Building views

Last updated on

11 March 2021

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RNG includes full Views integration, much of which is automatically provided by Dynamic Entity Reference.

Note: You do not need the RNG Views submodule in order to use Views integration.

Model

When building views, it is important to recognise the RNG entity model. See Data and relationship model for the full outline of the entity model. It is important to understand the model in order to build views.

Event ─► Registration(s) ─► Registrant(s) ─► Person

Event is often Content (From Node module). Person can be any valid person type, but is often a User.

The entity model initially seems complex. But its complexity allows RNG to be very flexible when integrating with the rest of the Drupal ecosystem. It means there is no bias towards certain entity types, including entity types bundles with core, such as Content or User.

Note: Event and Person entity types must implement their own views integration otherwise they will not show in the Views interface. Views integration is a concern of developers. Site builders do not need to concern themselves with this aspect.

Relationships

Building views which includes two or more entity types from the RNG entity model will need to make use of Views relationships.

When creating relationships, you should usually be checking the Require this relationship checkbox.

The following examples show how to create relationships between entity tables. It is not required to create the full relationship chain if you do not need it. For example: you do not need to add a relationship to the 'Person entity type' if you only require event and registration data.

Base entity type: Event

You usually want to build a view with the base entity type the same as your event entity type in order to build views such as:

A list of registrations for an event.
A list of people registered for an event.

Entity type	Relationship field name	Relationship field description	Note
Event entity type	Base table
→ Registration	Reverse reference to Event base field on Registration	Reverse reference from ??? entities referenced by Event base field on Registration entities.	Where ??? is your event type.
→ Registrant	Automatic relationship
→ Person entity type	Identity to ??? entities	References to ??? entities referenced by Identity base field on Registrant entities.	Where ??? is your person type.

Base entity type: Registration

You usually want to build a view with the base entity type as Registration in order to build views such as:

A list of people associated with a registration.

Entity type	Relationship field name	Relationship field description	Note
Event entity type ←	Event to ??? entities	References to ??? entities referenced by Event base field on Registration entities.	Where ??? is your event type.
Registration	Base table
→ Registrant	Automatic relationship
→ Person entity type	Identity to ??? entities	References to ??? entities referenced by Identity base field on Registrant entities.	Where ??? is your person type.

Base entity type: Person

You usually want to build a view with the base entity type the same as your person entity type in order to build views such as:

A list of registrations for a person.
A list of events a person is registered.

Entity type	Relationship field name	Relationship field description	Note
Event entity type ←	Event to ??? entities	References to ??? entities referenced by Event base field on Registration entities.	Where ??? is your event type.
Registration ←	Registration	The registration associated with this registrant.
Registrant ←	Reverse reference to Identity base field on Registrant	Reverse reference from ??? entities referenced by Identity base field on Registrant entities.	Where ??? is your person type.
Person entity type	Base table