1. At a computer system including one or more processors and system memory, a method for configuring a composite data view, the method comprising: an act of detecting that first and second data views are to be combined in a composite data view, the first data view configured to present data elements from a database in response to a first query, the second data view configured to present further data elements related to a data element selected from the first view in response to a second query such that the second data view depends from data in the first data view; in response to detecting that the first and second views are to be combined in a composite data view, an act of creating a configuration for the composite data view, including: an act of establishing a selection variable under the control of the composite view, the selection variable for storing a value that identifies a data element in the first view; an act of the processor automatically configuring a user-interface control to update the selection variable with a received value; and an act of the processor automatically re-writing the second query to re-direct the second query to use the value in the selection variable as the source location for the second query; and an act of instantiating the created configuration to present the composite data view at the display device.