Working with Columns and Data Views

Overview

The ability to create, save, and manage data views is one of most useful features available to program administrators using Zengine. These data views allow you to define exactly which records and data you want to see at a glance, and multiple different data views can be saved and selected from at any time so that the most useful information you need right now doesn't have to be created from scratch over and again. Grouping, sorting and showing or hiding specific data columns allows you to manipulate your data how you see fit. These features can be used together and alongside the filter tool to create highly specific data views that only show the data you need at any given time.

This article will cover how to show or hide specific fields on a form as columns and reordering those columns, sort records based on a specific column, display records grouped together based on the values in one or more fields, save data views, and managing views (such as selecting a default view, editing view names, or deleting views).

This article does not cover the filter tool. For more information on using the filter tool, see the article Filtering.

Show/Hide Columns

The example image below shows a data view from a workspace with a form called Application (currently selected) that contains fields such as Project Name, Project Start Date, First Name, Last Name, and Project Impacts. These fields manifest themselves as columns in the data view.

You can easily change which columns are visible on a given data view and the order in which they appear. To show or hide columns on a data view, begin by selecting the Show/Hide Columns button located below the form tabs and above the data grid portion of the screen.

After selecting this icon, a dropdown will appear with a list of fields within that form. It will also display columns from related forms based on the linked fields (see below, Columns from Linked Forms), as well as any summary fields.

Check the box next to a field/column name to show it on the data view. Uncheck the box to hide it.

(Note that newly shown columns usually appear to the right of existing columns; if several columns are already shown on a data view and take up the full screen, you may need to scroll to the right to see the newly added columns. You can re-order them once they are visible by dragging-and-dropping the column headings to where the columns should be placed in the data view.)

The columns and data that appear in the Show/Hide Columns options include any field on the form being viewed, fields from some linked forms (see Columns from Linked Forms below), and several items of data that are better termed "characteristics" of a form than fields - including:

ID - the numerical record ID that Zengine uses to keep track of unique records.
Created By User - the email address of the workspace user who created the record.
Created Date - the date the record was created.
Modified Date - the date the record was last modified or edited (this includes things like folder changes).
Draft - if a record is a Draft, the record will display a check in this column. Complete records will be blank in this column.
Folder - displays the folder status of the record. If the form has no folders set up, this option will not appear in the Show/Hide Columns dropdown.

Columns from Linked Forms

You can also show columns from some linked forms on a data view. This is especially useful if you need a view that combines information collected at different points in time on different forms.

In the Show/Hide Columns dropdown, you may see some fields appear as options that are preceded by the name of a different form. For example, in the image below (creating a data view on the Application form), the red box highlights fields from the PROFILE form, which the Application form is linked to.

Selecting checkboxes next to these fields will make the column headings appear on the data view as a difference color. (This color is not always consistent on a specific data view, but columns from the same form will always have the same color heading.)

Columns representing fields from linked forms can be added to a data view according the following rules:

Columns can be added from any parent form
Columns can be added from a child form in a one-to-one relationship
Columns can NOT be added from a child form in a one-to-many relationship

For more information on linked forms and form relationships, see the article Linking Forms.

Reordering Columns

You can also change the order in which the columns appear: simply select a column heading with your cursor and drag-and-drop it to the left or the right of the data view on your screen. The column (and its data) will appear where you release it.

Sorting

Sorting allows you to view data in a specific field in ascending or descending order. If you click on a specific field's column header, an arrow will appear in the header and the records will be sorted according to the data in that column.

If you click on that field's column header again, the arrow will flip upside down and your data will be sorted in reverse order.

An upwards-facing arrow indicates that the records are sorted in ascending order of the data in that column (from A to Z or, if a number field, going from lowest to highest). A downward-facing arrow indicates that the records are sorted in descending order (from Z to A or highest to lowest), according to the data in that column.

