# Server Defaults and Active Navigation State Need Separate Owners ## Claim A configuration system stays predictable only when the server owns initial state and the client owns active navigation state, with no property claimed by both. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Scope & conditions - Holds when a server supplies a starting view (defaults, layouts, presets) while the client tracks what the user is currently doing (search text, current page, scroll position). - Breaks when a server-side query constraint is required for authorization, privacy, or data-integrity reasons — that enforcement belongs at a layer below presentation configuration, not inside the view-state split. - Demonstrated concretely in WordPress's DataViews view-config schema, which explicitly excludes `search` and `page` from the server-side filter and leaves them to the editor/URL. ## Evidence WordPress's View Configuration Reference names exactly two DataViews properties the server filter cannot set: search and page. Everything else in the view object — layout, visible fields, sort, filters, per-page count — is server-configurable. > [!quote] > There are two properties from the DataViews API that cannot be configured via the server filter: search and page. ## Links - [[3. Resources/Literature Notes/View Configuration Reference (Block Editor Handbook)]] — source literature note, §H1 - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Open Source Governance MOC]] — applies-in: shared admin surfaces need a documented split between server-owned and client-owned state to stay stable across extensions ## Tests / falsifiers - Find a case where the server filter successfully overrides active `search` or `page` despite the documented exclusion — would falsify the claimed boundary as absolute. - Find a production system where one property is legitimately owned by both layers without producing conflicts — would weaken "need separate owners" to "usually benefit from." ## Maintenance - Last tended: 2026-08-16 - Next review: 2026-11-16 ## Source - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/View Configuration Reference – Block Editor Handbook Developer.WordPress.org]] — documents the four-key DataViews view-configuration schema and its URL-state exclusion.