This article covers the following aspects related to views:
Working with views:
1. What are views, and what's their purpose?
What are views?
Views present a set of results for one particular resource, within a given context. In layman's terms: they offer a list of items of one kind (eg: of assets, or of projects), within the boundaries of a workspace, or a space. A view only shows you resources that you are permitted to see (based on your permission set).
What's their purpose?
Cohero users typically leverage views to create ordered and sensible (or: overseeable) overviews to handle large volumes. For example: a view is helpful to cut down a high amount of assets into a smaller set, based on a number of criteria (eg: all assets owned by James Smith), or to see only actual projects (eg: all open projects with a due date in the next 2 months).
Views are currently offered on 'Projects' and 'Assets' pages, where they're listed as tabs underneath the page title:
2. Of what resources can I create views?
At present, Cohero offers the ability create views of Assets, Projects, Tasks and Approvals. More resources may follow in the future.
3. Views' configuration options
When you create a view, there are a number of configuration options:
Name: Users can provide a new view with a name at creation. They can change the name after the view is created.
Resource: the page you're on, informs the selected Resource of the view. A Projects page lets you create a view on projects, an Assets page lets you create a view on assets, etc.
Layout: At creation of a view, you select the desired layout. Besides the visual presentation of your view, the layout also comes with bespoke functionalities. At this point, Cohero offers two layouts:
Grid Layout: showing the resources as cards in a grid
Table Layout: showing the resources as rows in a table
Once the view is created, the layout can not be switched. The layout is also reflected next to the views's name with an icon (table vs grid).
Visibility: At creation of a view, users can choose to create this view in private (the default choice) or in public:
Private: showing the view only to that user
Public: showing the view to all users with access to that page
Once the view is created, the visiblity can always be adjusted
Filters: Once the view is created, users can apply one or multiple filters to their view. Filters help to reduce the number of resource in your view, down to those that match your filter criteria. Cohero offers a rich variety of filters, such as: Asset owner, Due date, Expiry date, Version, Status and many more. Date filters even include a dynamic date range that users can construct themselves.
Columns: Once the view is created, users can choose which columns (or rather: which data points) they wish to see in their view. With the 'Manage columns' menu, users can choose the columns they wish to add or hide from their view. They can even re-arrange the order of the columns, or change their width, to adjust it to their liking.
Sorts: Once the view is created, users can alter the sorting logic in which the resources are shown. Cohero offers up to 2 concurring sorting logics (primary sort, and secondary sort). Sorting can be done through the column headers (in a Table layout), or with the Sorting menu.
4. Working with views:
a. Creating, (un)hiding and deleting views
In a separate article on this Help Center (link), we offer a detaile description of how permissions enable (or prevent) users to perform the core capabilities we describe in this paragraph:
1. Creating views: Views can be created on Projects pages and Assets pages. To create a new view, click '+ View' and a dialog will appear guiding you to the basic fields to create a view.
2a. Hiding views: Users can choose to hide any view for them, as a personal preference. To hide, simply open the action menu for that view (...) and choose 'Hide view for me'. The view will now disappear from your list of views.
2b. Showing views: Users can choose to show (or 'unhide') views that they choose to hide before. To do so, just click on 'Manage views', and all views will appear (both the visible, and the hidden ones). Check the hidden views, to have them reappear in your list of views.
3. Deleting views: Users can delete views that they created. To delete, simply open the action menu for that view (...) and choose 'Delete view'.
b. Changing views, or saving updates as new view
In a separate article on this Help Center (link), we offer a detaile description of how permissions enable (or prevent) users to perform the core capabilities we describe in this paragraph:
1. Making changes to a view: Anyone watching a view, can make temporary changes to what they're seeing, by applying filters or sorts. When you make changes, you'll see the result reflected immediately in the filter menu and in the sort menu. The amount of active filters and sorts is expressed on the button. The details (which filters, by which criteria, and which sorting logics) can be seen when these menu items are opened.
2. Saving changes to a view: It's possible to save changes to an existing view, so that everybody else sees the view in an updated way. To do so, after making the changes, simply click on 'Save changes'.
3. Saving changes as a new view: User can also choose to save their changes to a separate / new view instead of updating the existing view. To do that, open the 'Save changes' menu, and select "+ Save as new view". This will open a small dialog to provide a name and visibility to the new view you're about to create.
4. Discarding changes: You may not need to keep the changes you've made. To discard your changes, (and see the view return to its original condition), simply select 'Discard changes' in the flyout menu.
c. Searching in a view
Every view offers the opportunity to search for results in it. The search box contains a reminder of the type of resources that sit in your view (either Assets or Projects at this stage).
5. Exporting a view to Excel
A view may contain information that a user chooses to further work on in Microsoft Excel. To facilitate that, Cohero offers an export functionality to convert a view into an Excel file (.xlsx). The file contains the same information (same columns, filters and sorts) as was presented on the user's view, plus a hyperlink to open the items in the view (to either go to that asset, or to open that project in Cohero).
To export a view, simply use the 'Export' button, next to the search box. A download will be prompted automatically. In addition, you'll also receive a personalized email message that contains a download link uniquely catered to you (because the information one sees in a view, is tied to that user's permissions). Should that email be forwarded to somebody else, that person can not open this link.
6. Highlighted columns
Cohero views can consist of many columns. Some columns contain dates, some contain texts, some contain multiple chosen values, or people/teams, and other contain clickable links. In this paragraph, we'd like to highlight columns that deserve special explanation.
6.1 Approval workflow
The Approval workflow column is an intelligent column that fetches the overall status of the approval workflow, related to one particular asset. It was designed to provide an 'understanding at a glance' of the general status of the worklow, by expressing:
The series of approval steps in the approval workflow:
The amount of steps displayed, and their names are bespoke to your workspace.Step statuses:
Steps can be in various statuses. Each status is displayed with a unique icon and colour combination that visually communicates the state that step is in at the moment. These can be:Ready to start (grey circle with dot)
Waiting on previous step (grey circle with clock icon)
Can not be started (grey circle with diagonal line)
Skipped (grey dot with arrow over it)
In progress (blue timer icon)
Overdue (orange alarm clock icon)
Action required (red alarm clock icon)
Minimum approvals reached (green circle with check and dots)
Completed (Filled green circle with white check icon)
Screenshot of Approval workflow:
