Best practices

29. Best Practices & Patterns

Guidelines for building maintainable, performant, secure views.

Export views to config — Always export production views to YAML; store in version control
Use config splits for environment-specific views — Dev-only debug views shouldn't deploy to production
Document complex views in description field — Future developers (including yourself) will thank you
Use descriptive machine names — articles_by_category_block better than view_1

Choose appropriate cache strategy — Tag-based for dynamic content, time-based for semi-static
Limit results with pagers — Never pager: none on unbounded queries
Use DISTINCT only when necessary — Only with relationships that cause row multiplication
Index filtered/sorted fields — Database indexes on fields used in filters and sorts
Avoid wildcard LIKE filters — title LIKE '%foo%' can't use indexes; prefix-only (foo%) can
Use aggregation sparingly — GROUP BY queries are expensive; only when truly needed

Always validate contextual filter arguments — Use specify_validation: true and entity validators
Set proper access control — Never use access: none on views with sensitive data
Never use disable_sql_rewrite on user-facing views — Bypasses node access grants
Sanitize exposed filter input — Views does this, but verify custom filter plugins do too
Limit exposed filter options — Grouped filters prevent arbitrary input

Use meaningful admin labels — Especially for relationships and fields (author not uid)
Override defaults in child displays — Keep shared config in default display
Limit displays per view — If view has >5 displays, consider splitting into multiple views
Use consistent naming — Follow project conventions for IDs, labels, paths

Require authentication — Always set auth for API endpoints
Use serializer format restrictions — Only enable needed formats (json, xml)
Set reasonable items_per_page — API consumers can overwhelm server; cap at 100 or less
Version API paths — /api/v1/articles allows breaking changes without disruption

Descriptive block_description — Shows in Layout Builder UI; be specific
Enable per-block overrides selectively — Only allow settings editors actually need
Use contextual filters for dynamic content — Pass entity ID from layout context
Group related blocks with block_category — Helps editors find blocks

Set pagination_heading_level appropriately — Match document outline hierarchy
Provide table summaries — style.options.summary for screen readers
Use semantic HTML in element_type — <h3> for titles, not <div>
Meaningful link text — Avoid "Read more"; use "Read more about {{ title }}"

Admin overview table — Table style, full pager, exposed filters, bulk operations field
Public listing — Default/grid style, entity row, tag cache, mini pager
Block teaser — Some pager (5 items), entity row with teaser view mode, tag cache
JSON API — REST export, serializer style, data_entity row, time cache, authentication
RSS feed — Feed display, rss style, node_rss row, some pager (20 items)