Ignition 8.3: What We’re Excited About the Most
With years of experience designing intuitive HMI interfaces that help operators run more efficiently, I’m genuinely excited about the release of Ignition 8.3. Having worked extensively with Ignition and earning Ignition Gold Certification, I’ve had the opportunity to evaluate the platform’s evolution firsthand. After reviewing the new features and enhancements in 8.3, I can confidently say this version delivers meaningful improvements. Below, I share my perspective on the most impactful updates from a system integrator’s point of view and how they will continue to strengthen our project delivery.
Git Integration
Ignition 8.3’s Git compatibility feature is one I’m particularly excited about! This integration allows us to easily maintain a complete audit trail of modifications throughout the project development.
With Git integration, we can easily identify which changes were made in each revision, who made them, and why. This level of transparency not only helps us mitigate undesired changes but also streamlines our quality assurance processes significantly.
Development Modes: Streamlined Environment Management
The new development modes feature addresses a critical workflow challenge we’ve faced. Being able to pre-configure gateways for both production (on-site) and test (office) environments, then seamlessly switch between them, will revolutionize our testing and deployment processes.
This capability allows us to validate new features in a controlled environment before pushing changes to live systems. The risk mitigation alone makes this feature invaluable, but the time savings in environment setup and configuration switching will significantly improve our project timelines.
Enhanced System Functions
Ignition 8.3 introduces two new sets of system functions: system.vision and system.historian. These replace several deprecated functions, and we’re planning to implement them across our standards immediately. By eliminating deprecated functions proactively, we avoid future conflicts and ensure we’re using the most efficient methods in our scripts.
This modernization of the scripting framework will improve both performance and maintainability of our solutions.
Perspective Enhancements: Forms and Drawing Tools
For our MES solutions, the new Forms component is a significant advancement. We’ve previously developed manual form functionality, but this native feature will allow us to generate forms much more quickly with less setup overhead. The offline/online capabilities make data handling more robust and user-friendly.
The Perspective Drawing Tool is equally exciting for our control solutions. We can now design custom objects directly within the platform that accurately represent equipment on the plant floor, eliminating our reliance on third-party design tools. This native capability will improve both development efficiency and visual consistency across projects.
Security Improvements: Secrets Management
Security has always been a priority, and the new Secrets Management feature provides a significant boost to SCADA password security. By storing sensitive information like passwords, certificates, and encryption keys outside of gateway configurations and backups, we can ensure only authorized administrator personnel have access to decrypt sensitive data.
Event Streams Module in Ignition 8.3
The Event Streams module represents a powerful new approach to building event-driven architectures. This feature allows us to connect and manage data from external sources in a centralized location, creating data endpoints for tags, SQL databases, and other sources with minimal coding requirements.
I believe this module will significantly simplify data collection in both MES and SCADA systems, reducing development complexity while improving system flexibility.
Looking Forward
What excites me most about Ignition 8.3 is how these features work together to elevate our entire solution delivery process. The combination of Git compatibility, Perspective enhancements, Core Historian, development modes, and the drawing tool creates a comprehensive platform that addresses our most significant development challenges.
For our customers, the benefits are equally compelling. The Core Historian reduces hardware costs, native drawing tools provide better visual representation of their equipment, Forms components improve data handling efficiency, and Secrets Management enhances security. The new Solution Suites licensing model also offers more budget-friendly options tailored to specific needs.
Upgrading to Ignition 8.3 isn’t just about accessing new features – it’s about fundamentally improving plant performance and operational efficiency. As we begin implementing these capabilities in our upcoming projects, I’m confident we’ll see measurable improvements in both developmental velocity and solution quality.
The future of industrial automation just got significantly brighter with Ignition 8.3.
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