One of the biggest advantages of building a website with Drupal is how easily you can organize and show content in different ways. A key tool that makes this possible is Drupal Views. Whether you want to display articles on your homepage, list products in a grid, or show testimonials in your sidebar, Views gives you the freedom to place content exactly where you want it—without touching PHP code.
What Exactly Is Drupal Views?
Views is Drupal’s built-in system for retrieving content from the database and presenting it in a format you choose. It works like a smart query builder: you choose what type of items you want to show, how they should be ordered, and which fields to include. Views then outputs the results as a page, a block, or even a feed.
This module is widely used because it turns raw content into something usable and visually meaningful.
Why Views Is So Useful
Here are a few reasons why many Drupal site builders depend on Views:
- It requires no coding — You can build complex listings just by configuring options.
- It’s extremely flexible — One View can generate multiple displays such as pages and blocks.
- You decide what fields to show — Titles, images, dates, or even custom text.
- Content updates automatically — When editors add new items, your View reflects the changes.
- Works anywhere on your site — Using block displays, you can place content in any region provided by your theme.
How to Create a Simple View
Making a basic View is straightforward:
- Visit Structure → Views → Add view.
- Pick the content type you want to display (example: Article).
- Choose if the output should be a page, a block, or both.
- Adjust filters, fields, and sorting to match your needs.
- Save the View and check the results.
Even with minimal configuration, you can already create useful content lists that update automatically.
Displaying Views Anywhere Using Blocks
A powerful feature of Views is its ability to create block displays. Blocks allow you to place content in any available region—top bar, sidebar, footer, or custom theme regions.
To place a View as a block:
- In your View, click Add → Block display.
- Set how that block should look and what it should show.
- Save the View.
- Go to Structure → Block layout.
- Locate the block your View generated and assign it to a region.
After this, the content appears wherever you placed it, and updates automatically whenever new items are added.
Using Views with Layout Builder or Paragraphs
If you’re using Layout Builder, you can easily drop any Views block into your page layouts.
For sites using Paragraphs, you can insert Views as block-type paragraphs or embed them using fields designed for reusable blocks.
Both approaches give you more design control while still relying on Views for the data.
Tips to Get the Most Out of Views
- Use filters to narrow down content based on type, category, or status.
- Try contextual filters for dynamic results such as “related content.”
- Enable caching inside the View to keep your site running fast.
- Use exposed filters if you want users to control the search or sorting.
Final Thoughts
Drupal Views is one of the most valuable tools in the platform. It lets you take any content stored in your system and display it creatively—whether as a list, grid, featured section, or sidebar block. Best of all, you don’t need to write custom code to make your site flexible and dynamic. With just a few settings, you can display content anywhere and in any style that fits your design.