Advanced Tag Importer

Ignition Early Access
1

In the nightly build you will find access to add the first of a number of Tag related features coming to 8.1, the Advanced Tag Importer. Leveraging the same code that we introduced in 8.1 with the new method of selecting OPC tags to import, the new tag import screen allows users to:

  1. See all the tags in an import file before items are imported
  2. Explicitly define the location tags are imported to
  3. Modify properties of a tag from an import file prior to import
  4. Identify some errors prior to import
  5. Fix an issue with a tag import should the import fail
  6. Ignore their current context within the Tag Browser prior to importing tags

While the legacy import functionality still exists within the designer and behaves as it always has, we hope that many will find the the new functionality useful.

In the Ignition Designer, this new functionality is accessible via the menu dropdown in the Tag Browser. Under the Import Tags heading you will find an Interactive option.

TagImporterLocation
TagImporterLocation1178×570 32.8 KB

You will then be prompted to select a valid import file (All import formats supported in 8.1 are compatible with this tool including 7.x XML and CSV files).

A window like the following will open up with the tags in your import file on the left, and the currently selected provider on the right. The area on the right is a staging area and nothing is committed until either the OK or Apply button is pressed.

TagImport
TagImport2224×1524 238 KB

At this point you can drag and drop tags as you see fit. Anything moved to the staging area can then be modified to fit your needs by using either the pencil icon or double clicking on the tag.

Current known limitations:

  1. Before import the only error condition that is flagged is an Invalid UDT parent type
  2. When editing UDT Instances/UDT Defs/UDT Members you will get an editor for the specific element you clicked on and not a UDT Editor
  3. When editing UDT Instance members, the system doesn’t currently have the context to display the correct valueSource and all members look to be Memory tags. This is only visual within the advanced tag importer UI and the tags with have the correct valueSource on import.
  4. Only one tag can be edited at a time. Multi-edit is currently not supported.

Please let us know what you think and if there is more you would like to see added!

Garth Gross

10 Likes
2

I don't know how I missed this post, but I recently found this function and the interactive import tool is super cool! :slight_smile: Thanks!