view-management.md

View Management

Dataverse views define how records are displayed in model-driven apps and other interfaces. This module provides cmdlets to create, update, retrieve, and delete both system views (savedquery) and personal views (userquery).

Overview

• Get-DataverseView — Retrieve views with flexible filtering
• Set-DataverseView — Create or update views (upsert pattern)
• Remove-DataverseView — Delete views

Key Features

• Upsert pattern: Set-DataverseView creates new views or updates existing ones
• Dual syntax: Use simplified hashtable filters or direct FetchXML
• System and personal views: Manage both savedquery (system) and userquery (personal) entities
• Column management: Add, remove, or update columns with width configuration
• Complex filters: Support for nested AND/OR/NOT/XOR logical expressions
• Wildcard searches: Find views using pattern matching
• Default views: Mark views as default for their table
• Query types: Support all Dataverse view types (MainApplicationView, AdvancedSearch, SubGrid, etc.)

Creating Views

Basic View Creation

Create a personal view with simple filters (default):

$viewId = Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -PassThru `
    -Name "My Active Contacts" `
    -TableName contact `
    -Columns @("firstname", "lastname", "emailaddress1", "telephone1") `
    -FilterValues @{ statecode = 0 }

System Views

Create a system view accessible to all users:

Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -PassThru `
    -Name "All Active Contacts" `
    -TableName contact `
    -ViewType "System" `
    -Columns @("fullname", "emailaddress1", "telephone1") `
    -FilterValues @{ statecode = 0 }

Complex Filters

Use nested hashtables for complex logical expressions:

Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -PassThru `
    -Name "High Value Opportunities" `
-TableName opportunity `
    -ViewType "System" `
    -Columns @("name", "estimatedvalue", "closeprobability", "actualclosedate") `
    -FilterValues @{
        and = @(
          @{ statecode = 0 },
            @{ or = @(
@{ estimatedvalue = @{ value = 100000; operator = 'GreaterThan' } },
@{ closeprobability = @{ value = 80; operator = 'GreaterThan' } }
            )}
    )
    }

Column Configuration

Specify column widths and display order:

Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -PassThru `
  -Name "Contact Details" `
    -TableName contact `
    -Columns @(
  @{ name = "firstname"; width = 100 },
        @{ name = "lastname"; width = 150 },
     @{ name = "emailaddress1"; width = 250 },
    @{ name = "telephone1"; width = 120 }
    ) `
    -FilterValues @{ statecode = 0 }

Using FetchXML

For advanced scenarios, use FetchXML directly:

$fetchXml = @"
<fetch>
  <entity name="contact">
<attribute name="firstname" />
    <attribute name="lastname" />
    <attribute name="emailaddress1" />
    <filter type="and">
      <condition attribute="statecode" operator="eq" value="0" />
      <condition attribute="createdon" operator="last-x-days" value="30" />
    </filter>
  </entity>
</fetch>
"@

Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -PassThru `
    -Name "Recent Contacts" `
    -TableName contact `
    -FetchXml $fetchXml

Using Link Entities

Create views with related data using link entities:

# Using Links parameter with DataverseLinkEntity objects
Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -PassThru `
    -Name "Contacts with Accounts" `
  -TableName contact `
    -Columns @("firstname", "lastname", "emailaddress1") `
    -Links @(
        [PSCustomObject]@{
            LinkToEntityName = "account"
            LinkFromAttributeName = "parentcustomerid"
   LinkToAttributeName = "accountid"
EntityAlias = "account"
   Columns = @("name")
        }
    ) `
    -FilterValues @{ statecode = 0 }

Custom Layout XML

For complete control over view layout, specify custom LayoutXML:

$layoutXml = @"
<grid name="resultset" object="contact" jump="contactid" select="1" icon="1" preview="1">
<row name="result" id="contactid">
    <cell name="firstname" width="150" />
    <cell name="lastname" width="150" />
  <cell name="emailaddress1" width="200" />
  </row>
</grid>
"@

Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -PassThru `
    -Name "Custom Layout View" `
    -TableName contact `
    -FetchXml $fetchXml `
    -LayoutXml $layoutXml

Updating Views

Update with Upsert Pattern

Provide the view ID to update an existing view. You must also specify the ViewType:

# Update view name and description
Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId `
    -ViewType "Personal" `
    -Name "Updated View Name" `
    -Description "Updated description"

Add Columns

Add new columns to an existing view:

Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId `
    -ViewType "Personal" `
    -AddColumns @(
     @{ name = "address1_city"; width = 150 },
     @{ name = "birthdate"; width = 100 }
    )

Add columns at specific positions:

# Insert before a specific column
Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId `
    -ViewType "Personal" `
    -AddColumns @("jobtitle") `
    -InsertColumnsBefore "emailaddress1"

# Insert after a specific column
Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId `
    -ViewType "Personal" `
    -AddColumns @("mobilephone", "fax") `
    -InsertColumnsAfter "telephone1"

Remove Columns

Remove columns from a view:

Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId `
    -ViewType "Personal" `
    -RemoveColumns @("fax", "address1_line1")

