When your users work with a data-dense user interface, optimizing for productivity is key. Not only do you want to give them ways to filter and sort data, you also want to build quick access to commonly performed actions in their workflow.
How can you do this? Build a grid view that helps people work faster and smarter.
But, what about your users that just don’t want to give up spreadsheets? Continued use of programs outside your CRM causes data silos. And when critical data is missing from the system of record, people lose trust in it, which perpetuates the cycle of low adoption.
By mimicking the convenience of spreadsheets in your app, you’ll help users ditch them once and for all. I’ll show how you can do it with Skuid.
Spreadsheet-like Skuid features for tables
The following spreadsheet-like features will help you build flexible and powerful tables that maximize user productivity.
1. Sort Builder
In Skuid, you’ve always been able to sort by a column. But recently, we’ve upgraded that capability with Sort Builder.
To use it, simply check the Sort Builder option for the table. Then your user will be able to manage their sorting logic in a single place. They can also perform complex sorting operations, like sorting Name in ascending order and Close Date in descending order.
Sort Builder in Skuid is equivalent to column sorting in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. Additionally, the Sort Builder feature isn’t limited to just table view. You can also have it for non-columned views like card view and list view, as you can enable this feature on the deck and list components in Skuid.
As a Skuid builder, you want to provide your users quick access to their commonly performed actions. That can mean adding a button to the table as a column to quickly add line items. Or, you can use inline buttons in a table that let the user see an approval status and then click Submit or Unlock right next to the field value.
Try putting a bright green "Escalate" button right next to a case status field in a table. With this capability, users can go from insight to action in seconds.
It’s worth noting that this isn’t a feature you get in spreadsheets. The ability to do it here makes grid views more actionable, which helps your apps better compete with the spreadsheets your users cling to.
But how is this different from row actions in Skuid?
Adding a button to a table allows for complete control of the button, just like adding a button to any other part of the page. That means control over button styling and display logic.
This very common pattern in consumer-grade web apps is now available in Skuid! For example, if you build click interactions on your table, users can left-click on the row to bring up a detail modal. You no longer need a row action for every interaction and can instead move lots of actions into a right-click action that opens a drop-down menu.
If you look at the example above, you’ll see that the dropdown menu appears where the cursor is located. Another feature that Skuid recently published in Chicago Update 2 is the ability to choose if the menu appears by the cursor location or the current component.
If you’re working with a design that requires more flexibility in column labels, you’ll be excited about this addition that will get you there faster. Skuid now allows HTML in column labels, which gives you total control over column label styling.
6. Field variant
Conditional formatting is a popular and extremely helpful feature in Excel and Sheets and it’s now available in Skuid! You can mark a cell as green if on track or red if blocked, based on logic defined in the UI or at the database level. In this example, if the Amount field is empty, the cell is highlighted, helping it stand out when your users are scanning hundreds of rows.
Here’s how it works. You can create style variants for fields in Design System Studio and then use Skuid display logic to apply that style variant conditionally based on a set of criteria. To see how to do this, watch this Skuid tip.
7. Export data in Action Framework
Exporting data is a key spreadsheet feature. You’ve always been able to do this in a Skuid table by adjusting an option in table properties. Now, you can use Action Framework to trigger data export from a table. This gives you a lot more flexibility in where you build the export data action on your page, as it no longer has to be an action found at the end of a table.
With every new Skuid release, we strive to bring more awesome features to your users, as well as quality-of-life and productivity improvements for you, the Skuid builder. The capabilities highlighted here are designed for creating a spreadsheet-like app, but there are tons of other features we know you’ll love. Check out our most recent releases to learn more!
