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Views

A view is a saved selection on a schema: which columns to show, how to filter, and how to sort. In the web UI views appear as the saved filters above a record list, so the filters a team keeps reaching for are one click away. Views belong to a schema, not to a person or a collection: a view on recording applies to every recording record, in every collection.

Creating a view

Open a collection (or a schema's Browse records page, which spans every collection), set up the list the way you want it, and click Save as view…:

  • Filters — an AND/OR tree of conditions. A condition can test the schema's own fields, a parent record's fields, or any child record's fields, so a view on encounter can be "encounters that have a selection whose selection_table is empty".
  • Columns — pick fields and their order. A column may be inherited from a parent schema, or join one hop through a reference field using dotted notation, e.g. customer.email.
  • Sort — a field, ascending or descending; it may be an inherited field.

Name it however you like — spaces, capitals, punctuation and accents are all fine (Needs review (QC)). The only things a name can't contain are /, \ and control characters.

Using, changing and removing a view

Click a saved filter to apply it; click it again to drop it. Change the filters, sort or columns and the view shows as modified: Save overwrites it, Save as view… makes a new one. Use the ⋮ menu next to the applied view to rename or delete it. Deleting a view only removes the saved selection; no records are affected.

Exporting a view

civex view export <schema> "<view name>"
civex view export trial "Active trials" --format json
civex view export trial active --output active.csv

Output defaults to <view>.csv (or .json with --format json). If any column is a file/file_list field, the export is a .zip bundling the data file alongside the referenced attachments instead.

Apply the view and click Export, or export any list you have filtered in a collection — it downloads exactly the rows listed.

Both paths honor the view's saved filter and sort. CSV headers use the dotted ref_field.target_field convention for joined columns; JSON nests them instead — {"customer.email": "a@x"} becomes {"customer": {"email": "a@x"}}.