You may already be aware that is it not good practise to add attachments to SharePoint list items, as there is very limited document management functionality for SharePoint list item attachments. Take a look at the version history of a list item with an attachment and you will see that it does not record when the attachment was applied to the list! This short blog will show you how to associate documents with a list item without using the list item attachment functionality.
Instead of storing the attachments in the list item you should store them within a dedicated document library to avail of the library’s rich document management functionality. Within the document library’s setting page create a new column of the type “Lookup” that links back to the SharePoint list – see screenshot below.
Finally you need to create a new Page on the SharePoint site. This page will allow you to view the list item and it’s associated documents in the one place. On the page add a List Web Part and below it add a Document Library web part – see screenshot below.
Configure the List Web Part’s properties so it refers to the list without attachments, and configure to Document library Web Part’s properties so it refers to the library dedicated to contain the list’s attachments. Also within the Document library Web Part properties panel turn on “Dynamic Filtering”, specify the lookup field you created for the “Column in the Supporting List Document to filter” field, specify the SharePoint list in the “List or library containing the filter value” field, and specify the ID value for the “Column containing the filter value.
You can now test your new list item attachment functionality once you apply these setting and publish your page. Simply select an item from SharePoint list web part and it will automatically reveal its associated documents.
