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# Exploring the Core Components

VDL provides several core components in the form of VDL elements and attributes— all are documented in the VDL Reference.
This section of the guide describes their key features.
Tip: In this section, components highlighted in Bold refer to elements that are available in the View Designer—these are immediately followed by the same element when viewed in the code editor, which are normally contained by angle brackets <> and are highlighted by a `different format`.
Covered Topics

- Using VDL tables
  Tables can be created either using the or elements. Both elements are powerful mechanisms that generate tables from a given list of array entities from one or more scenarios.
- Working with Forms
- Charts in views
  Charts can be embedded within conventional views using the Chart component or the vdl-chart tag . Chart data can originate as static, scripted data, or it can be retrieved from model entities.
- Using Validators
  When a user selects a new value from or types into a form field or editable cell in a published view, it is automatically validated.
- VDL Actions
  VDL Actions are operations that you can instruct Xpress Insight to perform in response to an input from the user. A VDL Action is a function that can be triggered from the vdl-event attribute attached to certain VDL elements.
- Adding an Execute Button
  With VDL Actions, you can add a button to a view that allows a user to submit a scenario for execution with a given execution mode, optionally setting a scalar entity first.
- Managing Attachments using VDL Buttons
  You can create, upload, edit, manage, and download both app and scenario attachments by triggering VDL Actions from an on screen button.
- Working with the Text (vdl-text) Element
  Use the Text (vdl-text) element to display values that may change at any time. Such values may be model entity values, view globals or the result of script calculations, or any combination of these.
- Creating Tooltips
  Use the element inside other elements to add informative tooltips to your view.
- Adding Links to Other Views
  Use the vdl-event attribute to add a link to another view.

Parent Topic Using the View Designer and VDL to Create Custom Views

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