8.1 remaining pain points for core features

Ignition
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We are all excited about the release of 8.3 with all the amazing features coming: graphic editor, new historian, gateway ui, rest api, s7+ driver, form component, stream events...
:star_struck:

But there is still few little pain points in 8.1 many of us are hoping to be improved...
8.1 Product development cycle is focus on fixing only last bugs but some fine grained improvements could be very interesting for finalize or maintain current 8.1 projects.

This topics aim is not substitute for https://ideas.inductiveautomation.com but just to share a list of "small tweak with everyday impact" for end-user and integrator about core features of Ignition or perspective components without available workarounds, or a workaround that involves rewriting the feature or the component. Many of them seems to be minor and risk-free improvement and very targeted.

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The stylesheet was a nice improvement for perspective, but it feels like a step in the wrong direction.
We had 2 places that handled styles: style classes, and theme files.
They were on the opposite sides of the spectrum, with one being easy but too limiting, and the other one being complete but more difficult to work with (the main issue being that you can't edit them in the designer. With some customers, we don't even have access to these files, and when we do, having ressources outside of the designer can make things complicated)
The stylesheet stands in the middle, with its own issues. So now we have 3 places that handle styles, adding both flexibility and confusion, but not fixing the issues of the other 2.

I'm still hoping for 2 things:

  • an advanced mode on the style classes, allowing us to add whatever css we want. That's pretty much what we do with css injection.
  • Theme files editor in the designer.

I don't know if that's the kind of thing @mazeyrat had in mind, but with all the promises of 8.3, the css situation still remains...

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Hi Pascal,
You’re right—the current setup with style classes, theme files, and stylesheets adds complexity without fully solving the core issues. An advanced mode for style classes to allow custom CSS would offer more flexibility while keeping everything inside the designer. Also, having a theme file editor directly in the designer would make managing styles much easier, especially when access to external files is limited. These changes could simplify workflows and reduce confusion for developers. Hopefully, the 8.3 release will address these points to improve the styling experience.

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It's important for me to have better control over project updates, such as SAP transport requests.

Additionally, developers should only be authorized to edit the specific projects they're assigned to, not all projects in the gateway.

Lastly, better control of CPU and RAM usage by project, user, component...

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With this post I was especially focus on small improvements of Ignition 8.1 existing features or components before the 8.1 dev branch became "frozen", if it's not already the case...
8.3 first release is probably in few months and it will be valuable that 8.1 branch could still receive minor ajustement of existing features to tackle those little daily frustrations !