Update Column Properties

Change column widths or other properties:

Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId `
  -ViewType "Personal" `
    -UpdateColumns @(
        @{ name = "firstname"; width = 200 },
        @{ name = "emailaddress1"; width = 300 }
    )

Update Filters

Change the view's filter criteria:

Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId `
    -ViewType "Personal" `
    -FilterValues @{
      and = @(
      @{ statecode = 0 },
      @{ emailaddress1 = @{ operator = 'NotNull' } }
        )
    }

Combined Updates

Perform multiple updates in one call:

Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId `
    -ViewType "Personal" `
    -Name "Updated Contact View" `
    -Description "Shows active contacts with email" `
    -AddColumns @(@{ name = "mobilephone"; width = 120 }) `
    -RemoveColumns @("fax") `
    -FilterValues @{ statecode = 0; emailaddress1 = @{ operator = 'NotNull' } }

Retrieving Views

Get All Views

Retrieve all views (both system and personal):

Get-DataverseView -Connection $c

Get by Table

Get all views for a specific table:

Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -TableName contact

Get by ID

Retrieve a specific view:

$view = Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId

Get by Name

Find views by name (supports wildcards):

# Exact match
Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -Name "Active Contacts"

# Wildcard search
Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -Name "Active*"
Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -Name "*Contact*"

Filter by Type

Get only system or personal views:

# System views only
Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -ViewType "System"

# Personal views only
Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -ViewType "Personal"

# System views for a specific table
Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -TableName contact -ViewType "System"

Filter by Query Type

Views have different types for different purposes:

# Get Advanced Find views
Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -QueryType AdvancedSearch

# Get Lookup views
Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -QueryType LookupView

# Get Main Application views
Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -QueryType MainApplicationView

Common query types:

• MainApplicationView — Main Application View
• AdvancedSearch — Advanced Search (default for new views)
• SubGrid — Sub-Grid
• QuickFindSearch — Quick Find Search
• LookupView — Lookup View
• Reporting — Reporting View

Get Raw Values

Retrieve views with raw attribute values instead of parsed properties:

$view = Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId -Raw
# $view contains all raw attributes from the savedquery/userquery record
# Including fetchxml, layoutxml, querytype, etc.

By default, Get-DataverseView returns parsed properties:

• Columns — Array of column configurations with names and widths
• Filters — Parsed filter hashtables
• Links — Parsed link entity configurations
• OrderBy — Array of sort specifications

Deleting Views

Delete by ID

Delete a personal view (default):

Remove-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId

Delete with Confirmation

The cmdlet prompts for confirmation by default. Suppress with -Confirm:$false:

Remove-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId -Confirm:$false

Delete if Exists

Suppress errors if the view doesn't exist:

Remove-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId -IfExists -Confirm:$false

Delete System Views

Specify -ViewType "System" when deleting system views:

Remove-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId -ViewType "System" -Confirm:$false

Delete Multiple Views

Use the pipeline to delete multiple views:

Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -Name "Test*" |
    Remove-DataverseView -Connection $c -Confirm:$false

Control Flags

NoCreate and NoUpdate

Control whether views are created or updated:

# Only update if exists, don't create
Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $viewId `
    -ViewType "Personal" `
    -Name "Updated" `
  -NoCreate

# Only create if doesn't exist, don't update
Set-DataverseView -Connection $c `
    -Name "New View" `
    -TableName contact `
    -Columns @("firstname") `
    -NoUpdate

PassThru

Return the view ID after creation or update:

$viewId = Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -PassThru `
    -Name "My View" `
    -TableName contact `
    -Columns @("firstname", "lastname")

Common Scenarios

Clone a View

# Get existing view
$originalView = Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -Id $originalViewId

# Create new view with same columns
# Note: Get-DataverseView returns Columns in the format expected by Set-DataverseView
Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -PassThru `
    -Name "$($originalView.Name) (Copy)" `
    -TableName $originalView.TableName `
    -ViewType $originalView.ViewType `
    -Columns $originalView.Columns `
    -FilterValues $originalView.Filters `
    -Links $originalView.Links `
    -OrderBy $originalView.OrderBy

The Columns property returned by Get-DataverseView contains the column configuration (name and width) in the same format accepted by Set-DataverseView, making it easy to clone or modify existing views.

Create Views for Multiple Tables

$tables = @("contact", "account", "lead")

foreach ($table in $tables) {
    Set-DataverseView -Connection $c -PassThru `
        -Name "Active $table Records" `
     -TableName $table `
        -ViewType "System" `
     -Columns @("createdon", "modifiedon") `
        -FilterValues @{ statecode = 0 }
}

Audit View Configuration

# Get all system views and export metadata
$views = Get-DataverseView -Connection $c -ViewType "System"

$views | Select-Object Name, TableName, ViewType, IsDefault, QueryType |
    Export-Csv -Path "view-audit.csv" -NoTypeInformation

See Also

• Querying Records — Understanding filters and FetchXML
• Get-DataverseView cmdlet reference
• Set-DataverseView cmdlet reference
• Remove-DataverseView cmdlet reference