RFE - Provide an Option to Disable Image Upload Functionality in Rich Text Fields While Retaining Rich Text Editing Capabilities

Business Requirement

IBM OpenPages Rich Text fields provide valuable formatting capabilities that allow users to create well-structured content using features such as bold text, italics, bullet points, hyperlinks, tables, and other formatting options.

However, organisations may wish to prevent users from uploading or embedding images within Rich Text fields while continuing to utilise all other Rich Text editing capabilities.

The requirement is to provide an administrator-controlled option that disables image upload and image insertion capabilities specifically within Rich Text fields.

Current Behaviour

• Rich Text fields allow users to upload and embed images directly within the field content.

• There is currently no supported configuration option to disable image uploads while retaining Rich Text functionality.

• Administrators cannot selectively control image-related features within the Rich Text editor.

Problem Statement

Many organisations use Rich Text fields to capture risk, audit, compliance, and governance information in a structured textual format.

Allowing images to be embedded within Rich Text fields introduces several challenges:

• Information can be stored as images rather than searchable text.

• Reporting and downstream data extraction become more difficult.

• Embedded images can significantly increase storage consumption.

• Images may be used to store content that bypasses established data governance standards.

• Organisations may have regulatory or compliance requirements that favour text-based content over embedded media.

The current workaround is to avoid using Rich Text fields altogether, which removes useful text formatting capabilities that business users require.

Requested Enhancement

Provide a configurable option that allows administrators to disable image upload and image embedding functionality within Rich Text fields while retaining all other Rich Text capabilities.

When enabled, the configuration should:

• Remove or disable the "Insert Image" option within the Rich Text editor.

• Prevent drag-and-drop image uploads into Rich Text fields.

• Prevent copy-and-paste image insertion into Rich Text fields.

• Continue to allow all standard Rich Text formatting features such as:

  • Bold

  • Italic

  • Underline

  • Bullets and numbering

  • Hyperlinks

  • Tables

  • Paragraph formatting

  • Text styling

Suggested configuration options:

• Enable image uploads in Rich Text fields (Default behaviour)

• Disable image uploads globally for all Rich Text fields

• Optionally allow future extensibility to configure the behaviour by field or object type

Expected Benefits

• Improved content governance and data quality.

• Better searchability and reporting of information stored in OpenPages.

• Reduced storage consumption resulting from embedded images.

• Improved consistency of user-entered content.

• Ability to retain Rich Text formatting functionality while preventing image-based content.

Business Impact

This enhancement would allow organisations to continue leveraging Rich Text fields for business documentation while enforcing enterprise content governance standards. It would provide greater administrative control over how information is captured in OpenPages and help ensure that critical governance, risk, compliance, and audit information remains text-based, searchable, and reportable.