Ignition 8 Demo

Paullys50

Lifetime Supporting Member
Join Date
Jan 2006
Location
WI
Posts
2,188
For you Ignition fans, it's been announced that Ignition 8 will be released in February 2019! I was hoping before the end of the year but oh well.

Online demo is here: demo.inductiveautomation.com.

Note about the demo, I've had trouble getting it to load, and it looks like a firewall/ISP issue. It loads on my iPhone and iPad through cellular, and I've been able to launch the desktop when using a VPN.

Check it out, looks pretty slick!
 
been waiting for this for years. Pretty impressed with what I have seen so far. Having straight web based is gonna open up to alot more than just SCADA.
 
I'm super psyched to get my hands on the beta!

Don't want to go all fanboy here, but this was my first year at ICC and I was beyond impressed. Not just with their product and presentation, but with their culture and obvious shared passion and joy in what they do.

Ignition 7.9 was already hands-down the most powerful, value-added SCADA package on the market, with v8 and Perspective... Truly the developer's imagination is the only limit.

Very excited particularly with the style classes and breakpoint containers and session props vs root container properties. No more cell update bindings. I know I've done a lot of obscure coding/binding to work around not having some of these things.

Just wish it was ready for prime time for all the projects I have lined up between now and spring 2019!
 
Don't want to go all fanboy here, but this was my first year at ICC and I was beyond impressed. Not just with their product and presentation, but with their culture and obvious shared passion and joy in what they do.

Glad I'm not the only fanboy HAHAHA, I wasn't able to attend this year but you're right, they do a great job!

Just wish it was ready for prime time for all the projects I have lined up between now and spring 2019!

I think a lot of people will jump on the beta, hopefully that's good in flushing out the significant issues before February!
 
Glad I'm not the only fanboy HAHAHA, I wasn't able to attend this year but you're right, they do a great job!



I think a lot of people will jump on the beta, hopefully that's good in flushing out the significant issues before February!

A colleague asked me why I thought they might be releasing it as a private beta, rather than a public like they have always done. The team at IA were very transparent at ICC about how they devoted all of their resources to getting v8 demo-ready, and that they are going to rely on the community to help get it production ready. I figure the private beta is one way of keeping from being inundated with duplicate reports of the same issues. It's very green, but the potential upside is hard to fathom.
 
Does version 8.0 still have the java client or is the only client a web browser and perspective apps on phones now?

I'm trying to imagine the longevity of an HMI that deploys as a web app in 2019. The web is such a moving target. Browsers update every month. I suppose a plant control system not connected to the internet could stay static and work the same way in 10 years as it did initially, but a system with a wide variety of less controlled clients using different versions of different browsers it seems like there is a lot of room for things to stop lining up. Try finding a version of google chrome from 2009 these days!

Doubts aside it will be awesome to be easily able to provide a top notch phone and web UI without having to be a web developer. They are using Facebook's React javascript library which is the most hyped web developer library of the moment.
 
I figure the private beta is one way of keeping from being inundated with duplicate reports of the same issues.

I believe they need to ensure the feedback they get is credible. Keeping things controlled with Integrators who have a proven track record and strong relationship with IA will ensure the feedback is valid and worth investigating.

Does version 8.0 still have the java client or is the only client a web browser and perspective apps on phones now?

Perspective is just another module, essentially a replacement of the old "Mobile" module, with a huge upside that you can use it on a desktop browser. The Vision module/client will still exist.

too expensive? yes

Depends on your "Perspective"! Hahaha, see what I did there?
 
nice software? yes
expensive? no
too expensive? yes


20+ constantly broken installations of FTView SE: $312,000


1 Full blown installation of Ignition, with historian, SPC, all necessary OPC servers capable of replacing All the View SE nonsense: $34,000



Then for redundancy, the local fallback server with drivers is under $1000 per station. 1/3 the price of just the FTView client.
 
No Java at all for the client. "Pure web" - meaning HTML 5+CSS 3 and you're right about the React library. It does require a "somewhat modern" browser. This page shows a cool visualization of of generic HTML 5 + CSS 3 browser compatibility of the big players between 2008 and 2013. There are already native Android and IOS apps that wrap that content, plus expose more of the platform capability (e.g. using the camera as a barcode scanner or selfies, GPS for geofencing, speaker/microphone for recording notes, etc, etc)

Excellent points!

My take on security, especially going into the future, is that software updates should be performed regularly to mitigate known vulnerabilities, which includes plant control system browsers, even on "isolated/air gapped systems". It is a tall order for such broad compatibility. However, all of our community here recognizes the overwhelming importance of the "A" in the "ciA triangle", the information security model representing: confidentiality, integrity, and availability. I suspect that even future "old" versions will maintain "backward compatibility" with even newer browser technologies (e.g. 2019 Perspective project serving content to 2029 browsers), but the recommended approach is to keep everything up to date.

