Batch attachment export

[MarkSmith1]

There are new tools in 10.1 to do a batch attachment but there are times where it would be useful to export out all the attachments associated to selected features in a featureclass. At the moment the only way to save attachments to file is to click on each feature and use the attachment manager to save the file(s). This is very tedious and slow if you're dealing with hundreds of features or hundreds of attachments.

[GisMapping]

I am very new to GIS but am trying to incorporate it into our field work but the biggest hurdle is getting the photos exported that were collected using collector. When I try the script mentioned above I keep getting an error and I don't know anything about coding so not sure what the problem is. Has anyone encountered this or know how to fix it?

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\Kristina Boehler\Documents\GIS_Shapefiles\Scripts\ExportAttachments.py", line 9, in <module>
for item in cursor:
RuntimeError: A column was specified that does not exist.
Failed to execute (ExportAttachments).

[MikeJensen]

Hey everyone!

It definitely has been long overdue to have this functionality, hopefully this recent sample tool will help anyone who wants to download attachments with the option to rename them. Check out our latest blog posting that includes a link to download the working sample tool, or learn more about the code behind the tool and how the tool was created! https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-pro/data-management/create-your-own-geoprocessing-t...

Please continue to post your ideas!

[JoelCusick1]

@SSWoodward thanks for keeping an eye on this much needed and as @MikeJensen said long overdue functionality.  Coming from the field / mobile side of GIS, every one of the "big three", QC/Survey123/FM all have, as they should, an integration with a mobile device camera but moving photos out from the GDB construct to other photo handling mechanisms are key.   Here for example is a leading Survey grade processing software, Trimble Business Center capacity.  Once a feature is assigned an attribute called a "photo attribute", a single photo path is written to the text field.  Access now is made available to a folder generated during an export (say a GDB or Shapefile) to a folder that a user may not have access to the program, after a user selects "yes" to Copy related files.

The result, simple, accessible access to photos in this case populated with a .\Files\path.   Sometimes, the simple path is the best path, and not all and everyone desires data in the current storage mechanisms in place now.  

Thanks for the opportunity to give a thumbs up/kudo to an idea, and a processing tool for what is often the most important "feature" when in the field... a photo of the subject you are mapping.