Glossary
View formatting
View formatting is JSON applied to a whole SharePoint list view rather than a single column, letting you style entire rows or switch to a card-based gallery layout. Like column formatting, it is free and needs no deployment.
It is what you use to highlight a whole row when a date is overdue, or to turn a list into readable cards on a phone.
It shares the same ceiling: one list, no aggregation, no state that survives a reload, and the output is always a list view rather than a component you can place with its own layout on a page.