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BryanPO
Frequent Visitor

Collecting image data from sharepoint to powerapps en showing them when there is no internet connection needed.

Hi all,

 

Got a SharePoint document library where I store pictures of objects that needs to be inspected. The pictures are first taken from Power Apps and brought with a flow to the SharePoint library (with name and three propperties: Inspectionnumber,Inspection route,ID). 

I now want to use this files/images again in the app to show what needs to be inspected the next time. This is working when I have a connection because it reads the Thumbnail.Large  url link. But I would like to somehow download the images from a the SharePoint to the app (with the proprieties) and then show it when it is needed in a offline scenario. 

 

Greetings,

 

Bryan

2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions
RandyHayes
Super User
Super User

@BryanPO 

To support the offline scenario, you will need to pull the items that you need/want into a collection while connected and then you can store locally (SaveData function).

 

The trick will be to gather only the items that you need prior to going offline.  It will (most likely) not be practical to download ALL pictures and save them on the device.

 

We do this for field-tech type apps where techs will be disconnected but need to take, update, and view photos.  It works just fine, but you HAVE to determine while connected what will be brought down.  In many of our cases, we have the app filter based on open service calls or scheduled calls or something that will definitively limit the amount of stored data.

 

I hope this is helpful for you.

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View solution in original post

@BryanPO 

The photo will be in the Thumbnail property.

So, if you collect some photos from your library, they will have a Thumbnail property and you can use either the Thumbnail.Small, Thumbnail.Medium, or Thumbnail.Large to view them.

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View solution in original post

8 REPLIES 8
JayMagness
Solution Sage
Solution Sage

HI,

 

I have done this many times and use it a little different process to make life easier.

 

I use the Attachments in a SharePoint list. Many do not know but attachments is very well integrated with all devices and is a nice user interface and actually then you can pull all the images associated with the action into a gallery.

 

 

RandyHayes
Super User
Super User

@BryanPO 

To support the offline scenario, you will need to pull the items that you need/want into a collection while connected and then you can store locally (SaveData function).

 

The trick will be to gather only the items that you need prior to going offline.  It will (most likely) not be practical to download ALL pictures and save them on the device.

 

We do this for field-tech type apps where techs will be disconnected but need to take, update, and view photos.  It works just fine, but you HAVE to determine while connected what will be brought down.  In many of our cases, we have the app filter based on open service calls or scheduled calls or something that will definitively limit the amount of stored data.

 

I hope this is helpful for you.

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Digging it? - Click on the Thumbs Up below. Solved your problem? - Click on Accept as Solution below. Others seeking the same answers will be happy you did.
NOTE: My normal response times will be Mon to Fri from 1 PM to 10 PM UTC (and lots of other times too!)
Check out my PowerApps Videos too! And, follow me on Twitter @RandyHayes

Really want to show your appreciation? Buy Me A Cup Of Coffee!

Hi @RandyHayes ,

Sounds good and I also thought about the SaveData / loaddata function, in combination with a collection. But I have no idea how to get the filedata from sharepoint in the first collection, because I only get the sharepointlinks.

 

 

 

 

@BryanPO 

The photo will be in the Thumbnail property.

So, if you collect some photos from your library, they will have a Thumbnail property and you can use either the Thumbnail.Small, Thumbnail.Medium, or Thumbnail.Large to view them.

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Digging it? - Click on the Thumbs Up below. Solved your problem? - Click on Accept as Solution below. Others seeking the same answers will be happy you did.
NOTE: My normal response times will be Mon to Fri from 1 PM to 10 PM UTC (and lots of other times too!)
Check out my PowerApps Videos too! And, follow me on Twitter @RandyHayes

Really want to show your appreciation? Buy Me A Cup Of Coffee!

Hi Randy,

 

What I can see is that the thumbnail property is an URL. When I tested this there was no image visible when there was no internet connection.

Or are you mentioning the save function in combination with the thumbnail? Haven't tested this jet. 

 

Greetings

 

Bryan 

@BryanPO 

Yes, to do truly disconnected apps with that data (images) you need to gather the images locally prior to disconnection.  

For SharePoint files, this is tricky because, as you noticed, everything is a link to the file.

So, we've worked around that with Flow/PowerAutomate.  The trick is to create a Flow that will get the requested file and then return the file content in a Base64 encoded string. That can then be stored locally.

It's much easier with Azure Blob Storage, but that is a premium connector.  If you're paying for PowerApps premium, then it is worth looking at that for simplicity. 

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Digging it? - Click on the Thumbs Up below. Solved your problem? - Click on Accept as Solution below. Others seeking the same answers will be happy you did.
NOTE: My normal response times will be Mon to Fri from 1 PM to 10 PM UTC (and lots of other times too!)
Check out my PowerApps Videos too! And, follow me on Twitter @RandyHayes

Really want to show your appreciation? Buy Me A Cup Of Coffee!
Anonymous
Not applicable

Hello @RandyHayes  ,

I found this thread, because I'm also trying to save images from a SharePoint list to collection in order to display them while being offline. 

Unfortunately, I have no access to Azure Blob Storage. So I have to use the other work around option with Power Automate. Can you please give an example or explanation how to set up a flow which converts the file content in a Base64 encoded string?

Many thanks in advance!

 

Best regards

Luca

@Anonymous 

It's pretty basic from the PowerAutomate side of things.

What we have is a simple flow that has a Get File Contents Using Path step.  We pass the file name/path in from PowerApps.

The next step is simply to respond to PowerApps with a string result (we call it photo).  There is an expression for that return which is:

concat('data:', body('Get_file_content_using_path')['$content-type'], ';base64,', body('Get_file_content_using_path')['$content'])

 

This will return the image data that an be added to a collection or just put into an image depending on the need.

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________
Digging it? - Click on the Thumbs Up below. Solved your problem? - Click on Accept as Solution below. Others seeking the same answers will be happy you did.
NOTE: My normal response times will be Mon to Fri from 1 PM to 10 PM UTC (and lots of other times too!)
Check out my PowerApps Videos too! And, follow me on Twitter @RandyHayes

Really want to show your appreciation? Buy Me A Cup Of Coffee!

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