Latest Contributions by JohnFannon

We are are looking at implementing a reporting service in ArcGIS Server (11.5) that can be used through the Experience Builder Print Widget.  We've configured this as a report, as per the customer's requirements, with 4 sections in Pro as follows: 1) A details section to include a few basic attributes (approx 6) of a selected site polygon. 2) A details section to include summary attributes (approx 7) from each selected tree survey (point) feature in a tabular format.  3) A details section to include detailed attributes (approx 10) from each selected tree survey (point) feature in a paged format (i.e. 1 feature per page) 4) A details section to include attachments from each selected tree survey (point) feature in a paged format (1 feature per page.  This report has been published as a print/report service using pro that also includes a basic A4 landscape map template. We've then configured the print widget in Experience Builder to use this service and set it to use the selected features for the relevant layer in each section of the report.  This is all working as expected (except when there are no features selected - but that is a different issue!) and producing a report. However, it is taking approximately 60 seconds to print the full report, including the map. This seems pretty poor performance considering that in our tests we have been using 1 selected site polygon and 3 selected tree survey features.  Doing a few more detailed tests by removing the map and sections in turn, we have found that: The map is taking approx 22 seconds. The attachments section is taking approx 5 seconds. The detailed (paged) tree survey attributes section is taking 14 seconds.  The summary (tabular) tree survey attributes section is taking approx 6 seconds The single details section for the site polygon is taking approx 14 seconds.  Again, the above is for 1 site polygon (with approx 6 attributes) and 3 tree survey features (with approx 7 attributes), so the data quantity feeding into the report is minimal. The data for the report is also sent in the print request (in the web_map_as_json parameter) so the reporting service is not having to query any data, just present it by injecting it into the report template. So why is it taking so long to generate a pretty basic report? ... View more

An important customer of ours has recently been experiencing 504 gateway timeout errors when using a secure print service that we host for them in ArcGIS Server (v11.5). We have raised a support case and have already posted in the community on this here: https://community.esri.com/t5/arcgis-online-questions/504-gateway-timeout-when-printing-through-utility/m-p/1658735 To summarise, the solution was previously working (for approx 2 years) and involves: - A standard print service published in ArcGIS Server (v11.5) - this is secured with standard ArcGIS authentication. This service is set as Synchronous as this is required for printing in Web App Builder. - So that users do not have to enter credentials each time they use the service in apps, the the service has been added as an item in their ArcGIS Online organisation with the credentials stored. This item is shared with the organisation. This is a standard approach for accessing secured services.  - The URL for the above item (starting https://utility.arcgis.com/usrsvcs/servers...) is then used when configuring the Print Widget in Experience Builder and Web App Builder (the customer still has some older apps they are yet to migrate).  - When end users print from within apps in ArcGIS Online, the request goes via the utility.arcgis.com proxy, which handles the credentials and forwards the request on to the ArcGIS Server.  For the last few months users have been getting errors when printing larger/more complex prints and this is due to 504 gateway timeout errors that also state "Error from CloudFront". We have tested extensively and found that any print that takes more than 30 seconds to complete results in a gateway timeout. The prints are still successfully generated on the ArcGIS Server and there are no errors or timeouts in server. My conclusions from investigations is that there is a timeout setting somewhere in CloudFront, which I assume is used as part of the utility.arcgis.com proxy, that is set to 30 seconds. This is incompatible with Synchronous tasks (geoprocessing / print etc) that may take longer than 30 seconds.  The timeout should be increased to something more reasonable and perhaps to match the default usage timeout (maximum time a client can use a service) in ArcGIS Server.  I strongly feel this is not an "enhancement" but a requirement and should be fixed as soon as possible. ... View more

