Retaining attachments while merging two records in the same feature class

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06-11-2021 10:28 AM
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AlfredBaldenweck
MVP Regular Contributor

I have a feature layer (pretend it's buildings on a college campus) containing a record for each building. 

Each building has one or two photos attached to it via Collector. 

I want to merge the buildings by function (e.g. all the dorms, the engineering buildings) into a multipart polygon, and I want to retain the photos attached to each record once they are merged. (So if Dorm A has 3 photos and Dorm B has 2 photos, I want the combined "Dorm" record to have all 5 photos).

I tried testing it and the Merge tool in the editing toolbar threw out pictures for the other record.

I tried googling it and found these two articles, but they seem to  be geared at combining datasets, rather than working within a dataset.

Is there a way to do this cleanly?

Thanks!

Edit: This tool here:

AlfredBaldenweck_0-1623777226483.png

 

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Scott_Harris
Esri Regular Contributor

@AlfredBaldenweck Oh I'm sorry, yes, it seems the workaround that I suggested would only be applicable if you have access to the attachments table (i.e. in a local GDB).

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6 Replies
MicZatorsky_AEC
Occasional Contributor III

Did you try setting the Maintain Attachments Environment setting?  The Merge doco shows it as supported.

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AlfredBaldenweck
MVP Regular Contributor

That's for the Merge (Data Management) tool for use between different datasets. 
I'm looking for Merge (Editing) for use inside a singular dataset. Thank you though!

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Scott_Harris
Esri Regular Contributor

Hi @AlfredBaldenweck

It's currently not possible to use the Merge (modify tool) and have all attachments carry over; however, the attachment table is editable, so you could manually update the attribute on the attachments that store the related record's ID.

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AlfredBaldenweck
MVP Regular Contributor

Thanks for the response. 

Is it possible to do that in ArcGIS Pro with features hosted on AGOL, or can it only be done once a hosted feature has been exported to a gdb on desktop?

Thanks!

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Scott_Harris
Esri Regular Contributor

@AlfredBaldenweck Oh I'm sorry, yes, it seems the workaround that I suggested would only be applicable if you have access to the attachments table (i.e. in a local GDB).

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MicZatorsky_AEC
Occasional Contributor III

Append, then merge?

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