How to get the XML definition for a view that is inside a folder?

Issue

Is it possible to dump the view definition XML to stdout ? (The view is in the folder).

Environment

Jenkins
Jenkins LTS
CloudBees Jenkins Enterprise (CJE)
CloudBees Jenkins Operation Center (CJOC)
CloudBees Folders Plugin

Resolution

In order to get the information of one or more views inside a folder you should use the Jenkins Script Console. For that you should navigate to Manage Jenkins -→ Script Console, and run the following script.

import com.cloudbees.hudson.plugins.folder.*

jen = Jenkins.instance

jen.getItems().each{
  if(it instanceof Folder){
  println "Folder found"
  processFolder(it)
  }
  if(it instanceof View){
  println "View found"+ it.name
  }
}
return

void processFolder(Item folder){
def buf = new ByteArrayOutputStream()
def newOut = new PrintStream(buf)
def saveOut = System.out
def viewNameList = []

  folder.getItems().each{
  println "processing..." + folder.name
  folder.getViews().each(){
  if(it instanceof View && it.name != "All")
  {
    if(!(it.name in viewNameList)){
      viewNameList << it.name
      println "View " + it.name
      it.writeXml(buf)
    }

  }
  }
  println buf.toString()
  println " "

  }
}▼

This script uses a very simple approach, and gets all the elements existing at root level for your instance, and if the element is a folder, it processes all the views included in it (except for the All view). It is quite straightforward to extend the script in a way that you can process recursively all the elements, or to get the information only for views matching a given pattern or inside a given folder.