Editing a portable, dynamic and abstract view definition of a network object database

A user is enabled to edit a table defining a view of a network object database, for example, a MIB. The user can select from among a plurality of network object types and select from among a plurality of columns of the table. At least one column of the table is specified by the user and edited to represent a network object type specified by the user. The view definition can be extracted from the application and transported to another device where it can be edited and/or viewed using a suitable application. Such portable view definition may be defined as part of a document, for example, a document formatted in accordance with a markup language, such as XML. Such document may include information for requesting objects to populate the view, which may be used to construct requests (e.g., SNMP requests) to retrieve objects from one or more network devices.