View source

== Introduction ==
Creating a View is a little more tricky because of the 
security steps involved. Views handle the presentation and 
organization of all the data in the system. It's what outputs 
data in a way that the user's browser can understand. While a 
DBObject handles the loading and saving of data records, the 
View helps choose how to present it and what other objects to 
combine it with. When using the [[Developer Utilities]], you can 
have it automatically generate a template view based on the control you make 
which you can later customize.

== Creating the ViewObject ==

This tutorial assumes you are using the examples from the [[DBObject]] tutorial.

{{SVN|scripts/templates/view.template}}

Open the view template file. Rename the class to something more reasonable. Usually, you 
will want to name the view the plural form of whatever 
[[DBObject|DBObjects]] it will be responsible for managing. In our case, 
we'll call this view '''“Breeds”''' and name the file '''/view/breeds.view.php'''. 

Change instances of “TemplateObj” to the name of the 
DBObject you are using. In our case, “Breed”. This template 
gives us enough boilerplate code to display a tabular list of 
all our objects, pull up an editor form, save the information 
from the editor, and delete entries. You can repeat these steps 
for a “Pets” view.

Once your “Pets” view is created and both tables are 
populated with data, you will notice that when you edit a Pet 
instance, it allows you to select the Breed from a drop-down 
list. The system knows enough about the setup of your tables to 
populate and prepare this form automatically. 

Some protected template values are available within the 
context of the View object automatically that give convenient 
access to the User_ID, Vendor_ID, Authenticated status, etc... 

== Adding the View to the System ==
  
Now that you have created the view, you must add it to the 
system and grant permissions to the proper user types. Consult 
the vendor & system administration manuals for more 
information. 

== Advanced ViewObject Tactics ==
  
You can add additional actions to your view. Simply create 
new public functions that echo output to stdout. You can call 
these functions with [[DBObject#.24MyObj-.3Eeditor|$DBObject->editor()]] callbacks and [[Link|Link]] library 
calls. Check out the template's edit(), save(), and delete() 
functions for insight into how to achieve your goal. 

Second, you can customize the built-in functions to achieve 
a particular interface style or to limit the data fields the 
user is allowed to modify. Consult with the appropriate [[:Category:Libraries|Library]] 
section for more information. 

[[Category:View]]