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ESRI traffic maps do not work (lowercase parameter bbox ?)

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03-06-2026 04:52 AM
RenzoDani02
New Contributor

this error is around for 4-5 months:

when contacting the traffic API with uppercase BBOX parameter:
https://traffic.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/Traffic/MapServer/export?F=image&format=PNG32&...

we receive following error:
Error: Unable to export map
Code: 400
bbox must be specified

when changing bbox to lowercase, then we get back the image with traffic:
https://traffic.arcgis.com/arcgis/rest/services/World/Traffic/MapServer/export?F=image&format=PNG32&...

however, looking at the github project for openlayers at line 46, it requires BBOX uppercase:
https://github.com/openlayers/openlayers/blob/1f085edf037fdf638d6d8b22e1095d7c3a6cafb5/src/ol/source...

can you please check and fix?
thank you

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1 Reply
EcotrustRyan
New Contributor

Hi @RenzoDani02 - I also faced this issue, and saw that there also was an issue filed with OpenLayers a few months ago. If memory serves (it doesn't often), I recall old ArcGIS REST documentation specifying that these fields should be UPPER-CASE, justifying why OpenLayers decided at the time to enforce UPPER-CASE, so I have worries that there may still be ArcServers running an old ArcREST that requires those, and that updating OpenLayers to assume lower case may be backward incompatible (not to mention bizarre behavior for anyone who sets some of the automatically populated fields manually).

 

NOTE: If anyone can confirm that ALL-CAPS for BBOX was ever required and can point me at the docs, I would be extremely grateful!

 

However, I wrote a patch for OpenLayers because:

  1. I don't expect Esri to roll out a fix for this backwards-incompatible bug soon
  2. Even if they do, how long will it be before everyone who adopted this version upgrades to one without this regression?
  3. I don't actually know if any ArcREST instances still exist that would require ALL CAPS (if there ever were any)

 

The good news: OpenLayers has accepted my patch - You can either compile the current main branch yourself, or wait for the next version to be released (there seems to be a new release every few months).

 

Hope this helps!

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