Historical Data and Visualization in Ignition Edge

Ignition
1

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working on a project where we have a critical application running on Ignition Platform. To ensure continuity in case of connection issues with the datacenter, we plan to use Ignition Edge as a standalone system to temporarily store data when the main gateway is down.

In addition to data storage, we also need the application to run on Edge, so operators can still visualize data if the main gateway is unavailable. I understand that some functions, such as writing to tags and alarms, can be migrated to Edge. However, I’m concerned about features like:

  • Historical data visualization
  • Trends (charts)
  • Exporting historical information

My question is: Is it possible to have historical data views and trends directly in Ignition Edge, or is Edge only meant for control functions? If Edge does not support full historical visualization, what would be the recommended approach?

I would appreciate any insights on the capabilities and limitations of Edge for this use case.

Thanks in advance!

2

Edge, standalone, can only store/display history for 35 days (or 10 million data points, whichever comes first), of the tags that it is responsible for connecting and collecting.

History export can be scripted by Edge, but not to any database. That is a fundamental license limitation of the Edge platform. If you need a true local database connection, use standard Ignition in your local plant.

3

Thanks for the clarification!

Now that I understand I have a few follow-up questions:

  1. How can we query or visualize this historical data? Are there built-in tools in Edge to display trends, or does it require scripting?
  2. Where is the historical data stored? Is it in an internal database, and is there a way to access it directly?
  3. If the connection to the main gateway is restored and data syncs, can we still access historical data on Edge, or is it removed once transferred?

Currently, I have Edge syncing data with our main Ignition platform, and I’m working on developing the application. Any insights on how to handle historical visualization properly would be very helpful!

Thanks in advance!

4

  1. Standard historian-based visualization and history bindings work in Edge just like Standard, but only with the internal historian. As long as your current app is not using named queries or other SQL queries, it will transfer directly. Scripting optional in the same way it is optional in Standard Ignition.

  2. Internal database, accessible only via Power Chart, historian bindings, and historian scripted queries.

  3. Yes, local Edge will not prune local history until it is 35 days old, whether transferred or not.

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5

To answer your follow up questions:

  1. If you get the Panel edition, then you can run 1 visualization project (either Vision or Perspective, but not both). The project can utilize the built-in graphing components to query the historical data. Again, the data shown will be limited by what Phil mentioned before. 35 days or 10 million data points. So you can't expect to graph more than 1 month of data back.
  2. The data is stored in an internal database that you can't access...except through the built-in system.tag.queryTagHistory functions.
  3. When connection is established, the Edge gateway will sync the data it has up to the main server. The local Edge application will still have access to the past 35 days of data. it is not removed, just synchronized. Ideally, your central server should be set up to store all historical data into a database for as long as you need. If you develop an application on the central server, that will have access to all the data you need beyond the 35 days.
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