# Sharing a view or a widget

A view you compose is yours until you share it. You can share the whole view, or
a single widget out of it, with named colleagues. Only the view's owner can
share it, though an administrator can also manage sharing on a view that is
visible to the whole organization. The people you share with can look, but not
change anything, and they cannot share it on.

## Share a whole view

Two ways in, and they do the same thing — **Share** at the top right of the view
you have open, or the **...** beside a view's name in the left panel. Both open
**Share view**.

![A composed view with both share controls highlighted: the Share button at the top right of the view, and the Share entry in the three-dot menu beside the view's name in the left panel, which also offers Pin, Rename, and Delete](/img/generative-ui/share-view-entry-points.png)

## Share a single widget

Open the widget's **⋮** menu and choose **Share this widget**, which opens
**Share widget**. The person you invite gets that widget and nothing else: they
see the name of the view it came from, but none of its other widgets.

![A widget's three-dot menu open, offering Edit, Export, Share this widget, and Remove](/img/generative-ui/widget-overflow-menu.png)

**Share widget** lists only the people you gave that widget. Anyone who has the
whole view can open it as well.

## Who you can share with

Type the address the person **signs in to Mesh with**, then choose **Invite**.
It has to be a plain address such as `sam@example.com`, not
`Sam <sam@example.com>`. You cannot share a view with yourself, and inviting
somebody who already has access tells you so.

Access starts the moment you choose **Invite**. There is nothing for them to
accept, and it does not expire: it lasts until you remove it or delete the view.

> **caution**

Mesh does not check what you type against your organization's directory. It
accepts any well-formed address, including one outside your organization, and
the invitation email goes to whatever you typed — naming you, the view, and any
widget you shared. Nothing warns you that an address matches nobody, and the
access stays in place, so whoever later signs in to Mesh with that address can
open what you shared. If you mistype an address, choose **Remove** beside it.

![The Share view dialog: a box to add people by email with an Invite button, a list showing the owner and one invited person marked Whole view and Pending, and a footer reading Private — shared with 1 person, beside a Copy link button](/img/generative-ui/share-view-dialog.png)

They get an email with a link, and it appears in their left panel: a whole view
under **Shared with me**, a single widget under **Shared widgets**.

**Copy link** copies the view's address so you can send it yourself, which is
worth knowing if your organization is strict about automated mail. Sending the
link grants nothing and widens nothing: whoever opens it still needs access. It
is always the view's link, so somebody you gave a single widget should use the
link in their email, or **Shared widgets**.

Widgets that run a live query show each person what their own permissions allow,
so the same view can look different to two people. A widget built from a fixed
set of rows, such as a chart composed from chat, shows everyone the rows it was
created with, and those rows came from your access. Check them before you share.

## Who has access, and taking it away

The dialog lists the people you invited. You are **Owner**. Each person shows
what you gave them — **Whole view** or **One widget** — and stays **Pending**
until the first time they open it. Anyone you give the whole view can open
**Share** and see who else has access.

The footer is also the view's visibility control. **Private** means only you and
the people listed can open it, and inviting somebody never changes that. An
administrator can open the footer and choose **Tenant (all users)**, which makes
the view readable by everyone in your organization, invited or not. The footer
then reads *Everyone in your organization*, and the list is no longer everyone
who can open it.

Choose **Remove** beside a name to end that person's access, which takes effect
straight away. On a **Private** view that is the whole story, and the view
disappears from their list. On a view set to **Tenant (all users)**, **Remove**
only takes back the invitation — they can still open it as a member of your
organization — so set the view back to **Private** first.

## Removing and deleting what you have shared

**Removing a shared widget** asks you first: **Remove for everyone**, and the
people you gave that widget lose it too, or **Remove from my view only**, and
they keep it, still live. Anyone holding the whole view loses it either way,
because it is no longer in the view. To take it away later, open **Share view**
and choose **Remove** beside their **One widget** entry.

**Deleting a view** ends access for everybody, including anyone you gave a
single widget out of it.

## Asking the chat instead

Inviting somebody, seeing who has access, and removing access can each be done
by asking instead. The chat and the dialog do the same thing there, so it makes
no difference which you use. **Copy link** and the visibility control are in the
dialog only.

| Ask for | What Mesh does |
|---|---|
| "Share this view with sam@example.com" | Invites that person to the whole view |
| "Share this widget with sam@example.com", from that widget's own chat | Invites them to that one widget |
| "Who has access to this view?" | Lists the people you have shared it with |
| "Stop sharing this view with sam@example.com" | Removes that person's access |
| "Stop sharing this widget with sam@example.com", from its own chat | Removes their access to that widget |