Hi - we have a stand-alone ArcGIS Server (v11.5) that we are hosting for a customer to enable them to do custom prints from ArcGIS Online apps. The print service is set as synchronous (required for printing from Web App Builder apps) and secured with user credentials and these are embedded within an item in the customer's ArcGIS Online account and the item is then shared and used across ArcGIS Online (e.g. in the print widgets etc). This approach has been in place and working fine for a couple of years.  For information - we cannot currently change the print service to asynchronous, because this mode is not supported by older apps (e.g. Web App Builder) that the customer is still using.  Recently the customer has started experiencing failed prints due to intermittent 504 gateway timeouts. We have investigated and found that there are no timeouts happening on the ArcGIS Server (the timeouts are set quite long and the load is minimal) and when a print fails, there are no errors in ArcGIS Server and the output has been generated in the output directory.  We have tested printing directly using the ArcGIS Server URL (user needs to enter credentials each time) and this consistently works without errors. However, we can't use this in production. Our investigation suggests the timeout is coming from the utility.arcgis.com proxy that is used when using an item with embedded credentials: The error in the browser also states "Error from CloudFront". CloudFront is not part of our infrastructure, so this error must therefore surely be coming from the utility service proxy.  Further testing has revealed that successul prints tend to complete in <30s, whereas failed prints tend to fail around the 30s mark. I personally believe this indicates there is a timeout setting (possibly 30s) somewhere in the utility.arcgis.com proxy, probably in CloudFront. This would explain why longer prints would fail but there are no errors in ArcGIS Server, because the proxy is timing out before the request is completed in ArcGIS Server. We have raised a support call but are not getting very far. Can anyone confirm if there is indeed a timeout setting for the utility service proxy if so, what it is set to? ... View more

I am trying to create a report that will ultimately be published as a reporting service in ArcGIS Server. Our customer has asked that the report includes an appendix showing the attachments (photos) for any features in the report.  I have created a details report to do this with a feature reference (from an attribute) and an attachment frame that is set as a 2x2 grid (ideally we would like this to auto expand based on how many photos there are, but that's a separate issue). This is working to a degree, but is producing a page (or record) for every feature, regardless of whether there are any attachments. So if there are 10 features and only 2 of them have attachments, it's generating a 10 page report with mostly empty pages, which is not good! I thought perhaps I could filter the report, but this seems to require a SQL expression (cannot use arcade) which would require a field containing the attachment count (or a flag). I also tried adding an Expression to the report to provide this attachment count - e.g. Count(Attachments($feature)). However, this produces an error along the lines of "Function is not supported in current profile".  Showing attachments only when the exist seems like a common thing to want to do, given that not all features are necessarily going to have attachments.  Is there a way to achieve this or workaround that doesn't involve adding an attachment count field to the feature layer?  I don't think our customer will accept a report that includes multiple empty pages.  ... View more

I'm trying to re-create the functionality of the Screening widget from Web App Builder within Experience Builder. This involves using the Near Me widget and Print widget with a custom print service. I have been trying to follow the steps in the blog here https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/experience-builder/sustainable-development/recreating-the-...  and also this one about puiblishing a custom print service for reporting here https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-enterprise/national-government/creating-a-custom-pr... Amongst other things, one key capability is for the user to be able to add a custom title to the report, for example the name of the site they have generated the report for. With map layouts published to a print service you can add custom parameters using braces, for example {sub-title}. When published they will be presented as parameters in the print service for users to complete. I was hoping that publishing a reporting service would be similar. However, I've tried adding a text box as a custom parameter {report-subtitle} and whilst this publishes ok (provided the text box has some text in it, it fails if the text box is empty), when I come to configure the print widget in Experience Builder, the report template is not listed. If I remove the custom parameter and re-publish, the report template is listed in the print widget configuration. Are custom parameters supported in the reporting service and the Experience Builder print widget?  If not, is there another way for the user to be able to add a title of their own to the report? ... View more

We have been trying to create a replacement for the Screening widget in Web App Builder within Experience Builder in ArcGIS Online. This involves using the Near Me widget and Print widget with a custom print service (hosted in Server/Enterprise). I followed the steps in the blog here https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/experience-builder/sustainable-development/recreating-the-...  and also this one about publishing a custom print service for reporting here https://www.esri.com/arcgis-blog/products/arcgis-enterprise/national-government/creating-a-custom-pr... What I would like to acheive is a multi-page report with one page per feature, each containing some attributes and a map showing the location of the feature. I configured a report in Pro using the "Page per feature" template and have added a map element to the "Details" section of the page. However, it seems this is not currently supported as when printing, the individual maps are blank. It is a fairly common requirement to generate a report for a selection of features with the output as a paged report containing a map of the feature location and it's attributes on each page.  This is clearly supported in ArcGIS Pro as the ability to add maps to the "details" section of a paged report exists. However, this does not appear to be supported when published to server/enterprise. Having the ability to only have one map per report really restricts the usefulness of this capability and what we can do with reporting in Experience Builder. ... View more