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Add a file or picture to a record

Goal​

Attach a file or a picture to a record, replace it, download it, or remove it.

Prerequisites​

  • You are signed in to the Platform Shell and have opened an app.
  • The record's form has a file or picture field on it. If it does not, ask the person who built the app to add one — a field like this is part of the table's design.
  • You can change the record. Whoever can edit the record can change its file; anyone who can read the record can open it.

Steps​

  1. Open the record's form: select its row in the grid and choose Edit, or choose New to create one.
  2. Find the field. A picture field shows a square preview; a file field shows the file's name and size. An empty field says No file or No picture.
  3. Select Choose a file (or Choose a picture) and pick the file from your computer. A field that already holds one offers Replace instead.
  4. The file waits for the save, on a new record and an existing one alike. The field shows what you picked with the note "This file is added when you save the record", and it is stored as soon as you select Save or Save & Close. Close the form without saving and the record keeps the file it had.
  5. To get a copy of the attached file, select Download. This gives you the file that is stored — not one you have picked but not yet saved.
  6. To empty the field, select Remove. The field reads as empty at once, and the stored file is deleted when you save. Picking another file instead of saving cancels the removal.

What happens behind the scenes​

The file is stored by the platform alongside the record it belongs to, and it is served back only to people who are allowed to read that record — there is no public link to it. Deleting the record deletes its files with it, and replacing a file discards the old one.

Because the bytes belong to the record, they are written just after the record's own save rather than as part of it. That is why a file is not stored until you press Save: a picture you swapped on a form you then abandoned would otherwise already have replaced the one on the record.

A picture is shrunk in your browser before it is sent, so a photo straight from a phone camera becomes a sensibly sized picture without you having to resize it first. The original on your computer is untouched.

A large file is kept somewhere else — the platform has a separate store for documents at volume, and it moves one there on its own once it is bigger than a form field is meant to hold. Nothing about using it changes: the field looks the same, Download gives you the same file, and it is still served only to people who can read the record. You are not asked where it should go, and there is no setting for it — which of the two stores holds a file is the platform’s decision, not yours and not the app builder’s.

Each field holds one file. Attaching a new one replaces what was there. If you need several files against the same thing — say, every invoice for a customer — the app has to be designed with a separate table for them; ask whoever built the app.

Troubleshooting​

  • "The file is … bytes; the limit for this field is …" — the file is bigger than this kind of field accepts and this installation has nowhere to put a large one. Where large-file storage is switched on you will never see this: the file is simply stored, and nothing about the field changes. Where it is not, use a smaller file, or ask the person who runs your Parsware installation whether large-file storage can be turned on. Picture fields have a smaller limit than file fields, because a picture on a form is meant to be shown rather than archived — and a picture you pick is shrunk in your browser first, so it rarely gets close.
  • "The file could not be stored" — the large-file store did not accept it. Nothing was saved and the field keeps the file it had, so try again; if it keeps happening, tell the person who runs your Parsware installation, because the store itself is what needs looking at.
  • "An image field accepts only image content" — the field is a picture field and the file you chose is not a picture. Choose an image file (PNG, JPEG, and so on).
  • The field says the file is added when you save. — that is the normal state after picking one. Select Save; the file is stored as part of saving.
  • I removed a picture but it came back. — the removal was never saved. Closing the form without saving leaves the record exactly as it was, files included.
  • The picture does not appear. — you may not have permission to read the record's file, or it has been removed by someone else. Reopen the record to see its current state.
  • Work with records in a view.
  • Open an app.