Hi everyone, I am looking for some advice on an Ignition V7 to V8 upgrade. I've done this upgrade multiple times without any major issues, but I have a somewhat unique situation. I have a potential client that wants to upgrade their system, however the original systems developer used 100% scripting and tag datapoints for the process control instead of utilizing PLC devices. I have explained the risks and downsides to using an architecture like this, but the client is adamant to keep the system this way, and it does work....
If I took this job, are their any potential risks when updating versions when it comes to this much scripting? Obviously I would set up a side by side test station, but I'd like to know what I am getting myself into. 100 mile fly over it looks straight forward, but I know how that usually goes.
Thanks
In general, we take great pains to make scripting continue to work seamlessly across upgrades (as in, actual system functions will continue to work, as much as they can), which in the particular case of 7.x to 8.x required some pretty substantial work around things like tag manipulation scripting functions.
In 8.0, the underlying "model" of how tags are stored, configured, and execute completely changed. While, again, we took great pains to minimize the risks of this upgrade, it is possible, thanks to Hyrum's law that some convoluted scripting scenario will end up not working correctly - possibly in a very unfortunately subtle way.
I would start by carefully reading the 7.9 -> 8.1 upgrade guide, and then absolutely setting up a 'test' setup that's as close to the real thing as you can possibly manage.
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Appreciate the confirmation; I will take another look at the program and decide how I would like to continue with pricing this job.
I wanted to follow up on this to support anyone in the future. I completed this work; and the overall V8 update of the initial scripting went well, without any hitches. However……..I ran into a major snag with a discontinued item that took me some time to remedy.
V7 used Tag.AlertSeverity property and my client was using this property for a color change script for 100+ value displays to indicate alarm condition severity.
V8 has discontinued this property which ended up in many broken displays. New scripting to reference Alarm Priority Level “Critical (4), High (3), Medium (2), Low (1) was utilized to for color change reference.
What was the actual version you upgrade from? 7.what?
V7.8.2
Looking at documentation it looks like Tag.AlertSeverity was dissolved in V7.9