Custom printer service always show Legend element, even if empty

Question

We recently uppgraded from ArcGIS Enterprise 10.9.1 to 11.1 that should be Esris "stable" version.

Then we noticed we couldnt use our custom printer service that was publiced with arcmap (mxd) documents.

so we began trying to publish new services and I have testet versions from 3.1 to 2.9 with different issues, like 3.1 wouldnt run at all, 3.0.3 couldnt publish to folders and so on.

But after bunch of tests we got one up that works besides one thing, our Legend element is always visible, even if you choose not to have a Legend or if its empty. and how do I know this?  Our Legend is an element on top of a map and it got a white background, so it looks really awful and unprofessional when nothing is populated in the Legend and covering the map.

This was never an Issue in 10.9.1 when published from arcmap. and I have tried creating new layouts, in each version ive tested of arcgis pro, but I still ends up with same results, Ive also tried the ESRI out of the box layout and same issue with them.

the exportwebmap specification (https://enterprise.arcgis.com/en/server/11.1/publish-services/windows/exportwebmap-specification.htm) clearly states this:

"legendOptions (optional): Specifies properties of a legend element on the layout. Please note that when a legend element on a layout is found empty (it does not have layer in it), it gets removed by the printing service."

wich not seem to be the case,  any ideas whats wrong?

RobertJohansson · Answer

Thanks @TanuHoque  and @David_McRitchie, then I know that the custom printer service is unstable even in the "stable" release of ArcGIS enterprise, also, yeah i knew arcmap is dropped for this, but its sad that it was more stable and esri not been doing anything noticable about it since many of the bugs been reported for several years.

TanuHoque · Answer

@RobertJohansson

Thanks for reporting this issue. Here is the bug that we have from print service side: BUG-000137305.

D_McRitchie · Answer

Hey Robert,

The ArcMap runtime was dropped from ArcGIS Enterprise 11 so this would explain why your print service ceased to function.

In regards to the legend background, I suspect you are seeing BUG-000146922 which is currently in review. This issue is noted when prints are generated within the Map Viewer or Web AppBuilder.

The workaround for this is to modify the legend background to have no fill color.

Hope that helps,

David