Ignition v7.9.8 has arrived, and once again our ideas portal has been a great source of ideas for new product features. This time, we’ve improved algorithm access, query and cache performance, the Web Browser, the OPC Browser, and alarm names.
Easier Access to Machine Learning & Analytics Algorithms
If you’ve been reading our forum, you’ll know that our users are very interested in how machine learning and analytics can be added to their Ignition projects. The easiest solution is to send your data to cloud-based machine learning platforms, but sometimes you want access to the algorithms right inside Ignition.
In Ignition v7.9.8, we’ve made that easier by adding a new scripting package, system.math, which contains 19 different statistical functions that are commonly used in analytics. This new scripting package also gives you easy access to the entire Apache Math library, which lets you use machine learning algorithms like K-means, neural networks, and genetic algorithms, all inside your Python scripts.
Faster Named Queries, More Efficient Caching
Named Queries have quickly become very popular with our users, and for good reason. Not only do they help you make your Ignition clients more secure, but they give you an easy way to write and test a query once, then use it all over Ignition. And by caching the results, you can reduce the number of database calls, which is critical when you have hundreds of clients open that rely on queries.
To make Named Queries even better, we’ve completely rewritten the code for querying and caching in v7.9.8. Now uncached Named Queries are often faster than legacy database queries, and the cache maintenance is more efficient, which means there’s less system overhead when you cache results.
Updated Engine in Web Browser
The engine for the Web Browser component has also been updated. This update adds Java 9 support, a number of security enhancements, as well as support for Mac OS High Sierra and Ubuntu 17.04 Desktop. This support came by updating Chromium to version 60, which ends support for Ubuntu 12.04, Debian 7, and all 32-bit versions of Linux. If you need to have the Web Browser component on clients that use these operating systems, you’ll need to stay on an older version of the Web Browser Module.
New Sorting Option in OPC Browser
One request we got recently in the ideas forum was for sorting options in the OPC Browser. The natural sorting order is fine when you have a small number of tags in a small number of devices, but when you need to find a particular tag or device in a long list, alphanumeric sorting is much more convenient. We’ve added the option to go back and forth between these two sorting methods, giving you the best of both worlds.
Dynamic Alarm Names
Another request from our ideas forum was a way to make alarm names dynamic. Alarms have a display path which can be used to make alarm names more user-friendly, but this display path is not meant to be dynamic. We’ve added a bindable “Label” property to alarms, which will allow you to make alarm names as versatile as possible.
To try Ignition v7.9.8, download it here. For full documentation, please see the release notes or user manual. Let us know what you think of the new features and which features you’d like to see in the future.