Grouping

Grouping allows you to sort records according to similar values in a specific field. This is done by dragging-and-dropping a column heading to the Grouped by: box above the data view. For example, perhaps the field is State, and you want to group the entries by State such that the New York entries are grouped together and the New Jersey entries are grouped together.

In the image below, the administrator wants to group application records by Folder status to easily identify which stage of the program process the applications are in.

To accomplish this, the administrator dragged-and-dropped the Folder column header to the Grouped by box, located just above the data grid area:

Once one or more column headings have been added to the Grouped by box, the display will change slightly to show the grouping column heading:

More than one column heading can be dragged to the Grouped by box. Doing so will add subgroups to each group. For example, let's say that you wanted to group records by Folder first, and then by application year. Adding these two columns to the Grouped by box - in that order - would first group the records by Folder status, and then by Application Year within each folder status grouping:

The order can be reversed to affect the grouping: dragging Application Year from the right of the Folder status to the left will change the order of the grouping levels, so that records will be grouped by Application Year first, and by Folder status within each application year.

To remove a column heading from the Grouped by box, simply select the gray X next to the category label.

Saving a View

Once you have arranged your columns and sorted and grouped your data, you may decide that you want this to be a view that you utilize again. You can save this view so that next time, you can select the view instead of resorting and regrouping your data again. If you create a data view and do not save it, the view will disappear if you leave the page, navigate to a different form, or select a different saved view.

Keep in mind that saved data views are accessible by any member of a workspace; if you create a new view or change an existing one, those changes will be the same for all workspace members - not just the person who made the change.

Upon making any change to a data view, the following message will appear in a yellow box at the top of the the data grid area: The view has changed. Save view or save as new view.

Select Save view in order to overwrite a preexisting saved data view with your changes, or select save as new view to create a new saved data view.

Electing to save a new data view will bring up this a pop-up message prompting you to name your new data view:

Name your view and select Save. You will now see it as an option in Data Views dropdown (see Managing Saved Views below).

Notes:

Data views are saved and accessed on specific forms; a different form will have different saved data views, or none at all.
Overwriting a saved data view will change the view for all members of the workspace.
Creating a new data view will be visible to all workspace members who have permission to access that form (though those permissions may prevent them from seeing some records included in that view). Because of this, it's often helpful to name a new data view descriptively, so that the purpose of the data view is intelligible to everyone else.
There is a limit of 100 columns that can be included in any saved data view. You may add more than 100 columns to a data view, but attempting to save that data view will produce an error message.
There is a limit of 60 saved data views across the entire workspace. These can be distributed across different forms in any way you want.

Accessing Saved Data Views

Once you have at least one saved data view, you can access the different views through the Data View dropdown, located above the data grid area and to the right of the Show/Hide Columns icon. The dropdown button will display the name of the currently selected data view.

Select this dropdown menu to display a list of currently saved data views. Select one of the views to display that saved view.

Managing Saved Views

You can take this a step further, such that your view is set as the default view each time you enter the workspace. Under the View dropdown, select Manage Views.

Open the Data View dropdown and select the Manage Views option at the bottom.

This will open a screen overlay that allows you to rename a view, delete views, or set one as a default option.

A - Rename View: Select this button for a specific data view to rename that view.
B - Delete View: Select the red delete button to delete a view. You will be asked to confirm deletion before the view is deleted.
C - Default View: Select Set as Default View to make a specific data view the default view. This means that this data view will be the one that appears whenever you first navigate to a form in your workspace.
- The currently set default view will display Current Default View instead of "Set as Default View" (see image above). Only one default view can be set at a time. However, the default view can be cleared so that no view is set as the default. In this case, the data view will display all fields on the form as columns in the same order as they appear on the form, but no system-related fields (such as Folder, Date Created, etc. See the section Show/Hide Columns above for more information on system-related fields.)

NOTE: You must be hold a Zengine member role at the Administrator or Owner level to set a default view, as it will set the view as default for all workspace users.

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Contents

Overview