Document
The Document feature gives your flows a way to store, manage, and preview files directly inside Business Central. Documents are commonly used for email attachments, generated reports, imported data files, or any other binary content that a flow needs to handle.
Typical use cases include:
- Storing a PDF report generated by a flow step.
- Attaching a file received from an HTTP request to a Business Central record.
- Importing CSV or XML data files for further processing.
- Keeping HTML templates for automated emails.
Data structure
Each document stores the following information:
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ID | Integer | Unique identifier, auto-generated. |
| Name | Text | The file name, including extension. |
| Content Type | Text | The MIME type of the file (e.g. application/pdf, text/html). |
| Length | Integer | File size in bytes, calculated on import. |
| Data | Media | The actual file content, stored using BC's Media type. |
The Media type ensures cloud-compatible storage that works seamlessly with Business Central online and on-premises environments.
Pages
Document List
The Document List page shows all stored documents with their name, content type, and size. Use it to browse, search, and manage your documents.
- Import action: Creates a new document record and opens the file picker to upload a file.
- Preview FactBox: The right-hand side shows a live preview of the selected document.
Document Card
The Document Card page provides a detailed view of a single document, including a large preview area.
- Import action: Upload or replace the file for this document.
- Export action: Download the document file to your local machine.
Preview
The preview adapts to the content type of the document:
| Content Type | Preview |
|---|---|
PDF (application/pdf) | Embedded viewer using an iframe. |
HTML (text/html) | Rendered HTML content. |
Images (image/png, image/jpeg, etc.) | Inline image display. |
Text-based (text/plain, application/json, application/xml, etc.) | Preformatted text with monospace font. |
| Other | File metadata (name, type, size) with a note that preview is not available. |
The preview is available both on the Document Card and as a FactBox on the Document List.
Working with documents in flows
Documents are designed to be created and consumed by flow steps. A typical pattern looks like this:
- A trigger or action produces file content (e.g. an HTTP response body, a generated report).
- The flow creates a Document record and imports the content.
- Later steps can read the document, attach it to an email, or export it.
Best practices
- Set the content type explicitly: Always provide the correct MIME type so that previews and downstream processing work correctly.
- Use meaningful names: Include the file extension in the name (e.g.
invoice-2024-001.pdf) to make documents easy to identify. - Clean up when done: If documents are only needed temporarily during flow execution, consider deleting them after use to keep storage tidy.