APL Image (APL 1.6 to 1.7)

Note: Learn how to improve your skills with APL with Build visually rich experiences using APL at the Alexa Learning Lab.

(This is not the most recent version of APL. Use the Other Versions option to see the documentation for the most recent version of APL)

An Image component draws a bitmap image on the screen. Don't use animated .gif files in your skills. Although these images may appear animated in the simulator, their behavior on screen devices with Alexa might be different.

Properties

The Image component has the following properties in addition to the base component properties. See the meaning of the columns.

The "auto" value is not supported for dimension-related properties on Image. If you use "auto", the image might not render.

Property	Type	Default	Styled	Dynamic	Description
`align`	One of: `bottom`, `bottom-left`, `bottom-right`, `center`, `left`, `right`, `top`, `top-left`, `top-right`	`center`	Yes	Yes	Alignment of the image within the containing box.
`borderRadius`	Non-negative Absolute dimension	0	Yes	No	Clipping radius for the image.
`filter`, `filters`	Array of filters	[ ]	No	No	Filters to apply to the image.
`overlayColor`	Color	none	Yes	Yes	If set, a theme-appropriate scrim is overlaid on the image. This ensures text placed on the image is legible.
`overlayGradient`	Gradient	none	Yes	Yes	A colored gradient that overlays the image.
`scale`	Scale	`best-fit`	Yes	Yes	How the image will be resized to fit in the bounding box.
`source`, `sources`	URL or array of URLs	none	No	Yes	The URL or URLs to download the image from.

All images must specify a width and a height value. To minimize errors, the width and height of an Image component default to 100dp.

The source / sources property of the Image component is an array of one or more image URLs. The Image component doesn't render until after all of the URLs have been loaded. After all URLs load, the component applies any filters defined in the filters property. When the filters property is empty or not provided, the component renders the last image in the sources array.

Filters modify, augment, and merge images from the image array. The result of filter processing is a single image. The image that results from filter processing can be further modified by the overlayColor and overlayGradient properties.

For details about image filters, see Filters.

When the Image is the source or target of an event, the following values are reported in event.source or event.target:

{
  // Image-specific values
  "type": "Image",
  "url": URL,          // The URL of the image. Contains an array if multiple images are provided

  // General component values
  "bind": Map,         // Access to component data-binding context
  "checked": Boolean,  // Checked state
  "disabled": Boolean, // Disabled state
  "focused": Boolean,  // Focused state
  "height": Number,    // Height of the component, in dp (includes the padding)
  "id": ID,            // ID of the component
  "opacity": Number,   // Opacity of the component [0-1]
  "pressed": Boolean,  // Pressed state
  "uid": UID,          // Runtime-generated unique ID of the component
  "width": Number      // Width of the component, in dp (includes the padding)
}

align

Positions the image within the container.

Name	Description
`bottom`	Align to the bottom and center horizontally
`bottom-left`	Align the bottom-left corners
`bottom-right`	Align the bottom-right corners
`center`	Center horizontally and vertically
`left`	Align to the left side and center vertically
`right`	Align to the right side and center vertically
`top`	Align to the top and center horizontally
`top-left`	Align the top-left corners
`top-right`	Align the top-right corners

borderRadius

A uniform clipping radius to be set on the corners of the image. Setting the borderRadius to a large number will create a circular clip.

filter, filters

One or more filtering operations to apply to the image. See Filters.

overlayColor

A color applied as a scrim across the image. The color must have a transparent component for the image to show. For instance, you could set overlayColor to rgba(white,0.3) to overlay the image with white at 30% opacity.

Note that overlayColor is a convenience name for a filter that overlays the image with a single color. The overlayColor filter is applied after any filters defined by the filter property.

The scrim applies only to the drawn area of the image, not the padding or any blank space left over after image scaling and alignment.

overlayGradient

A gradient applied as a scrim across the image. The gradient must have a transparent component for the image to show. An overlayGradient is equivalent to a filter that overlays the image with a named gradient. The overlayGradient filter is applied after any filters defined by the filter property and after the overlayColor property.

The gradient applies only to the drawn area of the image, not the padding or any blank space left over after image scaling and alignment.

scale

Scales the image within the container.

Name	Description
`none`	Doesn't scale the image. The `align` property positions the image in the bounding box. The portions of the image that fall outside of the bounding box are clipped.
`fill`	Scales the image non-uniformly so that the width matches the bounding box width and the height matches the bounding box height.
`best-fill`	Scales the image uniformly up or down so that the bounding box is completely covered. The `align` property positions the scaled image within the bounding box.
`best-fit`	Scales the image uniformly up or down so that the entire image fits within the bounding box. The `align` property positions the scaled image within the bounding box.
`best-fit-down`	Scales the image uniformly as per `best-fit`, but only allow down-scaling, never up-scaling. This ensures that the image doesn't appear pixelated.

source, sources

The URL of the image to download and display.

Use https instead of http for image source URLs. Many Alexa devices don't support the http scheme in skill APL documents for security reasons.

You can set this property to an array of URLs instead of a single string. When the filters property is empty, the component displays the last image in the array. When the filters property contains one or more filters, the filter determines which image or images to use in the array. For details about filters, see Filters

Manage alignment, scaling, and sizing of images

Image alignment and scaling can be complex. Images must have a specified height and width. The actual image must then be clipped, scaled, and positioned within the bounding box of the Image component.

The scale mode controls how the image size is adjusted to fit the bounding box.

The align mode controls how the image (after scaling) is positioned in the box.

Any clipping is always applied to the bounding box, not to the scaled image.

Sample image

{
 "type": "Image",
 "source": "https://images.example.com/image/foo.png",
 "scale": "fill",
 "width": 300,
 "height": 300
}

In this case, the image fills a 300x300 box on the screen.

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Last updated: Nov 28, 2023