Dynamic View: Create and manage views of your data

Dynamic View allows you to share sections of your sheet or report without sharing the underlying source sheet. For example, you can surface information on a row with a vendor, allowing them to view and edit that data – and only that data. Dynamic View ensures the vendor won't have access to data you don't want them to see.

To create a highly personalized experience, embed a Dynamic View in a Smartsheet dashboard using the web content widget.

Dynamic View is an add-on capability for Business and Enterprise plans. To learn more about Smartsheet add-on capabilities, reach out to Smartsheet Sales.

Before you create views in Dynamic View

1. Make sure you have all the Dynamic View app essentials in place.
2. Create the source sheets and reports to hold your process and set permissions for view creators.

Start a new view

1. Sign in to Dynamic View with your Smartsheet credentials.
2. In the upper-right area of the screen, select Create View. You will see the available sheets and reports you can use to create new Dynamic Views. 
3. Select the item you want to create your View from, and then select Create. If you selected the wrong source item, create another new view. You can't go back and select a different source item.

Name your View and set overall permissions

Enter a name for the View, set what people can view, and if they can add new items to a source sheet.

Here are a few things to know about the settings in this step:

• Review by current user: You can filter a user's View on the tasks assigned to them via the Contact List column. 
• Restrict View by sheet filter: Sheet filters help you refine what data appears in the View. Learn more about sheet filters. 
• New Item Submission: You can allow users to create new entries. When defining your sources, if you allow new item submissions and your source is a report, specify the underlying sheet—not just the report. 

If you gather information from a wide range of users, you may find it useful to create a form instead. A form will ensure your data is consistent – and it's another way to ensure everyone uses their View correctly.

Select which fields appear in the grid

1. In the Available fields section, select the fields you want to display in the View.
2. To filter data on specific fields, add any dropdown or symbol fields from your source data/ For example, if you want to filter your View by the status of tasks, you must first add the status field to Visible fields.
3. Optional: Add attachments or comments with the following settings:  
   •  Attachments
     • Display attachments
     • Users can add attachments
   • Comments
     • Display comments
     • Users can add comments

The fields you select in this step will appear as columns and rows in the Dynamic View. If you want to show fields only when certain conditions apply, don't add them in the Visible fields section. Instead, set the conditions or logic on the Details Panel tab.

Configure the details pane 

When the user selects a row in the Dyn, the details pane appears. You can decide what appears in that details pane. 

Use the details pane to gather more information and provide more details. Attachments and comments also appear in the details pane. You can also set specific fields to be editable. 

Field logic and field properties are two different things. Field properties define the field – required, read-only, hide, where field logic allows you to apply conditional logic to the field. 

1. From the Available fields section, drag the fields you want to add to the Details Panel Layout section.
2. (Optional) Toggle Details panel description and enter instructions for your users. They'll see your message when they open the details view from within a Dynamic View. 
3. Select the tab you want to appear first when your users open the Dynamic View: data, attachments, or comments. 
4. Select the field you want to configure. 
5. Edit the field properties or logic.
   • On the right-hand bar, select the Field Properties icon.
     When you select a field in the Details Panel Layout section, the Field Properties pane will open by default.
   • To edit the field logic, select the Field Logic icon in the right-hand bar.

Field properties

Field logic

When you add field logic, your View will show or hide fields based on the conditions or changes that happened either on the Smartsheet item or in Dynamic View.

Field logic relies on dropdown lists and symbol columns. You'll need a dropdown or symbol column in your source sheet to name and save your field logic rules.

If your source is a report with multiple sheets, ensure the dropdown values in a given column are consistent across all sheets in the report's scope. If a sheet is missing a value in the column properties for that dropdown, you may not be able to use that value in your field logic.

1. In the Field Logic pane, select + Logic. 
2. Assign a name for your field logic. 
3. In the When section, identify the column and the value(s) which will run the logic. 
   • Example: In the When section, set the field logic to trigger when the task column in the source sheet changes to Complete.
4. In the Action section, select what will happen when the View detects a trigger. You can: 
   • Hide selected fields: The View will hide the field(s).
   • Show selected fields as Read-only: A read-only field appears when the View detects changes in the source sheet.
   • Show selected fields as Editable.
   • Show selected fields as Required: A field(s) the user is required to fill in will appear.
5. Choose the field(s) that will appear in or disappear from the View; then select Save.

It's possible to create rules with conflicting actions. Dynamic View favors the rule with the lowest permission level. For example, if you create one rule to show a field and another to hide the same field, and both rules have the same trigger conditions, only the rule which hides the field will trigger the action.

Visibility permissions defined here appear in the Details pane. To access the Details pane, select a row in the View.

FAQ:  Why is a field read-only?

Some fields may not be editable depending on their data type or the information in the cell. The following conditions make a field read-only in Dynamic View:

• Field is from a System Column
• Field is from a Gantt End Date Column
• Field is the End date column in the date range display of the project settings
• Field is from a Gantt Predecessor Column
• Cell in source sheet contains a formula
• Cell in source sheet contains an inbound cell-link
• Cell in source sheet contains a Hyperlink

Share or transfer a view

On the Sharing tab, you can

• Transfer ownership of the View 
• Identify users and groups, and domains you want to have access to the View 
• Specify administrators who can see and edit source data from the View and edit the view settings. 

Dynamic View Admins have the highest level of view access. They can edit all settings for the View, including what other people will be able to view and access. Limit your number of view Admins to people who are responsible for changing your process.