Access information in hidden columns with JSON formatting

Question

I am trying to format a document library in our SharePoint Online platform.

The goal is to have a row with a video thumbnail, title and short description. The title is not the same as the video file and the thumbnail is also a separate png image. Therefore I have created additional columns that contain this information, but I don't want these columns to be shown.

Problem: When I hide the columns with the title or thumbnail, I cannot access the information using JSON formatting. The field where the title and thumbnail were before are empty when I hide the two columns.

How can I access the information within the hidden columns?

Answer 1

This is a known behavior in SharePoint.

In order to format a column or view using JSON, the column you are referencing in JSON code must be included in the list view.

According to official documentation,

You construct a JSON object that describes the elements that are displayed when a field is included in a list view, and the styles to be applied to those elements.

Answer 2

For my scenario I can use a calculated column and in JSON formatting use @currentField to work with the looked up value, e.g. creating a URL out of it which is read only since it is calculated.

If you need to work with two looked up values, maybe JSON can split these into variables?