Introduction to Views 2.0 Why views? Advantages of using views over database queries Db query vs Views side by side comparison Theme-centric vs Logic-centric approaches to view creation A case study on 2 main strategies for creating views Views 2.0 Wrap Up & Q&A

1. Getting the most out of Views 2.0 Jay Callicott September 19, 2009 Drupal Camp Atlanta

2. Introduction: Session Outline Introduction to Views 2.0 Why views? Advantages of using views over database queries Db query vs Views side by side comparison Theme-centric vs Logic-centric approaches to view creation A case study on 2 main strategies for creating views Views 2.0 Wrap Up & Q&A

3. Introduction: Informal Poll How many beginner Drupal developers? Advanced? How many non-developers? How many here came to the conference for kicking the tires of Drupal? Training?

4. Introduction: Intended Audience Beginner to advanced developers The material is more advanced but I will try to not lose beginners Business Guys (Managers/Owners/CIOs) wanting to learn the power of Drupal

5. Introduction: Who Am I? Jay Callicott Mediacurrent web developer Drupal developer since 4.6 Started using Drupal in a part-time business I started several years ago Developed web applications for the state of Arkansas before this job Expert in PHP/mySQL and Drupal as well worked with Drupal versions: 4.6 / 4.7 / 5 / now 6

6. Introduction: What are views? Views are a critical feature of Drupal As big as CCK, robust theming layer, modular framework *Will be rolled into Drupal 7.0 core *Edit, this is not correct – I think I got confused with CCK? Views are for building arbitrary lists of content. Not unlike “lists” in Sharepoint, other CMS’s might have similar concepts Views can be blocks, pages, embedded Views can pull any type of Drupal content (nodes/users/etc) and do some amazing things all from the UI!

7. Introduction: Why did I create this session? This session is more me 1 year ago. Intended for someone who has used Drupal, even beginner-level who is trying to get a grasp of Views 2.0 Or for Drupal 5 developers getting a handle on the transition of Views 1.0 to 2.0 Views 2.0 can look intimidating at first

8. Why views? Advantages of using views over database queries The usual alternative to views is the quick db query Fetch results in module, spit out html Absolute control! Tempting if you are used to custom coding Fine for quick? Or is it? As requirements grow, code grows and maintenance becomes a problem Views can do simple and can grow as requirements grow Views are extremely flexible and scalable

9. Views vsdb_query comparison chart

10. More Views vsdb_query comparison chart

11. Db query vs Views – side by side comparison We will go screen by screen First create a module using custom db query Second create a view that does the same thing

13. Enabling the module…

14. Enabling the block…

15. Viola! Recent Stories Block v1

17. Recent Stories Block v2

18. Let’s Add a Subtitle! (Using CCK)

19. Need phpMyAdmin to analyze CCK

21. My first attempt = MySQL error

22. Recent Stories Block v3 – We’re done!

24. First screen

25. Add a filter…

26. Add a filter step 2

27. Add a limit (3)

28. Add a sort…

29. Add a sort step 2

30. Add style…

31. Add subtitle…

32. Add subtitle step 2

33. Add title link…

34. Add title link step 2

35. We’re done! Time to save.

36. Live preview!

37. Enable the recent stories block…

38. We’re done!

39. Theme-centric vs logic-centric approach to view creation Methodology is critical Especially with large projects Views 2.0 methodology approaches: look & feel or logic Documentation covers nuts & bolts, not strategy Views 1.0 didn’t have this problem Each list was usually it’s own view With 2.0 you can combine lists together

40. Theme-centric – aka look & feel Simple list Add displays for recent articles, recommended articles, popular, gear items, species All displays get rolled up into 1 view Image list Image on left Title, additional fields on the right Featured item 1 content item from a content type, big image, more fields, etc.

41. Logic-centric methodology Recent articles Add displays for species articles, gear articles / add displays for blocks / pages Most popular Add displays for species / gear / hunting / etc Related articles Gear, hunting articles that have a certain taxonomy term passed in through an argument E.g. you pass in ‘deer’, ‘fish’, whatever and get articles that have that term

42. Comparing the 2 approaches Both approaches sound reasonable My experience building around look & feel is much more maintainable and is more sustainable Logic approach can lead to much frustration

43. Comparing Approaches: L&F Sharing templates is easier Look is the same/similar you should share CSS Won’t have to branch off .tpl templates for different content

44. Comparing Approaches: Logic Maybe share templates What if the logic is similar but the look is different? Some displays might be pages, some blocks You could be forced to create a bunch of templates Template explosion can occur!

45. More on Logic regarding templates and CSS You have a recent articles block and a popular articles block across 2 views. Both have same look = similar .tpls and duplicated efforts Bloated CSS Views have different ids/classes (will show example later) Template Duplication Similar templates are created Template customization gets duplicated Maintenance becomes a nightmare

46. Comparing Approaches: L&F v. Logic Look & Feel You will override fields and some filters All the styles will be the same = consistency Logic You often override more here than in look & feel approach Maybe styles and filters and fields Views become very hard to maintain!

47. A Case Study on 2 Approaches

49. Guns admin view list…

50. Guns short teaser admin edit…

51. Guns short teaser admin edit #2…

52. Gun short teaser image CSS…

53. Petersen’s Hunting…

55. Hunting view admin screen…

56. Hunting Recommended Article CSS…

57. Wrap-up Covered basics of views, in detail why we should use them over custom code Showed side-by-side how creating a view over code is often preferred Covered 2 main approaches or strategies when creating views and the implications of these 2 main approaches Displayed a real-world scenario and explained implications for each strategy

58. Q&A Can views do ‘X/Y/Z’? Your specific business problem, can views help? General questions about Drupal? Mediacurrent? Got more questions later? Jay.callicott@mediacurrent.com or twitter http://twitter.com/drupalninja Thanks for coming!