Sure.
This is my data:
- shape file with points
- excel table with some info, media names and their (relative to project mxd) paths. This table needs to be connected in a 1:n relationship with the points
- media in folders
Goal: click on a point, read its attributes, read related attributes and open related media. Source files should be left as they are if possible in order to be easily editable and because they are used elsewhere.
To accomplish that, this is what I have to do in ArcMap after loading the shp and xlsx:
- Create a 1:n relate on the point layer
Now I can:
- click on a point in the map
- see all the fields in the point table and related table
- open any related media right from the identify pane in my default viewers (media link fields have a lightning symbol)
- change the display field for the related table in any way I want
- edit the excel table externally
- zip up the whole thing and send it to someone and they can use the mxd as intended
Now we try the same thing in AGP. Since I can't open media links directly like in ArcMap AFAIK, I have to use attachments:
- use tool "excel to table", since sometimes table attribute fields aren't recognized when opening the xlsx directly
- copy the shp into a gdb for the next step
- use tool "enable attachments"
- use tool "add attachments", here I can only specify the match path field as attribute (plus working folder). This also needs to be done for every media field
- restart AGP because the attachments don't show up in the attributes of the points unless this is done
Now I can do/see a fraction of what I can in ArcMap:
- click on a point in the map
- look at its attributes
- look at a list of media with not very helpful names, but at least I can open them
Alternatively, I could do this:
- create a 1:n relate with the point layer and attachment table
- enable attachments for the attachment table
- attach it to itself multiple times, for every media field separately
This more or less replicates what can be done in ArcMap, but you have to switch around between attributes and attachments. Since you can't open files directly from the attributes like in ArcMap, accidentally mixing up media is a problem because it doesn't show their corresponding attribute field (for example "before": image4r53653235465.jpg and "after": image4r53453235465.jpg, two files which would be easily distinguishable in ArcMap wouldn't be in AGP).
Compared to the single step I have to do in ArcMap and the flexibility/security it gives me, I would indeed call this "horrible". Of course, I could be just overlooking something and file opening functionality from ArcMap is included in AGP.
