ODBC guide

Download attachments by parent record

This example set demonstrates how to use the download_attachments_by_parent_search endpoint. This endpoint first finds parent rows (for example, records in the problem table) using a parent-level Query, then downloads attachments for each matching parent record using the AttachmentQuery filter. Because it performs a per-parent lookup, it can be slower than direct attachment-table downloads, but it is useful when you must filter by parent record attributes (for example, problems updated in the last 2 days).

Use the AttachmentQuery to apply 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). 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 attachments for specific parent records (multiple parent IDs) to c:\temp (always overwrite)
SELECT * FROM download_attachments_by_parent_search
WITH(TableName='problem', Query='sys_idIN62304320731823002728660c4cf6a7e8,6632130c730123002728660c4cf6a734', SaveFolder='c:\temp', OverwriteFile='True')

-- Parent-level filter: problems updated in last 2 days; attachment-level filter: file name ends with .png or .zip; save to c:\temp (fail if file exists)
SELECT * FROM download_attachments_by_parent_search
WITH(
  TableName='problem',
  Query='sys_updated_on>=<<today-2d,FUN_TO_DATETIME>>',
  AttachmentQuery='file_nameENDSWITH.png^ORfile_nameENDSWITH.zip',
  SaveFolder='c:\temp',
  OverwriteFile='False'
)

-- Parent-level filter by sys_id and attachment filter by exact file name; save to c:\temp
SELECT * FROM download_attachments_by_parent_search
WITH(TableName='problem', Query='sys_id=62304320731823002728660c4cf6a7e8', AttachmentQuery='file_name=dump.png', SaveFolder='c:\temp', OverwriteFile='True')

-- Attachments larger than 1 MB for problems updated in the last month; save to c:\temp
SELECT * FROM download_attachments_by_parent_search
WITH(
  TableName='problem',
  Query='sys_updated_on>=<<today-1m,FUN_TO_DATETIME>>',
  AttachmentQuery='size_bytes>1048576',
  SaveFolder='c:\temp',
  OverwriteFile='True'
)

-- Only image attachments for a given parent; save to c:\temp (fail if file exists)
SELECT * FROM download_attachments_by_parent_search
WITH(TableName='problem', Query='sys_id=62304320731823002728660c4cf6a7e8', AttachmentQuery='content_typeSTARTSWITHimage/', SaveFolder='c:\temp', OverwriteFile='False')