List formatting, column not loaded

Question

Question:

How can I enforce to load a column with data without it being seen as a separate column?

Problem:

I have two columns, title and summary. Now I would like to display only title in list view and show the summary as a 'popup'. I do not wish to show summary as a separate stand alone column in list view.

Created the list formatting as shown below. The problem occurs in when I do not have summary as a separate standalone column the value [$Summary] will be empty, as if the column with values has not been loaded.

Is it possible to fix this?

{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json",
  "elmType": "a",
  "attributes": {
    "href": "some link"
  },
  "txtContent": "[$Title]",
  "customCardProps": {
    "formatter": {
      "elmType": "div",
      "txtContent": "[$Summary]",
      "style": {
        "width": "500px",
        "padding": "20px"
      }
    },
    "openOnEvent": "hover",
    "directionalHint": "bottomCenter",
    "isBeakVisible": true,
    "beakStyle": {
      "backgroundColor": "white"
    }
  }
}

Answer 1

On top of Ganesh's input,

There is work around where you can still use column value in Column Formatting even if you don't add it as View Columns.

You can use Summary column either in View Filter Criteria or Order by. As you mentioned that Summary column does have Single Line of text field then you can use this work around.

Update you view and add "Summary" column as second Sort field and remove it from view field as mentioned in below screen shot:

Now your Column Formatting would work as expected as shown in below screen shot:

Answer 2

Unfortunately, No. This is a known issue while using JSON formatting in SharePoint. In order to reference the Summary column in JSON, it should be included in the list view.

Official documentations:

1. Use column formatting to customize SharePoint
2. Use view formatting to customize SharePoint

Answer 3

My suggestion would be to create a calculated field that references the hidden field, and then utilize the calculated field in the view. This approach allows for access to the field and enables formatting in the style tag if the condition is met.

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH_lTDzAnes)