As the industrial controls and SCADA landscape evolves, so does Ignition by Inductive Automation. The upcoming release of Ignition 8.3, expected to launch in mid-January 2025 following a public beta in December 2024, promises a host of exciting new features that will further empower engineers and developers. With a focus on improved performance, source control compatibility, streamlined deployments, and expanded connectivity, Ignition 8.3 marks a significant upgrade. Below, we’ll dive into the highlights of what’s coming in this new release.

New Gateway Webpage Design and REST API Support

One of the most visible changes in Ignition 8.3 is the redesigned Gateway Configuration webpage. The new interface is not just aesthetically improved, but more functional, with an intuitive layout to make configuration tasks faster and easier. A powerful search feature will allow users to quickly locate specific configurations and settings. Additionally, the introduction of REST API support will open up possibilities for automation and integration, providing developers with more control over gateway configuration programmatically.

Everything in the Filesystem – Source Control Ready

A major shift in Ignition 8.3 is the transition to storing all project configurations in the filesystem as JSON files, replacing the internal database. This means that every aspect of the project can be tracked and versioned in source control systems like Git, making collaboration and change management significantly more efficient. For many, this change alone is a game-changer, offering enhanced transparency and control over project changes.

Perspective Enhancements – Drawing Tools, Forms, and Offline Mode

The Perspective Module in Ignition 8.3 receives several key upgrades, positioning it as an even more powerful platform for mobile-first applications.

• New Drawing Tools: These tools mimic the functionality of vector-based editors like Inkscape, allowing users to create and bind complex shapes directly within Perspective views. This provides more flexibility in creating custom graphical elements within applications. These new tools will also allow bindings to SVG properties bringing the Perspective modules development tools in line with the Vision module.
• Forms: A new form component is introduced, allowing developers to quickly create boilerplate form inputs that pass data back to the event stream. Forms will simplify data input handling for users allowing for faster and more consistent development of user input and data collection screens.
• Offline Mode: Another key addition is the Perspective offline mode. Users can now run apps in offline mode, store data locally, and sync data with the Gateway once the connection is restored. While this is primarily designed for environments with intermittent connectivity, it’s especially useful for remote operations where constant connectivity can't be guaranteed. However, users must explicitly launch the app in offline or online mode; there is no automatic switching. I can see this being very useful for repeated data entry or commissioning procedures that require a user to be on the factory floor and on the move

Power Historian – A Game-Changer for Time Series Dat

Perhaps one of the most exciting announcements is the introduction of the Power Historian—a new high-performance time-series data collection engine built on QuestDB. This historian is designed for high throughput, capable of handling up to 2 million data points per second under optimal conditions, with minimal configuration. The Power Historian’s performance benefits stem from being tightly integrated with the Ignition Gateway, reducing the overhead of external databases, like the SQL databases many of us currently use.

Although redundancy support isn't expected in the initial release, Power Historian will feature automatic archiving capabilities, and it will support PostgreSQL connections for easy access to historical data. Performance will vary based on the hardware, particularly the storage medium used for data writes, but the historian is designed to be fast, scalable, and simple to deploy.

Deployment Modes – Simplified Environment Management

Ignition 8.3 introduces “deployment modes” that allow users to set different configurations for different environments or purposes. For example, database connections can have separate test and production settings. Switching between these modes requires a Gateway restart, but this greatly reduces the need for manual configuration changes when moving from testing to production. This feature could help prevent mistakes when moving between test and production and streamline the deployment process.

Event Streams – Real-Time Data Piping

The new Event Streams feature provides a powerful mechanism for piping real-time data to external consumers like HTTP endpoints, Kafka, or event listeners. This opens up new opportunities for integration with other systems and data platforms, facilitating more sophisticated real-time processing workflows. Initially, the event streams will support Kafka and HTTP, with more protocols expected in future updates.

Siemens S7 Driver and Expanded Connectivity

Connectivity has been expanded in Ignition 8.3 with the introduction of a native Siemens S7 driver, making it easier to connect to Siemens PLCs directly without third-party drivers. This further strengthens Ignition’s position as a platform that bridges industrial hardware silos and seamlessly integrates with all manufacturers. In addition, native support for Twilio and WhatsApp integration provides out-of-the-box functionality for sending notifications and alerts.

Secrets Management

Security and sensitive information management are getting some attention in Ignition 8.3 with the new secrets management system. This feature allows developers to store sensitive credentials, keys, and information separately from the rest of the project, reducing the risk of exposing sensitive data. This will be a highly used feature for sensitive industries like pharmaceuticals and semiconductors.

Alarm Aggregation System

A new alarm aggregation system provides improved alarm statistics and monitoring. This feature creates properties on UDTs and folders that summarize the alarm statistics within that UDT or folder. This will allow users to reference summarized alarm properties for devices, enabling more comprehensive and centralized alarm management. Engineers can now track and analyze alarms more effectively within their projects.

Gateway Backup Enhancements

In Ignition 8.3, Gateway backups have become more versatile. Users can now select specific components to include in their backups, making it easier to tailor backups for different use cases and to reduce the size of backup files. These new backups will have a different file type to avoid confusion with entire gateway backups, which will still remain.

Quick Launch and Containerization

Launching Ignition clients is faster and easier than ever, thanks to the Quick Launch feature, which allows clients to be launched directly from the Gateway page. There was also some discussion about containerization support, including mentions of Helm charts and Kubernetes, although further details are expected in later updates.

Conclusion

Ignition 8.3 represents a substantial upgrade in both functionality and user experience. From high-performance data logging with the Power Historian to improved project version control, simplified deployments, and expanded connectivity, this release promises to empower engineers and developers like never before. The Perspective module sees perhaps its biggest improvements since its initial launch with native drawing tools, offline mode, and forms. With a public beta slated for December 2024 and a full release in mid-January 2025, we’re excited to start deploying the new version to our clients and taking advantage of all the new features. And for those with active support plans, the upgrade to Ignition 8.3 will be free.

Stay tuned as more details emerge and get ready to take your projects to the next level with Ignition 8.3!

About the Author

Jason Barry is a Senior Controls Engineer for Hallam-ICS. He has spent his career working on process automation systems in a variety of industries including Semiconductor, Chemical, Food and Beverage, Oil and Gas, and Toxic Gas Monitoring. His area of expertise includes Rockwell PLCs, multiple SCADA software, and SQL databases.

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About Hallam-ICS

Hallam-ICS is an engineering and automation company that designs MEP systems for facilities and plants, engineers control and automation solutions, and ensures safety and regulatory compliance through arc flash studies, commissioning, and validation. Our offices are located in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Vermont and North Carolina  Texas, Florida and our projects take us world-wide.