Catch Up With Inductive Automation’s Top Content of 2023

It’s a common dilemma in our tech- and media-saturated world: So much content, not enough time.

With so many choices and so much to do, we know that even when we release a webinar, article, or video that entices your interest, you won’t always have time to check it out. We thought we could help with that by putting out this quick rundown of this year’s biggest content pieces. Why not take a quick read and see if there’s something cool that you missed?

Top Webinar: Ignition + Docker

There were several popular webinar topics this year (HMI design, unified namespace, and Ignition Cloud Edition, to name a few) but one topic stood above them all: Containers. “Ignition + Docker: How to Use Containers for Faster Development” was the year’s most-attended webinar, and it’s not hard to see why, as these technologies provide the portability, efficiency, scalability, and other benefits that so many companies are looking for. Speakers from Inductive Automation, 4IR Solutions, and Barry-Wehmiller Design Group showed how containers can be used for development, testing, and production, with plenty of live demos to show it all in action. Watch the webinar.

Top Case Study: Custom Visual Tools Help Bring Animatronic Creatures To Life

This year’s top case study is larger than life — and not just because it’s a Firebrand Award Winner from the Discover Gallery. The integration experts at ESM Automation leveraged Perspective to provide Creature Technology Company’s theatrical technicians and operators with easy-to-use visual tools to control animatronic dinosaurs. Prehistoric beasts powered by modern technology — what more could you ask for in a case study? See the case study.

Top Article in the Resources Section: Integrating SQL Databases and SCADA

SQL databases have been in widespread use for decades, which helps explain why this long-form article struck a chord with readers. The article explored the ongoing popularity of SQL databases, why they work so well with Ignition (hint: it’s not by accident), and how they help companies get more value out of their time-series data. Those issues are as relevant today as ever, don’t you think? Read the article.

Top Videos: Tag Report Tool and Perspective Symbols

It was a strong year for feature-focused videos. Many viewers watched our video about the Tag Report Tool, which was introduced back in Ignition 8.1.19, and lets you search for tags using multiple criteria, including Tag Path, Quality, Type, Traits, and values on specific Properties. Watch the video.

This Perspective Symbols video, which is a short clip from the Inductive University lesson, was also a hit, providing a good look at the feature’s dynamic capabilities in under a minute. Watch the video.

Top Blog Posts: Ignition 8.1.25 Release and The Build-a-Thon Finalists

Ignition 8.1.25 was released on Valentine’s Day and it seems that love was in the air. With such attractive features as IEC 61850 support, live diagrams from the Gateway Network status page, custom right-click menus for all Perspective components, plus a sweet bouquet of quality-of-life improvements, the Ignition community definitely fell hard for this version. Read the blog post.

Another blog blockbuster was the post that announced the initial group of 2023 Build-a-Thon competitors who battled it out in the online competition on July 18th. In addition to listing the 33 Premier Integrators that were chosen as finalists, the post previewed the epic fantasy theme of this year’s BaT journey. Read the blog post.

Top ICC Sessions: Technical Keynote And OT Data In The Cloud

Who doesn’t love the Technical Keynote at ICC, right? By now, it’s not a question of whether the Technical Keynote will be popular but of what specific features the audience will get a sneak preview of. CEO Colby Clegg and CTO Carl Gould talked about features that have since been released (like the Tag Reference Tracker and Perspective Google Map Component) and others (like native drawing tools for Perspective and a new historian API) that will come out in the next major release, Ignition 8.3.

Another highly popular ICC session this year was “Elevate Your OT Data Securely to the Cloud,” presented by Benson Hougland, Vice President of Product Strategy of Opto 22. Given that Ignition Cloud Edition had been released pretty recently, Benson’s message about using it with Ignition Edge to democratize OT data was very timely and valuable.

To watch these and other ICC sessions, visit our ICC videos page.

Top Social Media Posts

LinkedIn

We took a popular blog post from 2022 about PLC programming languages and turned it into an informative carousel graphic. It topped our LinkedIn charts, which goes to show that there are many interesting ways to share content through social media. See the post.

It’s no secret that people enjoy social content featuring cute animals, which helps explain why our LinkedIn followers loved the post about the duckling incubation system that our own Thomas Goetz built with Ignition Maker Edition. See the post.

Instagram

When CEO Colby Clegg got on the ICC stage and announced the opening of Inductive Automation Australia, it was big news — so big that our Instagram post about it was our most-liked Instagram post ever. See the post.

Facebook

Our Facebook followers flocked to see the napkin sketch that our founder Steve Hechtman drew of the idea that became FactorySQL, which was a predecessor of Ignition. See the post.

Our Facebook followers were also very interested to see our lineup of ICC community speakers. See the post.

X/Twitter

What would you think if someone pulled you aside and asked you to spout off as many Ignition facts as you could in a matter of seconds? That’s the premise of the Think Fast Challenge series of videos, which featured contestants from the Ignition community and IA. This video with Benson Hougland from Opto 22 had the highest number of engagements on X/Twitter. See the post.

Stay Caught Up With The Latest Ignition Content

If you liked that content, there’s more on the way. To keep up with what’s new, subscribe to our weekly news feed email (there’s a signup box on the right side of this web page), visit our Resources section, or follow us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or X.