Signature: Save externally

[Fabian_Weller]

What does “Save externally” in a Signature column type mean?

[Steve]

I would guess it means save a copy to the user’s device as well?

[Fabian_Weller]

Steve:

I would guess it means save a copy to the user’s device as well?

Yes I think this was the case once. But in my testing this is (no more) the case.

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@Steve_Howard Am i right with this?

• In a signature column it doesn’t matter if “Save externally” is enabled or disabled.
• The only images that are saved as a copy to the user’s device are from an image column and when you capture an image in a drawing column.

Can I disable the “save a copy to the user’s device”?
Can we get the Base64 from an image?

[Suvrutt_Gurjar]

Some valid queries from @Fabian. Request @Steve_Howard to guide.

[Former Community Member]

To the first question, yes, this setting doesn’t matter. As far as I can tell it used to do something, and now it doesn’t.

I don’t have a ton of context on how saving copies to the user’s device works. There’s currently not a way to get base64.

[Fabian_Weller]

Fabian:

Can I disable the “save a copy to the user’s device”?

I think this will not be possible, because AppSheet uses the device’s Camera App. So when you capture an image with AppSheet, in fact you capture it with the device’s Camera App. That’s why the image is saved to the device as well.

[Former Community Member]

It looks like this is a vestigial setting that is effectively always true now. This refers to the behavior of saving images to your data source (as opposed to directly in the sheet as base64).

[dbaum]

@lizlynch, it would be helpful to explain this property in relevant documentation (or, even better, suppress it in the UI). In trying to understand how to use the property, it took me a while only to ultimately find out there's nothing to know.

I started with Capture signatures and drawings - AppSheet Help, where it's not mentioned in the text but is mentioned (but explained seemingly erroneously) in the Content column types video. I also reviewed other articles, including Configure column properties - AppSheet Help, where it's not mentioned at all. I then came to the community, where I read through this entire thread to find Steve_Howard's explanation at the end that the property is actually just superfluous altogether and apparently should simply be ignored.

[lizlynch]

@dbaum - Thank you for this clear description. I agree it should be suppressed if it serves no function. I'll raise this to the team (and likely add a note to the documentation for the short term).

[lizlynch]

@dbaum  and other folks on this thread -- I've update the Capture signatures and drawings article to note that the Save externally property has no effect on the your app. 

As a separate effort, I'm working on documenting the "Type details" properties for ALL of the column types. Stay tuned for that.