Is there a way to tell if a layer is exportable before trying?
I saw this
https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/export-artboards-layers.html
Layers that are empty or are not capable of rendering images cannot be rendered in the Export As dialog. These layers can be clipping masks, adjustment layers, or just layers that have no pixels in them.
Just wasn’t sure if there was a way I can check a property or something of the layer before trying to export it?
Nothing simple I could think of.
Closest thing to something simple would be to merge all associated layers. Add clipping masks to selected layer and then merge/rasterize those layers into one layer and then get the layer bounds and undo once you get measurements.
Or getting layer bounds (after masking and with layers effects) of all layers in group, taking its layer kind into account (adjustment layer might not have effect but have full document size), ignore those with visibility hidden. Then you should check whether opacity 0 or fill 0 do alter layer bounds or not. Also you can have layer with bitmap but layer can be out of canvas so if you want to export its parent group it can be empty. So you should check also how layer bounds works when they are out of canvas and also check same for artboards.