Notes from moving from Drupal Views 2 to Views 3 Alpha

Jul 17, 2010

I decided to jump into Views Alpha 3 because I wanted to explore the Views Infinite Scroll module, and I have a friend using it on a large production site without any problems. Here are some notes from the upgrade experience.
No update.php run was required - nice.

I did get a WSOD on the /admin/build/views page, but I CTFC and all was good.

Here's the new interface, which looks a lot like the old one:

On one of my side blocks, a pager suddenly appeared, so I had to change the pagination settings here:

This is cool, the number of items and pagination settings have merged into a single setting.

I also started to notice that the configuration blocks are ordered a bit differently. There are basic and advanced settings panes now, and the new ordering does seem to make more sense, though it's hard to tell if it would make more sense to someone new to Views.

Ah, I've been wanting this feature, the ability to re-order the displays.

When setting pagination options, you can expose inputs for the number to show and the offset. Even though I think this is usually clutter, it's a common request from clients to have the ability to set the number displayed.

I installed the Views Infinite Scroll module (and the associated jQuery plugin, after some wheel spinning), and selected it as the pager option for my view. At that point, it said that it was incompatible with Ajax, which makes the search box above my view less responsive. So, I'll have to leave it to the default Views pager. I also kept getting this error, even after turning Ajax off on the view:

My friend also suggested that I upgrade Views Bulk Operations to the latest 6-3 dev release, which at the moment is here. No problems there, and it also didn't require an update via update.php.

Defaults Block Defaults Default settings for this VIEW Page Add display) (Reorder) Analyze View settings Description/Tag: None Bask settings Name: Defaults Title: None Use pager: 10 Hems ft More Ink: No Access: Unrestncted Advanced settings Use AJAX No Distirct: No Use grouping: No Caching: None Style settings Style: HTML Ust ft Row style: Fields fc CSS class: None Theme: Information Header Nore defined Footer None defined Empty text None defined Fields Node: Title Exposed form Exposed form in block: No Exposed form style: ftl Basic Relationships None defined i«fl Aieuments None defined Sort criteria Node; Niddesc Filters Node: Type Blog entry •lede: Publ snec Yes CRITERIA Default settings for ttiis None Arguments III PAGER items INK NE desc Hade: Node Published CSS class: style: Page ktj display) ID Nid Type Mode List Fields -scrijucio Tag. itle grcjn n3 etas itle ll. J RI FILIP n.j- hi rforma- li -L-J JAL MM ill Add .'■dd -10 Basic settings NAME Defaurts Use pager: 10 Hems PHI IR| ACCESS Unrestricted PAGE items Defaults Block Add display Defaults Default settings for this View settings Description/Tag: None Basic settings NAME Defaults Title: None Use pager: ID items More link: No Access Unrestricted INK di HAD ■b-i TAG faults PIG dd ROI "Exposed options- Exposing this options allows users to define their values in exposed form when view is displayed Expose items per page When checked, users can determine how many items per page show in view Expose Offset When checked, users can determine how many items should be skipped at the beginning. in The page at /chrisshattuck.com SAYS Views infinite scroll pager is not compatible with Ajax Views, please disable "Use Ajax" option at http: is

Comments

Submitted by pedro (not verified) on Sat, 07/17/2010 - 16:30.

Hi Chris, nice series of posts that you are writting, very useful :)

Reorder of displays is awesome! I was looking for something similar and the only think I found was this module http://drupal.org/project/views_clone_display

Submitted by Chris Shattuck on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 00:01.

Hey, that's nice! Cloning a display is something I've had a need for in the past. Thanks for the tip!

Submitted by Alfred Nutile (not verified) on Sat, 07/17/2010 - 17:27.

Thanks for the posts. Just wondering why you all like the reorder feature?
Al

Submitted by Chris Shattuck on Mon, 07/19/2010 - 23:59.

For me, I sometimes have 10 different displays, and the ability to order them in a meaningful way can be useful. I'm pretty sure everything cascades directly to the default display, but one thing that would make the ordering even more useful is a cascade through each display, so every display has a chance to override defaults for all the displays after it.

Submitted by Drupal CMS (not verified) on Tue, 07/20/2010 - 07:19.

Wow...great notes you got here.

Submitted by chiMaxx (not verified) on Tue, 08/24/2010 - 11:18.

You point out the combination of the pager and number of items as a single item, but you don't note that it only seems to be available at the default level. It is not available, as far as I've been able to find at the Block or Attachment level. So if you want a page view that shows, say, the top item as a full node attachment and the next nine items as an ordered list of linked titles in the page view itself, there no longer seems to be a way to do that.

Submitted by Chris Shattuck on Sun, 08/29/2010 - 00:09.

Interesting, I'll have to take a look at that when I get a chance to play with Views 3 a bit more. Cheers!

Submitted by Tom Hoad (not verified) on Thu, 10/14/2010 - 03:58.

Hi Chris.

I am having some issues with Views 3 when rescanning template files. I've put a new template in my theme folder called views-view-fields--blog--block-1.tpl.php as Theme Information suggests. When I click "Rescan Template Files" the pane disappears and it doesn't bold the new template (and doesn't use it).

Are you seeing the same issue or is it just me? Just to clarify, I'm using Drupal 7 Beta but I've also set it up in Drupal 6 in the same way and it rescans fine...

Cheers

Tom

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I have been a Drupal freelancer for the last several years, though I've recently been focusing my full-time efforts on Build a Module.com. I conducted a highly rated training at Drupalcon 2010 with an associate, and am now focusing on virtual training through concise video tutorials. I'm passionate about learning from those around me (as you'll find out if we chat), and oddly enough I find that training is one of the best ways to learn from others.

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