Sometimes your app has nothing to show — a listing with no photo, or a screen that comes back with zero results. MAM Suite fills that gap with two different images, each configured on its own:

• A Placeholder Image that stands in for an individual listing that has no image of its own.
• A No records image (plus an optional No records message) that takes over an entire screen when there are no results to display — the empty state.

These two settings do different jobs, so this article walks through what each one does, where you’ll find it, and how it makes its way into the app.

Before you start

Both settings use the same image picker — the image setting type — so you can upload a new file or pick one already sitting in your Media Library.

The two settings at a glance

The labels you see in the admin UI are “Placeholder Image,” “No records image,” and “No records message.” The variable names alongside them are the internal keys that carry these settings into the app’s JSON — you’ll only need those if you’re reading code or building a custom integration.

1. Set the listing Placeholder Image

The Placeholder Image steps in for a single listing that has no image of its own. If a directory entry, post, or product has no featured image, the app shows this instead — no blank thumbnails, no empty detail headers.

1. Go to Mobile App Manager → App Settings.
2. Open the Listings settings group.
3. Find Placeholder Image.
4. Click the image control, then upload or select your placeholder asset.
5. Save.

Choosing a good placeholder. This image has to hold up at two very different sizes — a small thumbnail in a list and a large image on a detail screen — so pick something that stays legible when tiny and doesn’t look stretched when blown up. A neutral branded graphic or a generic category icon usually works better than a detailed photo.

How it reaches the app

When your app’s payload — the bundle of data your app downloads from your site — gets built, the placeholder doesn’t travel as a plain image link. It’s expanded into a structured object so the mobile client knows how to lay it out. Behind the scenes, listing_placeholder_image turns into a placeholder_image entry carrying the image’s url plus its aspect ratio, height, and width, all computed from the attachment in the Media Library. Those dimensions are what let the app reserve the right amount of space up front, so nothing jumps around as it loads. If the image isn’t found in the Media Library, those dimensions may come back empty — so it’s worth keeping your images in the library rather than linking to them from elsewhere.

2. Set the ‘no records’ empty-state image and message

The No records image takes over an entire screen when a query comes back empty — an empty calendar, a directory with no matching entries, a list filtered down to nothing — replacing the default empty-list placeholder.

You’ll set this per screen type, not once for the whole app. It shows up in several places, including:

• Listing / list screens (with a paired No records message)
• Calendar screens (with a paired No records message)
• The Home tab bar screen (home button content — image only, no paired message)

To turn it on for a given screen type:

1. Go to Mobile App Manager → App Settings.
2. Open the settings group for the screen you want to cover (for example, the list or calendar group, or the Home screen content).
3. Find No records image and choose your empty-state graphic.
4. (Optional) In No records message, enter the text shown beneath it — for example, No events found or Nothing here yet.
5. (Optional) Adjust No content message text color if the default black (#000000) doesn’t suit your background.
6. Save.

Because this lives per screen type, you’ll need to set it on each screen where an empty state is possible. Setting it once on the list screen won’t automatically cover the calendar or the home screen.

Pairing image and message. The two are meant to work as a pair — a friendly illustration paired with a short, specific sentence lands better than either one on its own. Keep the message short; it’s a one-line hint, not a paragraph.

Placeholder vs. ‘no records’ — which one am I looking at?

It’s easy to mix these two up, so here’s the rule:

• One missing image inside an otherwise-populated screen? That’s the Placeholder Image (listing_placeholder_image).
• A whole screen with nothing on it? That’s the No records image (no_content_image), optionally with a No records message.

A screen full of listings can lean on the placeholder for a few missing thumbnails and still never show the no-records image — while a screen with nothing on it shows the no-records image without ever touching the placeholder.

Verify in the app

1. Rebuild or refresh the app preview after saving.
2. Placeholder: open a listing that has no image and confirm your placeholder appears in both the list row and the detail view.
3. No records: apply a filter (or open a date/category) that you know returns nothing, and confirm the empty-state image and message appear, correctly colored.

Still seeing the default empty placeholder? Double-check you set No records image on that screen type’s settings group, not a different one.

Notes for developers

• listing_placeholder_image is emitted as a placeholder_image object (url, aspect, height, width). The dimension keys are derived from the Media Library attachment via the app-settings data manager; a URL with no matching attachment yields empty dimensions.
• no_content_image / no_content_text are defined in multiple settings arrays (one per screen type), all using the same variable names; the Home tab bar content class defines no_content_image only (no paired message). They are distinct from listing_placeholder_image.
• The image control is the platform’s standard image setting type; values are stored as attachment URLs.
• no_content_image carries a default of #ffffff in its definition; treat the meaningful value as the image you select.

Verification

This article was last verified against:

• mam-main/includes/app-settings/admin-settings-page.php (definitions of listing_placeholder_image, no_content_image, no_content_text, no_records_text_color)
• mam-main/includes/app-settings/global-settings.php (append_placeholder_image(), make_image())
• mam-main/includes/content-classes/local-app-home-for-tabbar.php (Home screen no_content_image)
• App-setting reference docs: app-setting-reference/app-setting-listing_placeholder_image.md, app-setting-reference/app-setting-no_content_image.md, app-setting-reference/app-setting-no_content_text.md, app-setting-reference/app-setting-no_records_text_color.md

Re-verify whenever the variable names above change, the placeholder_image output shape changes, or a screen type gains/loses its empty-state settings.

Related articles

• App Setting Reference: Placeholder Image (listing_placeholder_image)
• App Setting Reference: No records image (no_content_image)
• App Setting Reference: No records message (no_content_text)
• App Setting Reference: No content message text color (no_records_text_color)