A view is a mechanism that displays specific types of assets organized by folders (called list view) or into a hierarchy (called tree view).
A list view, such as Users, displays the items you create and organizes them in the order they are created or manually placed in. When you have a large number of items, you use paging controls to navigate between ranges of items represented on different pages.
A tree view, such as Catalog, is made up of items that have hierarchical relationships. Some items (catalog folders) contain nested items (catalogs), while others (SKUs) have a child-like dependency, meaning they exist within items of a specific type (products). These relationships restrict the view structure overall, although you can rearrange the order of items within a given tree branch. When a branch holds a large number of items, those items are automatically grouped into buckets that you must expand in order to view the items themselves.
When you need to decide the type of view to create, consider whether the items are in part defined by their relationships to other items or have dependencies on other items. If, seeing items in a hierarchy will help understand what those items are and their role on your site, create a tree view. Alternatively, if each type of item is independent of others and the only order imposed on the view exists to help you navigate it, (for example, organizing users by last name) a list view is the better choice.
Instructions for creating views are provided in the following sections:
For list views, see Implementing a New List View.
For tree views, see Implementing a New Tree View.
The following sections describe how to create two fictitious views: one list view and one tree view. The list view displays manufacturers, which are items that are currently part of the Product Catalog repository. The tree view holds items of a custom type called assortments that contain a flexible group of products, any combination of which may be purchased.
