Views

As discussed in the Cloned Pages section, a clonable template acquires a 'split personality'.
To recap -
Suppose we have a template named blog.php.

The simplest case is when this template has not yet been set as clonable (i.e. having similar pages created out of it). No views are associated with this page. The only possible way to execute this page is -
http://www.yoursite.com/blog.php

However, once blog.php is set as being clonable there can be multiple pages that have been cloned out of this template.
Obviously, we now have atleast two scenarios blog.php may be executed in -

1. blog.php itself is executed -
http://www.mysite.com/blog.php or
http://www.mysite.com/blog/ (if pretty-urls activated)

2. A page created out of blog.php is executed -
http://www.mysite.com/blog.php?p=12 or
http://www.mysite.com/blog/some_page_name.html (if pretty-urls activated)

In the first scenario, blog.php is said to be executing in list view while in the second case it is said to be executing in page view.

The page view is expected to show details relevant to the page being executed and hence makes available the pertinent variables.
The **list view **is expected to act like a listing page (e.g. list all the pages belonging to the blog etc.) and has a different set of variables available for this purpose.

Couch further supports two special URLs that are meant to list pages belonging to a partcular folder or to a particular time period.
Thus the list view can be further categorised into two final views -

1. Folder view - while listing pages belonging to a particular folder -
http://www.mysite.com/blog.php?f=3 or
http://www.mysite.com/blog/some_subfolder/ (if pretty-urls activated)

2. Archive view - while listing pages belonging to a particular time period -
http://www.mysite.com/blog.php?d=201005 or
http://www.mysite.com/blog/2010/05/ (if pretty-urls activated)

The 'Folder view' and 'Archive view' URLs shown can be automatically generated by using the folders and archives tags.

Once again, while accessing pages through these URLs, it is expected that you'll list pages belonging to the particular folder or the archive period. Couch sets variables that will help you in doing so, but you can choose to ignore everything and show whatever you desire.

HOW TO RECOGNIZE A VIEW

The following variables are set by Couch for your script to know the view it is executing in -

Page View
k_is_page = '1'

List View
k_is_list = '1'
k_is_home = '1'

Folder View
k_is_list = '1'
k_is_folder = '1'

Archive View
k_is_list = '1'
k_is_archive = '1'
k_is_day = '1' (if daily archive)
k_is_month = '1' (if monthly archive)
k_is_year = '1' (if yearly archive)

Notice how the variable k_is_home gets set only when blog.php gets executed in a simple List view that is neither a Folder view nor an Archive view. We can call this view - the Home view.

Taking the example of blog.php, notice how the views and variables change according to the URL used to access it -
http://www.mysite.com/blog/
k_is_list = 1
k_is_home = 1

http://www.mysite.com/blog/some_subfolder/
k_is_list = 1
k_is_folder = 1

http://www.mysite.com/blog/2010/05/
k_is_list = 1
k_is_archive = 1

http://www.mysite.com/blog/some_page_name.html
k_is_page = 1

For clonable templates, you'll have to recognize which view the template is being executed in (by testing the variables given above) and then display the relevant data.
It could be something like the following -

<cms:if k_is_page >
    <!-- Page view - display current page here -->
<cms:else />
    <!-- List view -->
    <cms:if k_is_folder >
        <!-- Folder view - display a list of pages belonging to this folder here -->
    </cms:if>

    <cms:if k_is_archive >
        <!-- Archive view - display a list of pages belonging to this time period here -->
    </cms:if>

    <cms:if k_is_home >
        <!-- Neither a folder view nor archive view - display a list of ALL pages cloned from this template here -->
    </cms:if>
</cms:if>

or

<cms:if k_is_list >
    <!-- List view - display list of pages here -->
<cms:else />
    <!-- Page view - display current page here -->
</cms:if>

Please also see:

Variables available in Views for a comprehensive list of variables that become available during the different views and Listing Pages for how to list pages in concordance to the views.