Basic apps use views that have been configured for a specific mashable or mashup using the View Maker wizard in MashZone NextGen Hub. MashZone NextGen has a set of built-in views that appear in View Maker which users can choose from. You can also use the MashZone NextGen View API and framework to plug pluggable views with other visualizations into View Maker to meet your visualization needs.

This API allows developers to quickly implement pluggable views using JavaScript, HTML and CSS resources which are imported into MashZone NextGen much as custom apps are. Pluggable views render mashable or mashup results and also contain a configuration form that plugs into the well-known steps in View Maker to allow users to easily configure the view. You can provide a thumbnail image and help for pluggable views as well as managing versions and other properties. Pluggable views also use the MashZone NextGen DataTable API, discussed later in this introduction, as the client model for mashable or mashup results.

In addition to adding pluggable views, this framework allows developers to add pluggable libraries with JavaScript, HTML and CSS resources that can be used to support pluggable views or custom apps. Pluggable libraries may be specific to your organization or they can be from third parties. They can be hosted in MashZone NextGen or hosted externally. This feature makes it easy to leverage the wide variety of web visualizations available.