Can a Slack app also have a preview for uploaded file using files_upload?

[Harshg999]

Hi Everyone,

Using files_upload from the SDK Web Client,

Is there a way for Slack App to also have a preview for the file uploaded just like a normal user gets when uploading it ??

Thanks in advance!

[misscoded]

Hi @Harshg999! Great question. 🙂

So, as far as bot file uploads go, with the files_upload method it's not possible to add a custom preview to the file (in this case, to mimic the preview seen when an end user does an upload "by hand" in the client).

If you still wanted to add a custom preview, you could use the files_remote_add method instead (example, docs). The value for preview_image is what is shown when your file is shared (these added files must be explicitly shared using the files_remote_share method (docs)).

As their name implies, files_remote_add and files_remote_share require that you to host the files remotely, so you'll have to decide if that's a tradeoff you're comfortable with making to get a custom preview.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any further questions!

[Harshg999]

Thank you for the answer @misscoded!