Introduction to view customization

A view is a virtual table that pulls data from one or more existing database tables and presents it in an alternative way. A view does not store data. Sage CRM uses views to return records in response to user searches and to display relationships between different entities. For example, a view can list all cases associated with a particular company and assigned to a specific user.

There are three types of views in Sage CRM:

• Core views cannot be edited or deleted.
• System views can be edited but it's not recommended to edit most system views because this can adversely affect system behavior. Mail merge, group, report, and keyword search views are commonly edited, but do so carefully as changes can affect several areas of Sage CRM. You can make system views available to reports, groups, and keyword searches.
• User views are views that you create. You can edit and delete user views. You can make user views available to reports, groups, and keyword searches and expose them for SData.

To customize views you need:

• Experience of SQL views, tables, databases, and data relationships.
• Basic SQL scripting skills.
• A backup of your Sage CRM system and any system views that you customize. Views may be overwritten on upgrade.
• A test system to test your view customizations before implementing them on your live system (optional).

When you create a new view or modify an existing view, ensure all SELECT statements on primary entities in the view retrieve the _secterr column, the _assigneduserid (or equivalent) column, and the _channelid (or equivalent) column for each primary entity referenced in the view. To do this, select the column explicitly or select all columns from the relevant primary entities. If you do not select the columns, an SQL error may occur in the Sage CRM UI when the view is executed.