Views.pl

Option avaible for the views config

This link is an 'How to' about views with examples.

The general form of views definition is

 $c->{browse_views} = [
   { <first browse definition> },
   { <second browse definition> },
   ...
   { <last browse definition> },
 ];

(be careful about commas and semicolons). The order of the browse definitions determines the order in which these will appear in the http://repoid/view/ page.

Each browse definition is a collection of attributes, given as

   attribute1 => value1,
   attribute2 => value2,
   ...

(again, the value should end by a comma). The value can be

• string enclosed by quotation marks (") or by apostrophes (');
• array which starts by a square bracket [ followed by the elements of the array (separated by commas) and closed by ]; or
• hash which is a list of attribute&endash;value pairs enclosed into curly brackets.

Thus the browse views definition is an array of hashes.

Basic attributes

id (mandatory)

String, this is the ID by which you will refer to this view, and also the name of the top directory in http://yourrepo/view/. This is the value of the browse_link attribute in eprint_fields.pl. Example:

   id => 'divisions',

fields (deprecated)

This attribute describes the field(s) by which the view is built. It has been replaced by the more general menus attribute.

nolink

When this is set to 1 by adding

 nolink => 1,

then this view won't appear in the outmost http://repoid/view/ browse page.

max_menu_age

Defaults to 86400 (one day in seconds). If the menus in this view has been generated more than that many seconds ago, it is regenerated.

max_list_age

Defaults to 86400 (one day in seconds). If the lists in this view were generated more than than many seconds ago, it is regenerated.

allow_null, new_column_at, hideempty, render_menu

These define the default values of the same attributes in all menus. I.e, if not defined otherwise there, they take this as the default value in this view.

menus

An array of menu descriptions (see below). Each menu is a refinement of the previous ones. In each menu, as minimum, you should give the fields which are used to define the menu. Thus a menus definition looks like

 menus => [
    { <first menu definition> },
    { <second menu definition which is the refinement of the first> },
    { <third level menu definition> },
 ],

If there is only one menu definition, then the browse will be flat, otherwise you'll get links to the next level.

Options in menus

menus => fields

An array of field identifiers. Only those items are considered which appear in all fields. For example, to define a list of those those who are both authors and editors at the same time (but not necessarily of the same item):

   fields => [ "creators_id", "editors_id" ],

Even if there is a single field, you must use square brackets, such as

   fields => [ "subjects" ],

You can also add extra rendering info to the field name, without the "render_" prefix. For example, to make a date have resolution year, you would write

   fields => [ "date;res=year" ],

or, not complaining about unexisting names and using the magicsstop feature, use

   fields => [ "creators_name;magicstop=1;quiet=1" ],

See the Metadata section about available rendering properties of different fields.

menus => allow_null

If one of the fields value is undefined, that entry does not show up in the generated view. To allow items with undefined value to appear as well, set

 allow_null => 1,

Be beware: the title of the undefined entries will be the ugly UNDEFINED. You can redefine this to something else in the system.xml file.

menus => hideempty

If a category is empty, don't show it as an entry. Default value: show all entries, even if they contain no entries. Example:

   hideempty => 1,

menus => reverse_order

If set, then the ordering of items in this menu is reversed. Example:

   reverse_order => 1,

menus => mode

Possible values: sections and default (default). When defined as sections then grouping can be defined by the following data:

• grouping_function (group by first character if not defined)
• group_sorting_function (how to sort members of a group)
• group_range_function

menus => render_menu

The configuration parameter which renders this menu. This should be a string, and also you should define a routine with the same name. For example if you choose

   render_menu => 'render_view_menu_3col_boxes',

then this menu will be rendered by the routine which is defined in views_render_menu_example.pl as

 $c->{render_view_menu_3col_boxes} = sub
 {
      ...
 }

See there for hints how to tweak your own routine.

New features

render_menu

The name of a config element which defines a function with an alternate way to render the menu page for a view. For an example, try looking in lib/defaultcfg/cfg.d/views_render_menu_example.pl

new_column_at

This is an array of integers representing the number of items in a view list before another column is added. For example:

[ 10 ]

This would have one column of values until there were 11, then there would be 2 columns.

[ 10, 10 ]

This would have one column if there were ten or less values, two columns if there were between eleven and twenty (ten + ten) values, and three columns for all other cases.

[ 0, 0 ]

This would always have three columns.

Add one to the number of integers in the array and you get the maximum number of columns. The value of each integer defines the point at which that column becomes full, and more values cause an 'overflow' into the next column.

variations

The following options are available:

reverse	Reverses the order in which the groupings are shown. Default is the ordervalue for that field (usually alphanumeric). Useful for dates as you may want the highest values first.
filename	Changes the filename of the view variation. The default is the name of the metadata field used, so if two variations use the same metadata field with different options, this is needed. filename=different_filename
first_value	If a field is multiple, only use the first value. Otherwise each item will appear once for each value.
first_initial	If using a name, truncate the given name to the first initial. This will make items like "Les Carr" and "Leslie Carr" appear together. Note it will also make "John Smith" and "Jake Smith" appear together too, showing that you really never can win.
first_letter	The same as 'truncate=1'
truncate	Use the first X characters of a value to group by. truncate=4 may be useful for dates as it will group by the first four digits (the year) only. truncate=4
tags	Useful for fields like keywords where values may be separated by commas or semi-colons. The value is split on these two characters ( , and ; ) and a heading is created for each.
cloud	Creates a tag cloud. Sets jump to 'plain', cloudmax to 200, cloudmin to 80 and no_separator, then resizes the jump-to links according to frequency of use.
cloudmax	The % size of the largest tag in a tag cloud.
cloudmin	The % size of the smallest tag in a tag cloud.
jump	jump=plain Turns of the 'jump to' text before the list of subheading navigation links.
no_seperator (sic)	Turns of the separator between each subheading navigation link (by default a vertical bar symbol).
string	Uses values 'as is'. No ordervalues, no phrases.
hideup (since 3.1.1)	Defaults to "0". If set to "1" this hides the "up to parent" link (often you want to hide this on .include files)
render_fn	Name of a function to render this groupings list of items. For an example, see views_render_items_example.pl