We have been working with support on an issue that popped up as we started removing JRE from our end workstations. We are finding in reports the fields are blank. This only happens with client launcher no java installed. If you have java installed and use the JNLP launcher the report works as normal and is not blank.
We are running version 7.9.12 on the server with JRE 1.8.0 installed. My understanding of the documentation is in version 7.9.10 they were able to wrap JRE from the server and it is not even needed installed anymore?
We have been making circles with support. I strongly feel this is an issue with the wrapping of java on the server. In the shortcut created I can see it targeting the server and use wrapped is true. I am in no means an ignition expert, I work in our IT department and our engineers are not sure.
Really hope I can get some good direction here on why Java has become our crutch that needs installed on the clients just to make this work.
Thank you.
Hello Nathan,
Starting with 7.9.10, the Native Client Launchers do have Java 9 embedded, so you don’t have to install Java outside of installing the client launcher. If there’s no Java runtime though, I wouldn’t expect the client to launch at all. Is the report showing up as blank the only issue you’re running into?
Are you using any fonts in the report which are not installed on the system locally? Oracle Java 1.8 did some behind-the-scenes work to inject fallback and default fonts in the event that the font isn’t installed on the system. We do some similar work with 8.1 and mapping for logical fonts but i think this support is limited on the bundled jre with the 7.9 NCLs. Check your reports and the fonts used there and make sure the client machine has that font installed. you could also change that font to be a logical font as well.
let me know if that helps,
Jonathan C
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IIRC, this problem crops up if the reports use fonts that were added to each workstation separately. They would need to be added to the embedded runtime. (Search here…)
Edit: Jonathan was quicker and more informative. (:
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Correct, essentially everything is there, data, etc. But when we do a print and do a PDF. The tables are there but the actual data is blank. The support tech was able to make it work making a PNG screenshot as a work around.
I will check on the fonts as I did not even think of that. To my knowledge it should all be default, but still going to check because I never trust the creators or users ha.
One thing I did find while digging deeper into the server side is the ignition.conf which has the paths for JRE. I am not sure what they should be but they are blank, which to me means this is an error. I am finding though in the ignition folder a wrapped java executable or there is the local installed java 8 path. Anyone have thoughts or this or share which path they are using for wrapped?
Ignition 7.9 doesn’t have a bundled java for the gateway itself. You need to supply a system jre8.
Sadly setting the java path in the config file and restarting the gateway did not resolve the issue.
Configuring the Java path in the Gateway configuration won’t have any bearing on the client. The Native Client launchers have their own bundled JRE and aren’t downloading the jre from the Gateway. If you’re running Windows, the jre for the NCL can be found in the app’s install directory C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Roaming\Inductive Automation\Client Launcher\jre