as my Beckhoff ADS driver is maturing, my testers want to try it out on the licensed Igntion systems. So I’m currently trying to create those. From the information I got from the Welcome email, I was trying to implement a mini local CRM that uses the REST API. However it is almost undocumented.
However it doesn’t really matter what I try, I keep on getting errors (Creating a module not listed in the module showcase worked, but if I try to edit that, I only get an error window). If I try to create a License using a base key, all I get is an error that the base key doesn’t exist. If I omit that, I get an error message, which is quickly overlayed by a success message with a key, that I need to copy.
However I cannot set any valid-to date or anything.
I’d really love to find the API documentation (like the usual Swagger/OpenAPI description sites) or at least be able to generate time-limited licenses for my beta testers.
Your driver should be 2 hour limited as a feature of honoring the trial system embedded in Ignition.
The showcase system works as follows:
Log in
Add a module (By default unlisted on showcase)
Create a key
Attach a license to the key for your module.
Add the key to an Ignition install and hit activate, and it should automatically pick up the correct module license.
There are no mechanisms for a fixed length of time (Other than 2 hours) that I have found in that system so far. Your best bet would be to add parameters to a license key and utilise code in your module to recognise the parameters that are part of that license key and limit the time validity.
Ok … so if I leave the Base Key empty, it seems to create a license with a random base key however I see an error popup behind the success dialog. If I click the error away, I can see the license being listed.
However, it lists my key … if I then click on edit, I see a screen:
On the Activations tab I see three fields at the top … Check in is set to one hour and Expiration is almost 48hours.
Do I understand it correctly? If someone orders a license to activate my driver on let’s say 3 systems, I would set Max Sessions to 3 …. the system should check in once an hour and verify the status of the license and it will automatically disable the module if it couldn’t confirm the status for 48 hours?
So I don’t generate licenses with a time limitation, I generate a license and I manually suspend it at a given time in the future and then it’s disabled at the client?
I would personally just generate three keys for them. I believe that it's been set up to be as flexible as possible. I believe that the 8 character key can have the live check in system, but the 6 cannot, as it is more an offline activation code.
Most people who have developed modules have also installed and licensed multiple gateways in the course of their job, so this information is pretty well known as far as how the license keys work.
The rest has been learned slowly over the years, the web version of the license portal has only been around for about 12 months. There was a vision based gateway that was set up with the REST system before that. I remember there used to be a bit of rest api docs around, but i think it got hidden after the new perspective based license manager was released.
Admittedly the new Web UI looks quite nice, but it seems to be one of these systems, wehre you have loads of swiches and knobs, but as soon as you use any, it explodes. And you need to know which error messages are sort of just glitches and not really errors.
I’d really love to use my own REST client to manage this.
But regarding the Ignition knowledge … yeah … feel a bit exotic here. As someone who’s now built a TimeSeries Database Module and several Device Driver modules but who never ever really used a fully licensed version of Ignition or even did something serious with it (beyond some demo showcase to show the operation of the db and of the drivers)
Thanks for your help … now I’ll read up on the license types.
During the feeding times for the imperial measurement crew, you'll likely see some of the IA guys that can also shed more light on the backend and any current tickets they might be working on with the showcase. I haven't had any major issues using the new system, but I've not used it heaps.
At least the first of my beta testers confirmed that he was able to install the license I generated for him … makes me a lot more relieved than before.
As soon as they are all happy … next step … and glad you’re also seeing that because I was searching everywhere and all I got was errors. So at least with that the error was not sitting between my chair and my screen
Yeah … I assume that’s not the “IEEE International Conference on Communications” but the Ignition Community Conference, right? I guess it’s going to be in the US, right?
I’d love to come, but I’m avoiding traveling to this country for the next few years for “reasons”
ICC 2026, perhaps?