Ignition 8.1.40: Launcher Signature Verification Options, TLS Certificate Change Notifications, And More

Important Note: Ignition 8.1.40 has been removed from our website and we’ve replaced it with Ignition 8.1.41. Please see here for more details.

It’s always a magical moment when the Ignition release train arrives, delivering enchanting new possibilities with its cargo. And this time is no exception.

Ignition 8.1.40 includes new features that support greater security customization for launchers and TLS certificates, plus several more handy updates!

Launcher Signature Verification Options

8.1.40 offers you greater control over an important security measure by adding two new signature.verification.strength options for the Designer Launcher and Vision Client Launcher:

• AIR_GAPPED: no revocation checks performed and disallow older Gateways
• LOOSE: no revocation checks and allow legacy Gateways

Currently, the default option is still set to “LENIENT: soft fail on revocation checks and allow legacy Gateways.” The AIR-GAPPED and LOOSE options were added for users who need more flexibility with signature verification checks in cases when OCSP servers shouldn't be communicated with.

If you have air-gapped machines, for example, you may decide you don’t want super strict checks when downloading a Vision Client Launcher or a Designer Launcher onto your server machines (since your machines aren’t open to external network traffic). In this type of situation, the AIR_GAPPED or LOOSE signature verification strength options may better suit your needs.

TLS Certificate Change Notifications

This new security-related update in 8.1.40 is majorly helpful if you customize your own modules. Now, third-party module authors have an API-accessible way to get a notification in the event of a change being made to a Gateway Web Server’s TLS certificate.

A change may need to be made to a TLS certificate in the Ignition server if the certificate is reaching its expiration date, for example, or if it was compromised. No matter what the reason, your modules will be able to stay apprised of TLS certificate changes with this update.

Arm yourself with the Ignition SDK Programmer’s Guide and you’ll have everything you need to build customized third-party modules that can subscribe to be notified whenever any TLS certificate change is made.

Honorable Mentions

There are three more Ignition updates to unveil in 8.1.40.

Gateway Network

We added a remote Gateway platform version to the Gateway Network status page, which will give users a warning when legacy (7.x) Gateways are detected.

With this update you’ll be able to easily view which remote Gateways are still running 7.9. This is especially helpful with Ignition 8.3’s release approaching, because 7.9 Gateways won’t be able to communicate with 8.3 Gateways.

If you’re still using Ignition 7.9, we highly recommend that you upgrade to 8.1 since it has many powerful features and several years of support ahead of it. For guidance on making this transition, check out the 7.9 to 8.1 Upgrade Guide.

Tags & UDTs

In 8.1.40, we limited the rate that “Error accessing InternalJsonStorageInfoRecord” messages get logged.

Previously these messages could flood the Diagnostic Logs multiple times per second due to a caching issue. Now the rate this message gets logged is limited to one time per minute, which will help prevent users from missing other important log messages or having to scroll excessively to find them. If you want to see all instances of this log message for troubleshooting purposes, you can remove the rate limit by setting the tags.storage.internaljson logger to debug.

Perspective Carousel Swipe Threshold

We added a new swipeThreshold property to Perspective’s Carousel Component.

Previously, the carousel swipe threshold was set to 50% of a component’s width (meaning once you reached the halfway point of a view you’d automatically swipe to the next one). This threshold was unconfigurable.

But now you can customize that break point value to whatever suits your preferences or functions most naturally for your devices. This new capability will be especially helpful for tailoring the user experience on mobile devices.

Additionally, to help improve user experience, we’ve adjusted the default value of the swipe threshold to 200px, with a minimum value of 50px allowed.

Onwards And Upwards!

Get more details about these updates in the 8.1.40 release notes and the Ignition user manual. And please visit the ideas portal if you have any feedback to improve Ignition. You can also stop by the ideas portal simply to peruse suggestions from other Ignition users, and cast your vote on the updates you’d find most valuable. The Ignition 8.1.41 release train is already rolling along, and will arrive just before summer hits with some sizzling new features.