Removing WMS layers from mxds using ArcPy?

Question

I'm trying to remove WMS layers from an mxd using arcpy. I can successfully remove "MapServer" type services using the below code, but not WMS?

Here is an example mxd (zipped) with two different WMS layers that I'm trying to remove: here

Also, I've posted on the ArcGIS Resources forum too: here

Code:

import arcpy, os

inFName = "wms.mxd"
outFName = "wms_removed.mxd"
pth = r"c:\temp"
inFULLPTH = os.path.join(pth,inFName)
outFULLPTH = os.path.join(pth,outFName)
mxd = arcpy.mapping.MapDocument(inFULLPTH)

for df in arcpy.mapping.ListDataFrames(mxd):
    LyrList = arcpy.mapping.ListLayers(mxd, "", df)

    for lyr in LyrList:
        if lyr.supports("SERVICEPROPERTIES"):
            if lyr.serviceProperties["ServiceType"] == "WMS":
                arcpy.mapping.RemoveLayer(df, lyr)

mxd.saveACopy(outFULLPTH)
del mxd

Any ideas? Is arcpy.mapping.RemoveLayer the best approach ? I have hundreds of mxds to crawl through and want to remove WMS layers from them.

Answer 1

I've looked at your MXD and it seems the problem might be with the WMS layers being sub-layers of the main WMS layer. I don't think it's possible to remove these 'sub-layers' with python as it's not possible to do in the GUI of ArcMap. Does this make sense? I could be wrong, but this is what my intuition is telling me. You might want to try removing the parent WMS layer all together.