Hi everyone, I’m currently developing a system using .NET (ASP.NET Core) with an Oracle backend. The system exposes a REST API for validation and status checks. Specifically, this is for a digital membership card solution that generates QR-based membership IDs. I’m exploring whether Ignition (Perspective) can be used as a front-end dashboard or kiosk interface to validate memberships in real time.
A few technical questions:
Should Ignition connect directly to Oracle via JDBC, or is it better to call the .NET REST API?
Does Perspective support QR code scanning natively, or would a third-party module be required?
What’s the recommended architecture for secure API communication between Ignition Gateway and an external .NET service?
Any insights or experiences with integrating external web services with Ignition would be highly appreciated.
The answer here really is "it depends". The REST API might give you more control, programmatically, over what's being sent/received and have some other minor benefits, but it's also introducing another layer of latency.
I would say the best advice is to target the point of abstraction that is less likely to change.
In a year, or five, is the DB still going to be there with the same schema? Is the REST API (with the same schema)? Either one could in theory be adjusted, but once you tie Ignition to one or the other you're making it more complicated, institutionally, to change that one.
If your end users are in the mobile apps, you can invoke the scan barcode action:
If they're in a browser-based session (on any device) or Perspective Workstation, then you can use a third party "keyboard wedge" style scanner via the Barcode Scanner component.
These are two separate ideas - not complementary, and currently the only ways to do barcode scanning in Perspective.
Use HTTPS on the external service, and if it's self-signed, add that cert to the gateway:
In my opinion there's not really any need for anything more than that.