Views

I need to...	Guide	Summary
understand what Views are and when to use them	Views System Overview	You need to query and display lists of content, users, taxonomy terms, or other entities with filtering, sorting, and display formatting.
understand the views.view.*.yml config schema	View Config Schema	When writing or editing views.view.*.yml files directly, or understanding config structure for recipes and exports.
configure display options (title, access, cache, pager)	Display Configuration	When configuring common options shared across all display types: title, access, cache, pager, style, fields, filters, sorts.
create a page display with URL and menu integration	Page Display	When you need a full page with a dedicated URL, menu integration, and optional admin theme.
create a block display	Block Display	When you need a view placed in block regions, Layout Builder, or programmatically rendered contexts.
create a REST export (JSON/XML API)	REST Export Display	When you need JSON, XML, or other serialized output for APIs, AJAX endpoints, or headless/decoupled applications.
create feed or attachment displays	Feed & Attachment Displays	When you need RSS/Atom feeds or attaching views to other display outputs.
configure fields and field handlers	Fields Configuration	When configuring field output, labels, formatters, rewriting, and CSS classes in views using fields-based rows.
add filters and exposed filters	Filters & Exposed Filters	When restricting query results via fixed criteria (filters) or user-selectable criteria (exposed filters).
add sorting and contextual filters (arguments)	Sort & Contextual Filters	When ordering results (sorts) or filtering based on URL parameters (contextual filters/arguments).
configure entity relationships	Relationships	When you need to access fields from related entities (entity references, users, taxonomy terms, etc.) or apply filters/sorts on related entity data.
configure pagers (full, mini, load more)	Pager Configuration	When controlling how many items display per page and how users navigate through results.
configure caching strategies	Caching Configuration	When optimizing view performance by caching query results and rendered output.
configure access control	Access Control	When restricting who can view a display based on permissions or roles.
choose style and row plugins	Style & Row Plugins	When configuring how Views formats output (style) and renders individual rows (row).
configure query settings (distinct, aggregation, etc.)	Query Settings	When tuning the underlying database query for performance, distinct results, or query debugging.
export views config or use in recipes	Config Export & Recipes	When managing views as exportable configuration, deploying via config sync, or packaging in recipes.
modify views programmatically via hooks	Programmatic Modification	When config-based approach isn't sufficient: runtime view modification, dynamic filter injection, custom display logic.
understand Views plugin architecture	Views Plugin Architecture	When Views UI configuration and programmatic view modification aren't sufficient — you need custom data processing, specialized formatting, or integration with non-standard data sources.
create a custom field handler	Custom Field Handler	When you need custom field output: computed values, external API data, complex formatting that can't be achieved with field templates or rewrite rules.
create a custom filter handler	Custom Filter Handler	When standard filter operators aren't sufficient: custom logic, complex conditions, integration with external validation, multi-field filters.
create a custom sort handler	Custom Sort Handler	Custom sort logic: computed fields, weighted sorting, multi-column sorts, integration with external ranking systems.
create a custom argument handler	Custom Argument Handler	URL-based filtering with custom logic: argument validation, default values, custom summary views, title overrides.
create a custom relationship handler	Custom Relationship Handler	Complex JOIN logic beyond standard entity reference relationships: multi-column joins, conditional joins, subquery-based relationships.
create a custom display plugin	Custom Display Plugin	New output channel beyond Page/Block/REST: CLI output, email rendering, queue processing, specialized API formats.
create custom style or row plugins	Custom Style & Row Plugins	Style Plugin: Custom result set formatting (calendar, timeline, accordion) that standard Table/Grid/List can't achieve. Row Plugin: Custom per-row rendering (entity cards, custom templates) reusable across multiple views.
create a custom cache plugin	Custom Cache Plugin	Specialized caching beyond time-based and tag-based: per-user caching, geolocation-based, A/B testing variants, external cache backends.
integrate custom data with Views (hook_views_data)	Views Data Integration	Exposing custom database tables, altering entity views integration, defining custom handlers for existing fields, adding computed/pseudo-fields.
follow Views best practices	Best Practices	Guidelines for building maintainable, performant, secure views.
avoid common Views anti-patterns	Anti-Patterns	What NOT to do and WHY.
secure Views and optimize performance	Security & Performance	Critical security and performance considerations for production views.
find Views core code references	Code Reference Map
understand guide sources and maintenance	Sources & Maintenance