CollabPortals

View Types

Pick how each portal table is displayed to end users: table, gallery, kanban, or calendar. Each view has its own configuration.

Overview

Every table in a portal can be displayed in one of four layouts. The right choice depends on the shape of the data and what end users need to do with it. Pick the view per table, in the portal admin.

ViewBest for
TableTables with many fields, structured data, lists where columns matter
GalleryAnything with a visual hook: properties, products, people, portfolio items
KanbanWorkflows with stages: tickets, applications, candidates, content production
CalendarAnything placed on a date: bookings, events, deadlines, schedules. Switch between month and week views.

Picking a View Type

  1. 1

    Open the table settings

    In the portal admin, open the role you want to configure and expand the table you want to change.

  2. 2

    Switch to the Display tab

    The table settings panel has two tabs: Access (table and field permissions, record filtering) and Display (view type, field selection, and default sort). Click Display.

  3. 3

    Pick a view type

    Use the View type dropdown to pick Table, Gallery, Kanban, or Calendar. The fields below the dropdown change depending on what the view needs.

Requirements per View Type

Each view (other than Table) needs a specific field type to be present on the Airtable table. The dropdown disables options when the required field is missing.

  • Gallery: any field type works as the card body. An attachment field is optional, used as the cover image.
  • Kanban: requires at least one single-select field to group records into columns.
  • Calendar: requires at least one date or dateTime field to place records on the calendar.
  • Table: no field requirements.

If you want to use Kanban or Calendar but the table is missing the required field, add it in Airtable first.

Grouping Rows in the Table View

The table view can group rows under collapsible headers, one per value of a field you pick, the same way Airtable's grid does. Each header shows how many records are in that group, and records with no value collect under a "No value" group at the top.

Set it with the Group by dropdown in the Display tab, which appears when the view type is Table. You can group by a single select, multiple select, checkbox, collaborator, or linked record field. Date, number, and text fields are not offered: they produce too many groups to be useful.

The portal Display tab with the View type set to Table and the Group by dropdown open, showing Status selected from the list of groupable fields
Group by (optional) sits under View Layout on the Display tab. Only single select, multiple select, checkbox, collaborator, and linked record fields are offered.

End users see the records under collapsible headers, one per value, each with an exact count.

An Issue Tracker portal table grouped by Status, with collapsible Open, In Progress, and Resolved headers each showing a record count
The same table in the portal, grouped by Status. Each header shows how many records it holds, and users can collapse a group to focus on the rest.

A few things worth knowing:

  • Sorting still applies inside each group. Grouping decides the blocks, sorting orders the rows within them.
  • Multi-value cells group by the whole combination. A record tagged "Design, Urgent" sits in its own group rather than appearing under both, so every record is counted exactly once and the group counts always add up.
  • Grouping needs the whole table at once. Counting a group means having every matching record, so the portal loads them all rather than one page at a time. Above 500 records it stops and shows the table ungrouped with normal pagination, along with a note explaining why. Nothing is hidden, and filtering the table down brings the grouping back.

To let people choose the grouping themselves rather than fixing it, see Filter and Sort Controls.

What Lives on the Row vs the Detail Page

Every view has the same idea: the row, card, or calendar entry shows a curated summary of the record, and clicking it opens a dedicated detail page with everything else. You choose which fields appear on the summary in the Display tab. See Summary Fields and Record Detail for the full reference.

This matters most on wide tables. A table with 100 columns is unreadable as a row. Pick five or six summary fields, let the rest live on the detail page, and users get a clean list plus the full record one click away.

Per-Role Configuration

View type is configured per role. Different roles in the same portal can see the same table as different layouts, for example a kanban for the ops team and a gallery for clients.

Next Steps

Previous
Record Ownership: Show Each User Only Their Own Records
Next
Summary Fields and Record Detail