Power Apps supports the new SharePoint list image column type

We are happy to announce support SharePoint list image columns for read scenarios.  It is fully deployed.  Support for update capabilities is in the works.  You can now create a Power App and see the images directly in a Power App.  You can also choose from the full version of the image or various thumbnail sizes:  Small, Medium, and Large.  These thumbnail sizes are appropriate – for performance reasons – in controls such as small for gallery or medium for a form.  Large images can be used for detailed inspection.

Using the new SharePoint list image column

1.  Add a SharePoint image column to your SharePoint list.  Below the ‘Item Photo’ column is part of the SharePoint list.

2. In your Power App, reference the image column as part of a gallery or data card.

3. Adjust the size of the image in the gallery or data card as needed.   A full sized image may be too large to display adequately for your performance goals.  Adjust the formula for the image to select either Small, Medium, Large or Full.  Below the formula has been augmented to display the Small version of the image.  The Small designation is a lightweight version of the image that is suitable for fasting scrolling of records in a gallery.   It has less resolution but works for the smaller size display in a gallery.

In the image below, the formula is adjusted to show the Large size.  The Large and Medium sized images will generally not affect form load performance and still give adequate resolution.   Full sized images may affect performance if they are several megabytes in size.  But you may need the full resolution for your specific application.

Notes and Limitations

• The current implementation is Read only.  Update capabilities are in progress.
• The Small, Medium, and Large sized images are created on demand and temporarily cached.  An image that has been cached too long will be removed and will be regenerated on demand.
• Power Apps generally refreshes image meta-data every 30 seconds.  If you are authoring an application and want to immediately refresh images, choose the “…” item on the data source and choose to refresh the data.
• Images stored in a collection will not be rendered correctly.  It is best to access them directly from the list with a Filter expression.
• Images may still appear in the Power Apps field list even if the image column is hidden in the list