Forum Discussion
Power BI as Search Engine for Photo Catalog
Hello,
I need to create a catalog for photos of company vehicles. I'd like to use Power BI as a search engine for the photos as well as a report for metrics regarding the photos (ex. time since last photo taken, percent of photos catalogued vs total existing equipment, etc.). An employee would search for a vehicle by VIN or site location and the photos would either populate in Power BI (ideally) or provide a link to the file destination (the photos would be stored either on Sharepoint or the company's network drive, if possible).
How can I do this?
The example below shows a matrix with hyperlinks to the file location, or if I can have the photos pull up in Power BI, it would be the matrix without a file location and instead the images on the right.
I connected my Power BI report to SharePoint where my photos are saved.
Then I created a custom column in Power Query named "Image URL" and combined the fields "Folder Path" and "Name" like so:
=[Folder Path] & [Name]
Then I closed and applied.
I clicked on my newly created "Image URL" field and chose "Image URL" from the drop-down menu called "Data category" in the properties section.
I downloaded the "Simple Image" visual from the "Get more visuals" section and added my "Image URL" field to it.
My matrix includes the original field called "Name", which is tied to the corresponding image from the "Image URL" field I created. So when I click on an image name in my matrix, the "Simple Image" visual updates with the corresponding photo.
FYI, you will only see the images in the visual in a published version of the report. In the desktop version, the "Simple Image" visual will appear blank.
Let me know if you have questions.
3 Replies
I connected my Power BI report to SharePoint where my photos are saved.
Then I created a custom column in Power Query named "Image URL" and combined the fields "Folder Path" and "Name" like so:
=[Folder Path] & [Name]
Then I closed and applied.
I clicked on my newly created "Image URL" field and chose "Image URL" from the drop-down menu called "Data category" in the properties section.
I downloaded the "Simple Image" visual from the "Get more visuals" section and added my "Image URL" field to it.
My matrix includes the original field called "Name", which is tied to the corresponding image from the "Image URL" field I created. So when I click on an image name in my matrix, the "Simple Image" visual updates with the corresponding photo.
FYI, you will only see the images in the visual in a published version of the report. In the desktop version, the "Simple Image" visual will appear blank.
Let me know if you have questions.
Post your solution, it may help others. 👍
I have figured it out. Not sure if I should post the solution or delete this post?
