Ignition User Manual updates

I think some work needs to be done on the syntax section of the Scripting Functions pages.

Reading through the list of available function parameters seems harder now, due to how things are spaced. I would prefer to see the parameters in a table format.

Here's an example from our own docusaurus-base documentation site:

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I dig it. Let me and the team kick the idea around a bit. I agree, there's some visual significance missing from the params.

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A bartender at work makes me think somebody is rather pampered. :grin:

/envy

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I think the newer structure is better assuming the user has never used any of the functions, but for those who are familiar, the main use would be for syntax or correct usage. Being able to see them in a large list is way faster to find what you are looking for, but now you'll just need to search each thing individually. It also is nice when you want to see all the options you have at a quick glance. I guess I'll just be searching every function now.

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Nice! This is awesome, one small update that already improves the search by leaps and bounds!

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Broken link to https://www.docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DEP/Tag+Security+Properties/

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ALL the old links are broken. No need to report particular ones. Ah, a bug within the new manual, as a helpful soul whispered in my ear. Nevermind.

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I have a longstanding quality-of-life request :pray:. Can redirects be configured for docs.ia.io and forum.ia.io? I use ia.io and demo.ia.io all the time, so not having others has been a (mild) annoyance.

Otherwise, it looks like some system functions aren't appearing in search reliably without the entire system.* notation. Example: queryStatus doesn't return its reference page. It show up normally if system.alarm.queryStatus is searched.
image

Actually, looks like all system.alarm.* functions are in this boat

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i can't find anything in new version

I want to make my feedback more tangible and less opinion based for subjective review.

Quantifiable UI measurements are better for the denser previous version.
Timing testers to find the XY Chart information, one will have to scroll.

Time trials
First fixations
Fixation durations
Lower revisits

image

I don't know the benefits of the new view.
I think the benefits of the old view are measurable and easy for me to understand.
I could be just uninformed.
I appreciate the search upgrade to give priority to topics/headers.
I appreciate the efforts for continuous improvements.

I don't want to sound ungrateful or like I super want the old way back, as much as I want the same efficiency/density for ease of use, including an additional search bar on the left side above the left navigation area.


I just happened to also think that all the tutorial videos I had made used the old manual. :grimacing:

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Anything

How are you searching?

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Not a fan of the new look necessarily, will definitely take some getting used to.

Jokes aside, I appreciate the quick responses of the team on the forums as always.

I do hope the Google links get fixed quickly though, in my opinion that's not only super handy but also a selling point for Ignition with my customers.
Want to look something up? Question? Issue? Just Google it!

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My biggest issue with the new update is the links google brings up are all broken. I used to just search google and the first result was almost always what I was looking for. Not really an bug or an issue with inductive just an annoyance on my end.

Google would bring up question asked on the forms as well as links to the Documentation depending on what I searched for. It was my one stop shop for help :slight_smile:

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Same! Looks like they're still indexing the new site. Hoping to get rid of all those broken links in their search results cleaned up shortly after. Apologies again to you (and everyone for that matter!) for the negative experience.

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If possible, ping me when things settle down. I'll try to investigate this in the meantime: Adding docs

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The new docs are working well for me. Whenever I encounter a broken link, there is an ignition 8.1 image in the top left corner that takes me to the splash page for the new docs.

One mistake I keep making over and over again is this: when I get to the splash page, I intuitively click on the documents icon instead of the link underneath it, and nothing happens. I recommend linking the icons to the pages they represent.

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Funny you say that, I just wrapped up that change locally. Might be an hour or so until it makes it to production though.

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Found a fun formatting bug. Looks like the markdown syntax isn't being escaped properly. Also, for example 5, it looks like it was meant to be '%a%_%_%_', but I think it should just be '%a___%'.

Is this the right place to report bugs in the new docs??? Love it so far btw <3

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The old docs had,

Found a problem? Send us an email: docs@inductiveautomation.com

link at the bottom of each page. They forgot to add it into the new docs but said they would! You could send them a link to your post.

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Suddenly concerned that changes to the forums are secretly underway that will cause me to lose a ton of information there.

For those interested in previous views, I often use the Wayback Machine to see old webpages. In a previous life a boat engine manufacturer wiped out a ton of stuff I needed. Came in really handy.
https://web.archive.org/web/20240206154656/https://www.docs.inductiveautomation.com/

https://web.archive.org/web/20230202203735/https://docs.inductiveautomation.com/display/DOC81/system.tag.writeBlocking

It can also just be nostalgic to view some major company websites from the 90s.

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