Object: view

A view is a visual object that displays the contents of a program's surface (in whole or in part) somewhere inside the layout. It is important to note that a view merely represents the visual content that is displayed, but it does not represent the program itself or even the program's surface.

Views are created using the place or add_view methods of the surface object. A view may be removed by calling the destroy method, or by calling clear_views or clear_visuals.

Views are almost always created inside the profile's arrange_views callback method.

Example: create a single view for every program surface

lua

local x, y, width, height = server:layout_box();
for _, surface in ipairs(server:surfaces()) do
    surface:place(x, y, width, height);
end

local x, y, width, height = server:layout_box();
for _, surface in ipairs(server:surfaces()) do
    surface:place(x, y, width, height);
end

Each view fills the entire layout, stacked on top of each other.

Example: display only the left half of a program's surface

lua

surface:set_size(3840, 1080);
surface:add_view("left",
    0, 0, -- position in layout
    0, 0, 1920, 1080 -- position and size of view portal in surface pixels
);

surface:set_size(3840, 1080);
surface:add_view("left",
    0, 0, -- position in layout
    0, 0, 1920, 1080 -- position and size of view portal in surface pixels
);

Here we size the program to 3840x1080 and show only the left half of the content.

There are no view-specific methods, but any of the visual object's methods may be used on views.

Object: view ​

Object: view