How to use Views

What's a View?

A View is a page that can be created to save and manage an IQL query that needs to be used frequently. Instead of managing a series of bookmarks containing long URLs for each IQL query, you can create a View that will appear on the left hand navigation bar, allowing for easy access.

Existing Views can be updated and edited as your Collections grow and change, and new Views can be created to meet new needs.

Creating new Views

At its core, a View is a way to manage the custom manipulation of data already in your organization. Create a new View in three steps:

1. First, navigate to the Collection that you would like to create the IQL query for, and by extension, the View for. This can also be done from the IQL Playground.

2. Enter in your IQL query and make sure that the results that are shown are what you would like to see in the View. Once you're happy with everything, click the drop-down arrow next to the name of your Collection.

3. Select Save as a View and a new dialogue will appear, asking you to name the View. This is the name that will appear on the left hand navigation bar, underneath the "Views" heading.

That's all there is to it. At this point, the new View will appear in the left navigation sidebar, and it can be opened to access the IQL query it is based on.

This View will update as files and information are added to the Collections it references, so long as it is information that the IQL query would gather in the first place.

How to query a View

You can query a View in a similar way as Collections and Datasets by using the search bar at the top of the browser window or via the IQL Playground.

Example 1: Search bar

Let's say you had a group of order forms and you want to see which ones came in after a certain date (e.g., February 1, 2021), then you can use the expression:

Date>2021-02-01

Enter this into the search bar at the top of your window and Impira will return all files with a date after February 1, 2021.

Example 2: IQL Queries

You'll want to use IQL for more advanced queries. To run IQL queries, we'll go to the IQL Playground.

1. Access the IQL Playground by going to the Experimental features icon in the upper right corner and selecting IQL Playground.
2. Scroll to locate your View in the left sidebar.
3. In this example, I want to call out a few specific fields. I want to see the fields Member name and ID, so I'll enter the expression:

[`Member name`, ID]

4. Hit Run Query located in the top navigation bar.

Modifying Views

At some point, the IQL query that powers a View may need to be updated. If a new field is added to a Collection, or a different subset of the data is needed, you can either create a new View or modify an existing View.

How to modify a View:

1. Navigate to the View to be modified using the navigation bar on the left of your screen, opening the View in question.

2. Select the drop-down next to the title of the View and select Open View definition.

3. This will open the IQL Playground and show the IQL query that currently generates the View, as well as a display of the current results of that query.
4. Make any necessary modifications to the IQL query and run the query at least one time.
5. Select Save as a View from above the query input box and give your updated View a new name. Hit Create View.

More information

For additional IQL functions, visit our extended IQL function catalog.

If you have any additional questions or run into any issues, reach out to support@impira.com so that we can assist you as quickly as possible.