public view.

  3. On the menu bar, click More Actions > Managed properties.

  4. Set the Customizable option to True or False.

Note

This setting does not take effect until you export a solution that contains the view as a managed solution and install it in a different organization.

See Also

Customization Guide for Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2013
What's new for customization
Getting started with customization
Customization overview
Create and edit metadata
Create and design forms
Customize CRM for tablets
Create and edit processes
Create and edit business rules
Create or edit a public view for an entity
Create, edit, or save an Advanced Find search

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