Introducing i4Cortex's FileCortex: Free Static File Serving for Ignition

3rd Party Modules
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Introducing FileCortex: Free Static File Serving for Ignition

Hi everyone,

We'd like to introduce FileCortex, a small Gateway module we've developed for Ignition.

FileCortex is a free module that provides a simple and secure way to serve static files and Single-Page Applications (SPAs) directly from the Ignition Gateway.

The idea is pretty simple: if you already have files on the Gateway machine that you want to make available over HTTP/HTTPS, you can expose specific folders through FileCortex without having to set up another web server or give your application direct access to the filesystem.

FileCortex supports both Ignition 8.1 and 8.3 and is currently a Gateway-only module.

It's also worth mentioning that FileCortex is not intended to replace the WebDev module. It's a more focused solution for cases where you simply need to serve existing files or static web content from one or more explicitly configured folders.

Key Features

  • Independent file mounts — each configured folder is exposed through its own URL.

  • Read-only by design — FileCortex only serves existing files. It cannot upload, modify, or delete files.

  • Token authentication — mounts can be protected using Bearer tokens, with tokens stored as SHA-256 hashes.

  • CORS controls — configure an explicit allow-list of permitted origins.

  • Flexible caching — supports REVALIDATE, NO_STORE, and MAX_AGE.

  • SPA support — serve React, Vue, Angular, and other built SPAs, with an optional fallback to index.html.

  • Range requests — useful when serving larger files such as PDFs and other media.

Example

For example, let's say you have the following folder on your Gateway machine:

D:\FileCortex\manuals

You can mount it as:

/data/filecortex/manuals/

A file such as:

D:\FileCortex\manuals\pump-a.pdf

would then be available at:

https://your-gateway/data/filecortex/manuals/pump-a.pdf

Some Possible Use Cases

Here are a few examples of where we think FileCortex can be useful:

  • Serving PDF documents for use with the Perspective PDF Viewer

  • Serving GeoJSON files for map components

  • Serving map tiles for web-based mapping applications

  • Serving HTML content for the Perspective IFrame component or custom widgets

  • Serving JavaScript, CSS, images, fonts, and other static resources

  • Hosting a built SPA directly from an Ignition Gateway

Version 0.1.0

The initial release is v0.1.0.

Since this is the first release, we're particularly interested in feedback from the Ignition community. If you have a use case where FileCortex could be useful, or if there are features you think would make it better, we'd be happy to hear your thoughts.

Download & Documentation

The module, documentation, and installation information are available here:

FileCortex — i4Cortex

The manual is also available from the FileCortex module documentation after installation.

Thanks for taking a look, and we'd be happy to hear your feedback!

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