Attachment Fields

Attachment fields let you associate files—like images, documents, and PDFs—with your database records. Whether you’re tracking employee resumes, product photos, or project documentation, attachments provide a seamless way to store and manage files alongside your structured data.

How to Add an Attachment Field

Your database table must have a text field to store attachment metadata. Make sure it is large enough to hold at least 1000 characters.

In Visual DB Sheets: Click on the header of the text column, then click on Settings. In the Field Settings dialog, click on Field Type and switch the type to Attachment.

In Visual DB Forms: Switch to design mode, then select the text field. Under Input Settings, switch the Input Type to Attachment.

Uploading, Downloading and Deleting Files

To upload a file to an attachment field, click in the field, then click on the paperclip icon. To download or delete attachments, open the Attachments dialog by clicking the expand-cell icon.

When a record is deleted, all its attachment files are automatically deleted. When an application is deleted, all attachment files in the application are automatically deleted.

Security

Access to attachments is controlled by application permissions. Attachment links can only be opened by logged-in users who are authorized to use the application.

How Attachments Are Stored

Databases are optimized for structured data, not for storing large binary files. Keeping attachments in the database bloats table sizes, slows down backups, increases memory usage, and makes scaling expensive.

Cloud storage solutions like Azure Blob Storage are purpose-built for files—they’re cheaper per gigabyte, handle large files efficiently, and keep your database lean and performant.

Visual DB stores file metadata (such as filename, content type and id) in your database while the actual file content is stored separately in cloud storage. When self-hosting Visual DB, attachments are stored on your local hard drive by default, though you can configure it to use your own cloud storage instead.