Views is an indispensable tool for Drupal site builders - allowing them to create complex queries and displays without writing a single line of code. But too often developers like myself avoid these interfaces. We feel constrained by the GUI and want to reinvent the wheel for the sake of efficiency, performance, and extensibility; or we hit edge cases that Core simply can not handle.

This session will explore creating custom Views Plugins to add functionality and custom logic to the Views interface. We will discuss common reasons a site may need features beyond out-of-the-box functionality and we will look at real-life examples of Views Plugins. Topics include:

• Introducing how Views builds, executes, and renders queries and displays.
• Exploring business cases for using Views Plugins vs altering data by hooks.
• Adding custom Fields, Filters, Arguments, Sorts and Joins beyond what is offered by default with Views.
• Reviewing example code and practical use cases for modifying Views queries.

View Plugins can allow developers to keep their code organized, abstracted, and highly functional. We can package custom code into the standard Views interface. Most importantly, these plugins empower site-builders to create applications that use the standard Drupal workflows and interfaces.

This session is for anyone who is comfortable (or willing to try) writing code in a custom module. Advance knowledge of Drupal or databases is not required to get started.