8.3 Transformation performance in Vision client

[paul-griffith]

In 8.3:

• The non-"prep" variants of direct SQL query functions (runQuery, runScalarQuery, runUpdateQuery) are deprecated in all scopes, because they're strictly worse than the prep variants - there's literally no reason to use them.
• The runNamedQuery and runSFNamedQuery functions are deprecated in all scopes because:
  1. It had a fundamental signature incompatibility between client and gateway scope with the project parameter
  2. The idea of a single named query function issuing any kind of query (query, scalar, or update) was misleading at best.

The recommended replacements are system.db.execQuery, execUpdate, execScalar, and execUpdateAsync.

@fema

system.db.runPrepQuery is deprecated in Vision with no replacement listed (what should I use now?)

You should use named queries, or if you need more dynamic SQL, you should send a message using system.util.sendMessage and invoke a message handler on the gateway that runs system.db.runPrepQuery. There's a fundamental security issue with running 'raw' DB queries from Vision, hence why it's been gated behind the 'Legacy Database Access' permission in your project properties since Ignition 7.9.4.

@fema

system.db.execSProcCall is replaced by system.db.storedProcedure.

This part of the 8.1 to 8.3 upgrade guide, which I'm assuming is where you're seeing that:

System Function	Deprecated	Replacement System Function
system.db.beginTransaction	No	system.db.transaction
system.db.beginNamedQueryTransaction	No	system.db.transaction
system.db.closeTransaction	No	system.db.transaction
system.db.commitTransaction	No	system.db.transaction
system.db.rollbackTransaction	No	system.db.transaction
system.db.createSProcCall	No	system.db.storedProcedure
system.db.execSProcCall	No	system.db.storedProcedure

Is just wrong - we haven't yet introduced these new functions, so they shouldn't be in the migration guide. No matter when they are, since 8.3.0 is already out the existing functions to manage transactions/stored procedures will not be deprecated until our next major release.

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All that said - as ever, just because a function is deprecated does not mean it is going to break, now or in the immediate future. With literally one exception in the last decade, we do not remove scripting functions after they've been added. Eventually they may functionally stop doing anything (e.g. the system.alert functions, originally deprecated in 7.6 / 2013, stopped doing anything in 8.3), but they will not be removed, and in the unlikely event we can't provide equivalent functionality automatically, it will be clearly marked in the upgrade guide.

With 8.3, this situation actually got more clear for you as an end user - previously, we could only show or hide functions entirely, with no ability to "soft" deprecate them. The plan is to use this new capability to stage deprecations for the duration of an entire major release, and only hide them in the next major release.
8.3 also has a larger than usual swathe of deprecations because of this new capability and this new guarantee - so we packed a lot of long-due reorganization in. In the long run, this makes things more clear for new users.

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All that said,

@fema

system.vision.transform

This function is literally identical to the 8.1 version. system.vision.transform simply calls system.gui.transform for you. Any difference in behavior there is either environmental, or due to some other factor in the 8.3 upgrade, but I can't really think of what it would be.

But:

@fema

system.util.invokeAsynchronous(action)

This is not safe. Any interaction with Vision components, even indirectly via system.gui.transform, must take place on the EDT. system.gui.transform is non-blocking by nature - that's why it accepts a callback argument.