Forum Discussion
debm798
Apr 12, 2024Copper Contributor
Sharepoint modern site pages library - views column
Hi, Does anyone know why there is a standard column called 'Views' in the Site Pages library list given it does not seem to hold any data? Ideally, this would hold the page views as seen when you a...
BarryGoblon
Apr 23, 2024Iron Contributor
You noticed a "Views" column in the Site Pages library of your SharePoint site, which ideally should display the number of views or hits for each page, similar to how you can see the view count when you're on the actual page itself.
However, this column seems to be unpopulated and not serving its intended purpose. After investigating, it appears that the "Views" column is not a standard out-of-the-box column provided by SharePoint. It's likely that someone in your organization manually added this custom column to the Site Pages library, intending to track page view data, but the implementation fell short of the desired functionality.
While SharePoint does not natively offer this capability, it would be a valuable feature to have a built-in "Views" column that automatically populates the view count for each site page. Just as SharePoint can track "Likes" for pages, it should be feasible for Microsoft to introduce a similar mechanism to capture and display page views as well. This would provide insightful analytics on the most popular or frequently accessed content within your site. Moving forward, I can explore potential solutions to address this requirement. One approach could be to investigate third-party web parts or solutions that can integrate with SharePoint and provide this page view tracking functionality. Alternatively, if this is a critical requirement for your organization, we could submit a feature request to the SharePoint UserVoice platform, encouraging Microsoft to consider adding a native "Views" column or similar functionality in future updates.
In the interim, I can work on developing a custom solution to capture and display page view data within the Site Pages library, should this be a pressing need. This may involve leveraging SharePoint's capabilities for custom development or integrating with external analytics tools. Please feel free to provide any additional details or requirements regarding this functionality, and I'll be happy to further evaluate the best path forward to ensure you have access to valuable page view insights within your SharePoint environment.
However, this column seems to be unpopulated and not serving its intended purpose. After investigating, it appears that the "Views" column is not a standard out-of-the-box column provided by SharePoint. It's likely that someone in your organization manually added this custom column to the Site Pages library, intending to track page view data, but the implementation fell short of the desired functionality.
While SharePoint does not natively offer this capability, it would be a valuable feature to have a built-in "Views" column that automatically populates the view count for each site page. Just as SharePoint can track "Likes" for pages, it should be feasible for Microsoft to introduce a similar mechanism to capture and display page views as well. This would provide insightful analytics on the most popular or frequently accessed content within your site. Moving forward, I can explore potential solutions to address this requirement. One approach could be to investigate third-party web parts or solutions that can integrate with SharePoint and provide this page view tracking functionality. Alternatively, if this is a critical requirement for your organization, we could submit a feature request to the SharePoint UserVoice platform, encouraging Microsoft to consider adding a native "Views" column or similar functionality in future updates.
In the interim, I can work on developing a custom solution to capture and display page view data within the Site Pages library, should this be a pressing need. This may involve leveraging SharePoint's capabilities for custom development or integrating with external analytics tools. Please feel free to provide any additional details or requirements regarding this functionality, and I'll be happy to further evaluate the best path forward to ensure you have access to valuable page view insights within your SharePoint environment.