ODBC guide

Download attachments

This example set demonstrates how to use the download_attachments endpoint. This endpoint downloads attachment files directly from the ServiceNow sys_attachment table based on server-side filters. It retrieves and saves files to a specified folder, allowing fast filtering on attachment-level attributes. For parent-level filtering (slower per-parent processing), use the Download Table Attachments By Parent Row Search endpoint instead.

Use the Query parameter for server-side filters on the sys_attachment table (examples: file_nameENDSWITH.png, content_typeSTARTSWITHimage/, size_bytes>1048576, or date placeholders like <<today-2d,FUN_TO_DATETIME>>). Specify SaveFolder for the download directory and OverwriteFile to control file overwriting (True to always overwrite, False to fail if the file exists). You can also specify a ParentSysId to limit to a single parent record or use SysId for a specific attachment. Replace sample sys_id and table names with values from your instance.

Note: downloaded files are saved using a unique filename pattern {table_sys_id}_{attachment_sys_id}_{attachment-file_name}. This prevents overwriting when multiple parent records contain attachments with the same filename and you save them into the same download directory.

-- Download all attachments for the parent table 'problem' to c:\temp (always overwrite existing files)
SELECT * FROM download_attachments WITH(TableName='problem', SaveFolder='c:\temp', OverwriteFile='True')

-- Download attachments where file name ends with .png or .zip to c:\temp (fail if file exists)
SELECT * FROM download_attachments WITH(TableName='problem', Query='file_nameENDSWITH.png^ORfile_nameENDSWITH.zip', SaveFolder='c:\temp', OverwriteFile='False')

-- Download all attachments for a specific parent record (by parent sys_id) to c:\temp
SELECT * FROM download_attachments WITH(TableName='problem', ParentSysId='62304320731823002728660c4cf6a7e8', SaveFolder='c:\temp', OverwriteFile='True')

-- Download a single attachment by exact attachment sys_id to c:\temp
SELECT * FROM download_attachments WITH(SysId='4b2d41168396b21032ddb9f6feaad38f', SaveFolder='c:\temp', OverwriteFile='True')

-- Download attachments uploaded in the last 2 days to c:\temp
SELECT * FROM download_attachments WITH(TableName='problem', Query='sys_created_on>=<<today-2d,FUN_TO_DATETIME>>', SaveFolder='c:\temp', OverwriteFile='True')

-- Download only image attachments larger than 1 MB to c:\temp
SELECT * FROM download_attachments WITH(TableName='problem', Query='content_typeSTARTSWITHimage/^size_bytes>1048576', SaveFolder='c:\temp', OverwriteFile='False')