I was challenged with the same issue, so here's some psuedo code that may help. Using the active layer, in an Edit session, this code will loop through a featureclass reading a value from a Filepath field. Most people already have a column like this in their data, particularly if they use Hyperlinks. If the filepath value is not null, the associated file is loaded as an attachment for that feature. Dim pApplication As IApplication
Dim pMxDocument As IMxDocument
Dim pFeatLayer As IFeatureLayer
Dim pFeatureclass As IFeatureClass
Dim pTable As ITable
Dim pContentsView As IContentsView3
Dim pfeature As IFeature
Dim pFeatCursor As IFeatureCursor
Dim OID As Integer
Dim filepath As String
pApplication = m_application
pMxDocument = pApplication.Document
pContentsView = pMxDocument.CurrentContentsView
Dim selectedItem As System.Object = pContentsView.SelectedItem
If Not (TypeOf selectedItem Is ESRI.ArcGIS.Carto.ILayer) Then
Return
End If
Dim layer As ESRI.ArcGIS.Carto.ILayer = TryCast(selectedItem, ESRI.ArcGIS.Carto.ILayer)
pFeatLayer = TryCast(layer, ESRI.ArcGIS.Carto.FeatureLayer)
pFeatureclass = pFeatLayer.FeatureClass
Dim tableAttachments As ITableAttachments = CType(pFeatureclass, ITableAttachments)
Dim attachmentManager As IAttachmentManager = tableAttachments.AttachmentManager
pTable = pFeatLayer
pFeatCursor = pFeatureclass.Search(Nothing, False)
pfeature = pFeatCursor.NextFeature()
Do While Not pfeature Is Nothing
OID = pfeature.OID
filepath = pfeature.Value(pfeature.Fields.FindField("FilePath")) 'the field where you store the filename
If Not filepath.Equals("999") Then
' Open a file as a memory blob stream.
Dim memoryBlobStream As IMemoryBlobStream = New MemoryBlobStreamClass()
memoryBlobStream.LoadFromFile(filepath)
' Create an attachment.
Dim attachment As IAttachment = New AttachmentClass With _
{ _
.ContentType = "image/jpeg", _
.Data = memoryBlobStream, _
.Name = filepath _
}
' Assign the attachment to the feature with ObjectID (OID) = 1.
attachmentManager.AddAttachment(OID, attachment)
pfeature.Store()
pfeature = pFeatCursor.NextFeature
Else
pfeature = pFeatCursor.NextFeature()
End If
Loop
pFeatCursor = Nothing
