Loading local images and storing them in a column

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

my aim is to upload some local images using them as filter values in my Power BI report. This last element is the thing which I'm not able to achieve.

I read some articles about how to upload images, I put them as binary in a SQL Server table, I imported the table in Power BI and then followed the steps (you can see https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Desktop/How-to-use-Images-Stored-in-a-SQL-Server-Table-with-Power-B... or http://sqljason.com/2018/01/embedding-images-in-power-bi-using-base64.html or many others). 

It all works well (except images dimension, but that could depend on my binary conversion), I see images as column values in a table, but if I use them as filter values, they are shown as strings, like "data:image/jpg..." and not as images.

Why is it happening? I don't want to use Web images because they are not stable, I want my own images but I need to use them in a filter, not in a table.

Thanks a lot

Nick

[v-gizhi-msft]

Hi,

I think you can try to add an index column and filter this index column to show images.

Best Regards,

Giotto

[Anonymous]

Thanks @v-gizhi-msft 

I'm sure it would work but I need to give it to a final customer which doesn't want to use an index column, it could be useful but he needs to select an image and not something else, and I think in your hint he would use the index.

Nick

[v-gizhi-msft]

Hi,

To my knowledge, i think there is no simpler function to reach your requirement.

Best Regards,

Giotto

[Greg_Deckler]

@Anonymous To the best of my knowledge, the standard Slicers do not support displaying images. The reason is that they are not coded to support such behavior. You may find a third party visual that does. Also, you could check the Ideas forum and vote for a similar idea or post the idea. It's and interesting concept.

https://aka.ms/PBI_Comm_Ideas

[Anonymous]

Thanks @Greg_Deckler for quick answering,

I found out that it's actually possible, I tried to create a column with images URLs from Web and they work if used as filter values, but it is not happening with images imported from SQL DB and it looked really weird to me.

Nick 

[Greg_Deckler]

@Anonymous - I get to learn things all the time! So what is the Data Category of web image URL's. I assume Image URL? Is that the same data catagory for your images from SQL?

[Anonymous]

@Greg_Deckler - Yes, if I am taking what you mean.

If I store some images taken copying their URL from Web and mark their data type as ImageURL, they work as filter values. Instead, if I convert some images downloaded from Web to binary, store them in a SQL DB, import the table in Power BI and then follow the steps pointed in previous articles (convert to text and then add some strings to be read as images) and moreover I mark them as ImageURL, they work as table values but not as filter ones.

It regards flags images, I tried to overcome it using World Flag Slicer from Enlighten but it does not duplicates flags (I have New York and Los Angeles and I'd need 2 USA flags but it shows one).

Nick

[Greg_Deckler]

Huh, it's intriguing to me that the slicer would work with images for simple web url's but not for the "image urls" that you have created, especially when both work in a table visualization. I would report it as an issue in the issues forum and see if it gets accepted or if someone else has already posted something similar. You could check the Issues forum here:

https://community.powerbi.com/t5/Issues/idb-p/Issues

And if it is not there, then you could post it.