As the title says I have an old server that is in dire need of an upgrade. My big problem is that I have about 50 terminals in the field that autostart the JNLP file, AND are locked into Java 1.6 JRE.
I was hoping that I could take my time and install the 7.9.10 client on the field terminals in anticipation of the Server upgrade but it appears that the 7.9.10 client and it’s embedded java will not open a project of that age.
Any thoughts? My only option would be to install a 7.9.9 client and upgrade the Java on the field terminals. Was hoping to avoid lots of extra work.
The embedded Java in the 7.9.10 launcher is Java 9, which isn’t supported until 7.9.10.
So 7.9.10 client won’t work on earlier 7.9 projects either?
Maaaaybe 7.9.9, but earlier than that there were compatibility issues with Java 9.
Out of curiosity, For a 7.9.10 client, when we eventually go to 8 will that require a re-install of the Ignition Client, or is there a mechanism in place to update remote clients?
8.0 will require you to use the new client/designer launchers - the prior client launchers, with or without embedded Java, will not work.
I figured that, the question was, Is there a mechanism in place to do that update? At the very least a notification that a new version is needed and a link to download the new version. As it sits now it’s an error on the client when it doesn’t work.
No, there isn’t. The gateway doesn’t “know” about any client launchers you have - so at best, the client launcher would have to “know” about a gateway with a new version, know where to ask it for information about where to download a replacement, download it for you, and then prompt you for installing things.
The big problem with that idea is that we don’t know when we’ll have to make breaking changes, and there’s no way to guarantee what version of the client launchers you actually have deployed. We obviously didn’t plan to make breaking changes (see: the entire idea of retargetting) but externalities (especially Java 11) forced us to do so. So, the client launcher that might be as old as 2013 on some random machine has no way of knowing that upgrades are required. We could update the 7.9 client launchers to include some future upgrade mechanism - but you would still need to go through and download that update manually at least once, so it doesn’t really help.
Can you install the new server version on a separate server?
Then you could rig your own “update”:
Create new GW and move all your projects and test them.
Put a note on the old project screens with a button that links to the new client with system.net.openURL