8.3.4 Inconsistent File Scan Behavior

Ignition
1

Hello all,

I’m trying to get my workplace ready to integrate git tooling with our Ignition setup as tracking changes has been an act of whimsy for too long. I’ve been trying out the basic parts of this on some projects that aren’t seeing any use, just to make sure everything works as I would expect.

Sadly, I haven’t even gotten to using git yet as I’ve been a bit stuck/mystified about how the gateway handles scanning for changes.

I’ve seen discussions about how this has changed in 8.3, so I've been using the gateway web portal's Scan File System button to try it out:

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My process was to pull open the project (in this case, a Perspective View) .json file on the (remote) gateway PC from the Program Files\InductiveAutomation\...\data\projects\ directory and make some change to a displayed string using a text editor rather than Designer. I would then save and click the aforementioned scan file system button.

The first time I did this, I was pleased to see the project's webpage update instantly. Ready to move on to other things, I changed the string back, pushed the button again, and was dismayed to see that nothing changed. In fact, even after several tries nothing was different. It took me opening the Designer (which also did not reflect the local file change) and forcing a save, which lead to resolving a conflict to get it back. This feels incoherent by my understanding; the designer wouldn't be able to hear about a conflict from the gateway unless the gateway knew something had been directly modified. If it knows something was modified, why isn't that reflected on the webpage?

I did this same experiment on a few different parts of the .json and had the same result each time. In general, scanning the file system seemed to not work but occasionally it would. Otherwise, I would need to try and find a way to force a sync through the Designer.

I'm hoping someone has advice or knows what I'm doing wrong.

2

What happens when you press Ctrl+Shift+U in the designer to merge changes from the gateway? This will usually update what the designer sees with the recent changes. Sometimes it seems to take a few seconds to register updates in the designer or perspective.

1 Like
3

I made a change to the file, then saved it. I then scanned the file system. It happened to update instantly.

I made another change (reverting my deletion of a component), then saved it. I then opened designer and used CTRL+SHIFT+U to get changes. Nothing changed, but the text in the bottom left of the designer window updated to say Project updates applied.

I then scanned the file system, and the view in the browser updated correctly. I tried CTRL+SHIFT+U again, and had to resolve a conflict. That sounds like what I would expect to happen.

I'm not sure why it's updating immediately sometimes and not at all at other times...

4

Somewhat annoyingly it turns out I've been bothering my coworkers by doing a scan; it pops up the update warning on their projects (if enabled) or immediately refreshes the page.

Is this intended? I thought it would only do updates to pages with changes.

5

Perspective is a SPA. Updates to any view require a delivery of the entire project state.

6

You had the view you were editing actively open in the designer? Updating from the gateway deliberately does not overwrite the things you are actively editing.

If you:

  1. Make changes on the filesystem
  2. Scan the filesystem
  3. Update the designer's in-memory project
  4. Then open the resource in question in the designer

Then you will get the 'updated' resource 100% of the time.
Make sure at step 2, you are hitting the 'scan filesystem' button on the projects page, and not doing a scan of the 'config' system instead.