Setting Up a Catalog with Images

Catalog tabs can display images stored in a Google Drive folder. You don’t host images on eg2 — eg2 reads them from your Drive folder on each sync and makes them available in the portal.

How It Works

Your spreadsheet has a column where each cell contains a filename (e.g. chair-blue.jpg). You configure that column as an image column in the portal editor and point it to the Google Drive folder where your image files live. On every sync, eg2 downloads each referenced image from Drive and serves it securely to authenticated customers.

Step 1: Prepare Your Images in Google Drive

1. Create a folder in Google Drive and upload your image files to it.
2. Share the folder with eg2’s special email address as a Viewer — the same address shown in the admin panel.
3. Note the folder ID from the folder’s URL:

   https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/YOUR_FOLDER_ID
   

Step 2: Add Filenames to Your Spreadsheet

In your spreadsheet, add a column where each row contains the filename of that item’s image:

The filename must match the actual file in your Drive folder exactly. Do not include the folder path — only the filename.

Subfolder prefix (optional): If images for different tabs are organized into subfolders within a single parent folder, you can prefix the filename with the subfolder name:

Chair_Images/chair-blue.jpg

eg2 strips the prefix and looks inside that subfolder automatically.

Step 3: Configure the Image Column in eg2

1. In the portal editor, open the tab and set its Display Type to Catalog.
2. Find the image filename column in the column list.
3. Set its column type to Image (Cloud).
4. In the Drive Folder ID field for that column, paste the folder ID from Step 1.
5. Click Save.

Step 4: Sync

After saving, your images will be downloaded during the next sync. Image sync may take a little longer than usual, depending on the number of images.

Multiple Image Columns

A catalog card can display multiple images. Configure a second (or third) column the same way — each pointing to its own Drive folder ID. In the lightbox viewer, customers can navigate between images using the arrow controls.