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Show a picture beside a record

Goal​

Give a table a picture — a contact's photo, a country's flag, a product shot — and have the platform show it wherever it shows which record this is: beside the name in a view, and beside each candidate in a lookup.

Prerequisites​

  • You are signed in as a maker with permission to edit the table's solution.
  • You have a table open in the Table Designer.

Steps​

  1. On the table's Fields, select New and add a field with the data type Image. Give it a display name people will read on the form ("Photo").
  2. Select Save. The field’s column exists as soon as it is added.
  3. Select the new field's row, then select Use as record image in the command bar. The action appears only for image fields, because only an image can be one.
  4. The field's row now reads (Record image) beside its name — a table can have several image fields, and this says which one identifies a record.
  5. To stop using it, select the same field and choose Stop using as record image. The field and its pictures stay; only the designation goes.

What happens behind the scenes​

A table has at most one record image. That designation is what lets a view, a lookup, or a form header show a picture without every one of them naming an image column and guessing which of several is the identifying one.

It is part of the table's definition, so it travels in a solution: export the table and the target environment shows the same picture in the same places, with nothing to re-pick.

Records without a picture are not blank — they show the first letter of their name — so a list stays even, and "no photo yet" does not look like a broken page.

Deleting the field clears the designation with it. Nominating a different field replaces the designation; it never gives a table two.

Troubleshooting​

  • The "Use as record image" action is not shown. — the selected field is not an image field. Only a field of type Image can be a table's record image; add one first.
  • No pictures appear in the view. — check the records actually have one: open a record, and see whether the picture field shows a picture or "No picture". The record image is where the platform looks; it does not create pictures.
  • The picture in a view is out of date. — replacing a record's picture updates it everywhere; if a stale one persists, reload the page.
  • Add a field to a table.
  • Choose a field's control.
  • Create a lookup view.