Update: I’ve posted some example code that works in Internet Explorer 9!
If you’re having a few issues adding attachments via ajax and SPServices on SharePoint have a look over the code snippets below.
To upload a file to a list you need to make use of the fileReader javascript class, using the readAsDataURL method and stripping the first part off the dataurl to get the base64 component. Then submit this to SPServices.
I’ve been asked a few times to add the ability to upload attachments to SharePoint tools that I’ve created, and I’ve never been able to achieve it until I eventually came across this blog post last week.
If (like me) you’re developing in a front-end only way without any server-side programming then it seems like this is the way to upload files and attach them to SharePoint list items.
It relies on the javascript fileReader feature so your users will need a fairly modern browser… which is where I ran into trouble. The default browser deployed within my company is Internet Explorer 9, and that doesn’t have fileReader support.
With much work and even more googling I was able to get this technique to work in Internet Explorer 9. In the future I’ll write more about how I managed it, and how you can too!