Show images from URLs in table widgets

[benedictleejh]

Describe the problem to be solved

Google Sheets and Excel allow for inserting image into cells with the IMAGE formula. This can quickly help with previewing linked images.

Currently, the only way to view an image from a URL in Grist is to use the Image Viewer widget, which can only view 1 image at a time, so it becomes cumbersome to view all images from a table, especially if there are a lot of table rows.

Describe the solution you would like

Display images from URLs directly inside the table widget.

[dsagal]

Possibly related is this more general proposal for formatting in cells: #1161. That proposal does not include images initially, but if allowed, then an IMAGE(url) formula could be implemented as simply returning suitable markdown, and if the column is set to render with formatting enabled, it would show the image.

[gh2023-aesun]

+1 for this feature

[dsagal]

The main issue with this proposal is privacy: it allows tracking users who view a document by pointing an image URL at a server that would get the user's IP address. One way to address this is to load images through a proxy (there is an article from another product that describes such a setup: https://docs.mattermost.com/deploy/image-proxy.html).

Another option is to skip showing images by default, but give the user an option to "Display external images", similar to how Gmail gives users such an option.