How to delete all enclosures

This tip demonstrates how to delete all enclosures from the metadata at once without altering the rest of the metadata content.

This macro doesn't verify that the selected object supports metadata, whether it already has metadata, or whether the metadata is writable.

How to use

Paste this macro into VBA.
Select an object in ArcCatalog that has metadata.
Run the macro.

[VBA]


        Sub DeleteAllEnclosures()
    
    Dim pGxApp As IGxApplication
    Dim pGxView As IGxView
    Dim pMD As IMetadata
    Dim pXPS As IXmlPropertySet
    Dim pPS As IPropertySet
    Dim dNow As Date
    
    Set pGxApp = Application
    Set pMD = pGxApp.SelectedObject
    Set pXPS = pMD.Metadata
    
    ' delete regular and image enclosures in the metadata -
    ' the last parameter must be true to delete all information
    ' associated with the enclosure such as its description
    pXPS.DeletePropertyByAttribute "EsriPropertyType", "Base64", True
    pXPS.DeletePropertyByAttribute "EsriPropertyType", "Image", True
    
    ' set the time that the metadata was modified, then
    ' save the changes
    Set pPS = pXPS
    dNow = Now
    pPS.SetProperty "Esri/ModDate", Format(dNow, "yyyymmdd")
    pPS.SetProperty "Esri/ModTime", Format(dNow, "HhNnSs") & "00"
    pMD.Metadata = pXPS
    
    Set pGxView = pGxApp.View
    If TypeOf pGxView Is IGxDocumentationView Then
        pGxView.Refresh
    End If
    
End Sub