Attachments are used to associate copies of media files, such as documents and images, with features in a feature class or rows in a stand-alone table. This allows you to add information and context, for example, by attaching a picture to a feature class that represents a particular asset in the field, or by attaching a damage assessment report for a specific building in a list of buildings.
You can use a variety of file formats when working with attachments, including the following:
- Images (for example, JPEG, PNG, TIFF)
- Documents (for example, PDF, Word documents)
- Text files (for example, TXT, CSV)
- Spreadsheets (for example, Excel files)
- Other file types (for example, ZIP files)
Use cases
The following examples describe uses for attachments:
- Local government asset management
- Attaching photos or video of assets in the field, such as current imagery of manholes, fire hydrants, sewage drains, and so on.
- Sign management—Current photos or inspection documentation about signs and posts along roadways.
- Roadway management—Location of potholes with current photos showing the scope of the road damage, complementing the attributes of size, depth, and road materials.
- Attaching photos or video of assets in the field, such as current imagery of manholes, fire hydrants, sewage drains, and so on.
- Crime analysis
- Attaching criminal reports in addition to photos or videos of where the crime occurred, the date and time, reporting officers, and investigators.
- Business analysis
- Attaching reports and graphs with business photos and videos to understand the status of current asset locations better.
- Cemetery management
- Indexed attributes about each grave site attached to a point feature for each burial, along with one or more photos. See an example of a story using attachments.
These cases are just a few examples of the benefits attachments provide with additional key information that may be difficult to include in the traditional column row format of the dataset attribute table.
Attachment workflow
A typical workflow for enabling attachments on a feature class or table and adding attachments from a folder location is as follows:
- Enable a dataset for attachments from the Catalog pane or the Enable Attachments geoprocessing tool. Learn more about how to enable attachments.
- Create a match table with the Generate Attachment Match Table tool containing the object IDs to be matched to, and provide a folder with the file names to be added. Learn more about how to generate an attachments match table.
- Add attachments using the Add Attachments geoprocessing tool referencing the required match table. Learn more about how to add attachments.
- You can verify attachments are loaded properly in a Pop-up window, viewing the associated attachment (ATTACH) table, or in the Attributes pane, on the Attachments tab.
Share datasets with attachments
Once attachments have been enabled on a geodatabase feature class or a stand-alone table, there are two ways to share a feature class with attachments in a project.
Both sharing options will include attachments from the enabled feature class.
The Share As Layer Package option allows you to include additional attachments before packaging the layer. These attachments can be detailed documentation, reports, or graphs that you want to include with the layer, but are not associated with the layer's features. These attachments can be seen as additional metadata that recipients can access from the layer package.
Complete the following steps to access the layer attachments from the layer package:
- Open Microsoft File Explorer.
- Browse to the following path: C:\Users\*Username*\Documents\ArcGIS\Packages\PackageName*\commondata\userdata\.
- If applicable, review each attachment.
The Add Attachments and Remove Attachments tools allow you to add or remove attachments on a shared web layer (feature layer) when accessed in ArcGIS Pro.