Using the Workbench
Many business applications built on Wow show their data through the workbench: a list of saved views on the left, and the open view on the right. These pages are for the people who use it — operations, analysts, support — not for the developers who build it. Nothing here needs code.
What you can do depends on how your application set it up: which data it offers, which fields can be filtered or summed, and who may share views. The names below are the workbench's default wording; your application may use its own.
Three kinds of view
| Kind | Answers | Read |
|---|---|---|
| Record view | Which records match, one row each: filter, sort, pick columns, open a record, export | Record views |
| Analysis view | How many, how much, by what: metrics by dimension, as a table or a chart | Analysis views |
| Dashboard | Several views and charts on one page, filtered together | Dashboards |
Every view can be saved, shared and set as the one that opens first: Saving and managing views.
The screen
- The view list on the left groups views as My views, Shared views and System views. New view starts one. Hide the view list gives the view the whole width, and Fill the screen hides everything around it.
- The title bar names the open view and says whether it is saved: Not saved yet for a new view, Edited after a change, Only the look changed when only the display changed. Save sits beside the name; More view actions holds the rest: Save as, Make shared or Make personal, Add to dashboard… (the view as one more panel on a dashboard you may change), and Copy link where the page's address names the view.
- The conditions line says what is showing now, with a search box at its end when the data can be searched. A search runs when you press Enter. Press / anywhere outside a field to jump to it.
- Refresh reads the data again. Its arrow sets Auto refresh, and the result says when it was last updated.
When something goes wrong
- A query that fails says so where the result would be, with a way to try again; the last result stays on screen.
- A view that cannot run as saved — a field it uses is gone, or a condition is no longer allowed — says what needs fixing, and offers to remove what is unavailable.
- If you leave a view with unsaved changes, the workbench asks first: Stay or Leave.