Does version 8.0 still have the java client or is the only client a web browser and perspective apps on phones now?

I'm trying to imagine the longevity of an HMI that deploys as a web app in 2019. The web is such a moving target. Browsers update every month. I suppose a plant control system not connected to the internet could stay static and work the same way in 10 years as it did initially, but a system with a wide variety of less controlled clients using different versions of different browsers it seems like there is a lot of room for things to stop lining up. Try finding a version of google chrome from 2009 these days!

Doubts aside it will be awesome to be easily able to provide a top notch phone and web UI without having to be a web developer. They are using Facebook's React javascript library which is the most hyped web developer library of the moment.
 
Last edited:
Just a basic question, when would I use SCADA instead of a regular HMI to collect data? Is Scada more for collecting big amounts of data? I've never used Scada before, seems interesting.
 
Just a basic question, when would I use SCADA instead of a regular HMI to collect data? Is Scada more for collecting big amounts of data? I've never used Scada before, seems interesting.

If you need a distributed application and data storage to a central server, then SCADA platforms are the way to go. Gives you much more visibility and control across an entire plant/process then standalone HMIs.

Imagine if you wanted to monitor/control/data collect the following areas:

- Raw Material Receiving (sugar, chocolate chips, water filtration, flour...)
- Processing areas (raw cookie dough batching, cookie baking...)
- Packaging areas (cookie packaging)
- Cleaning Systems

A SCADA system to monitor/control all of these areas is highly valuable. Provides a unified architecture and access.

You can then transition to MES/ERP functionality as well.
 
Did you try via the URL or app?

No tricks. But the guys who whipped up the demo are really good. I'm pretty sure those projects will be made available with the release.

Had a quick look of the demo on my phone...

Unless they pulled a game demo trick, this looks gorgeous. :)

My take is that the beta is really early but coming together very quickly. I suspect that a public beta will precede the actual release. The team was ridiculously ambitious to have something to show for ICC and worked ungodly hours to make it happen.

To add a little context, I had the opportunity to play with a version from about 3 weeks ago. No documentation yet, except some blurbs from the spec (which I had to bug the engineers for) to figure things out. For example, no user interface (UI) to help with binding, only "hand jamming" paths. Similarly, property editors for some data types were available, but not others. Alpha version stuff - not ready to put in front of experienced Ignition users. With all that, I had a hard time forcibly breaking it - malformed inputs, manipulating data types, trying to cleverly create and break bindings. I didn't hit scripting, though. To be honest, a bit frustrating - I've always been able to break Beta versions. If I were to give feedback it would be about incomplete UI - yep, they are certainly aware of that. My assumption is that the mature "platform" is coming through there.

So fast forward 3 weeks to ICC and they pulled the crazy stunt of having Travis and Kevin do a live, on-stage "Build-a-thon" competition. What could possibly go wrong? In under an hour, they both came up with functional PLC driven mobile-responsive projects with status and differing degrees of history and alarming. Kevin's project could change the look and feel of the whole project between "high performance HMI" and "standard" with a checkbox and Travis put together a whole host of neat tricks. I was constantly cracking up at how they worked around the early version. I could see Kevin constantly cutting and pasting components to "put them on top" since 'Z-order/"move to front"' was not yet implemented. I could also see Travis doing some manual ninja JSON editing - I'm sure because some part wasn't complete. Travis' designer crashed once on stage, but he was able to re-open and continue.

All of this to say that the current "Beta" has come a long way, fast. I wouldn't want a version from last month in front of anyone. Similarly, I wouldn't want to put the current version in front of "Joe Public" - major functions are still being worked - it would be an exercise in frustration. I suspect that after a taste at ICC, the community wants to play with Perspective, regardless of the design state. However, 5 months until a full production version (Feb 19), which I'm sure will include documentation, video tutorials in the "IA University", and demo projects is ambitious and I'm sure they'll pull it off.

A colleague asked me why I thought they might be releasing it as a private beta, rather than a public like they have always done.
 

Similar Topics

Hey guys. We've been learning Ignition and going through all the courses on Inductive University. I really like the software and the things you...
Replies
20
Views
1,026
Hardware: 5069-L320ERMS2 Software: Logix Designer 35.11 / Ignition 8.1 Issue: When attempting to write to the tag "HMI_DRV200_DynamicTrim" in...
Replies
5
Views
729
Hi all, happy new year! I read a topic lately and many more before that where a lot of people saying that Ignition is damn good SCADA, so I...
Replies
1
Views
293
Hello, using Ignition I want to automatically change the time zone for 30 Allen Bradley plc's at the same time, is there an efficient way to do...
Replies
2
Views
409
With Wonderware, IFIX, FactoryTalk View, etc., it's very easy to have multiple HMIs, each with their own independent control, looking at the same...
Replies
2
Views
504
Back
Top Bottom