This article is relevant if you need to get images (photos) to NetSuite and you need to capture additional attributes (or metadata) to describe the nature of the file.
Background
NetSuite offers a file cabinet to hold images or photos. Once you have an image in NetSuite, you can reference it on other web sites, documents, or built-in forms. Yet, like a traditional computer file system, the simple nature of the file cabinet does not support additional information elements. For example, you may want to know the location the image was captured, the description of the contents of the image, and possibly any other type of attribute that is important in the use of the image. Indeed, a common requirement; yet, NetSuite’s file system is not extensible.
In my article, Drive NetSuite Business Rules by Uploaded File Type, I described how we can connect a third-party file system (in that case, eXtendFiles) to NetSuite so that files can be described with additional attributes with automatic business logic. While a third-party file system may be a great addition, this might be overkill if you have a simple one-off application requirement.
Basic NetSuite Photo Capture and Attribute Management Application
In working with a recent client that uses NetSuite Project module (SRP), we helped the client assess how they could help their field staff get photos to NetSuite, attach them to their related project record, and then describe the nature of the image for subsequent use. We discussed with the client the third party file system option — yet it was more economical to build a simple NetSuite application to do the following:
- Email Image as Attachment: by sending an email to NetSuite, and naming the email subject as the project name, the application will automatically attach the image to the project.
- Email Confirmation: Once the image is captured, an email is sent back to the sender with a reference to the captured image and a link to a specialized application. This acts to acknowledge receipt and to provide a reference to the tagging application.
- Attribute Tagging Application: The email provides a link to an application (NetSuite SuiteLet) that allows the sender to describe the additional attributes of the image. No license or login is required.
To get around NetSuite’s file cabinet limitations, a custom record specific for this application supports the image file tagging operation.
See Demonstration of the NetSuite Application (4:00)
To illustrate the application, the following video (4:00) shows how our senior consultant, Boban D., invented and built the program. All the capacities are based on the NetSuite platform and it highlights the kinds of innovations we do for our clients all-the-time.
Work with NetSuite Innovators
Our client was worried they were going to have to produce a difficult NetSuite integration with their existing Android and IOS devices. We offered an alternative. The article and video is a great illustration of how you can extend using the NetSuite platform. Here, we used both the Email Plug-in API and SuiteLet technology along with custom records to drive a solution. Even though we can build applications, it’s important to leverage whatever we can from NetSuite standard to minimize additional effort and help our clients realize the value of their annual NetSuite investment. Thus, expertise in NetSuite is paramount.
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Marty Zigman
Holding all three official certifications, Marty is regarded as the top NetSuite expert and leads a team of senior professionals at Prolecto Resources, Inc. He is a former Deloitte & Touche CPA and has held CTO roles. For over 30 years, Marty has produced leadership in ERP, CRM and eCommerce business systems. Contact Marty to set up a conversation.
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Hi Marty
I did something similar for a client, except on a larger scale.
Using Email capture plugin, and a series of custom records to store the file as well as records for “rules”, the client can email images, pdfs, spreadsheets etc… and they’ll get tagged to a job.
Also about to integrate kraken.io which I highly recommend for auto-resizing of images (so we don’t store 100s or 1000s of hi-res images. Handy too for creating a thumbnail automatically, AND getting image data such as width/height/ratio etc… which is good for Advanced PDF display (since we can’t use max width property in BFO).
For this solution, the system handles over 1000 images per day… we’re now looking to integrate my custom solution to push files to Box Files, and return the url to netsuite for unlimited storage.
Hi Stefan,
Thank you for the thinking and the image processor. You may want to consider extendFiles as they have a BOX integration and it was built for folks like us. You will get the URL.
Marty
Marty
Hey Marty,
I thought this was the one I was looking for but turns out to be different.
So the scenario is that I’ve set up a Case Profile so that we can directly email NetSuite to have a Support Case (ticket as we refer to it) created. So once created, there will be an email thread. If you check the email in that ticket, the images are all blank rectangles and the actual images are just attached in the attachments tab. Have you experienced this before?
Hello Fhae,
Something seems wrong in the configuration. We are able to see the images as attachments and they look just fine. Have you tried Customer Support?
Marty