Hey Everyone! I want to start working with editing modules/creating modules, and I was wondering where I should start with that? Mainly, what program do i need to create/edit modules? I have a module currently that I found on a forum, and if I wanted to look ‘behind-the-scenes’ so to say, how would I go about doing that? Do i need to get another program or can i do it all from ignition? Again, completely new to this so any info would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks in Advance! 
Eclipse and Netbeans IDE are popular. Any Java IDE will do. I use Eclipse, myself.
The Ignition v7.8 SDK is hosted on github and uses Maven for building and dependency management. The older SDKs use Ant with custom build functions.[quote=“alewayhar”]I have a module currently that I found on a forum, and if I wanted to look ‘behind-the-scenes’ so to say, how would I go about doing that?[/quote]If they didn’t post their source code, you won’t be able to work with that.
Thank you so much! I’ll have to look into both of those! Concerning the .modl file I have, is there anyway I can look at what they did? Like I can’t just open up the .modl file in an IDE?
Here’s my suggestion –
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To get started, you’ll want the Java JDK installed and should be familiar with programming in Java.
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Unless you are familiar with Eclipse or Netbeans, I recommend Intellij as an IDE. Community version should do everything you need, is free, open source, and is a bit more intuitive than Eclipse or Netbeans in my opinion.
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Check out the SDK documentation at our new Docs. There are some walkthroughs on how to get started with the SDK and what’s required. The sdk documentation is continuing to undergo updates, and we would really appreciate your feedback/questions to help make it better.
As far as looking at the source of a module – if the source isn’t provided (e.g., not Open Source or provided as source jars), then it’s not going to be easy or convenient to view source. We do provide source code with our examples. We are also open to adding more examples if you guys feel something is missing.
edit: as far as the .modl goes – the modl is essentially just a zip. You can unzip it and see what’s inside, but since Java is a compiled language there isn’t going to be much to see.
So if I have absolutely no experience with programming in java, other than the scripting that I’ve done in ignition, is this going to be a massive undertaking? 
haha, just curious so I know what I’m getting myself in to here
It entirely depends on your overall programming experience. Java would not be my recommendation for a first or second programming language. I set aside three months at the beginning of this year to learn the module SDK & Java. I used every bit of it to become productive – even with 35+ years of programming experience.
I presented some of what I learned at the ICC – I’ve attached the slides for you. If you attended, you can watch the video, too. It’s tailored for the pre-7.8 build environment, but much of it is build system agnostic.
ICC2015_Developing_with_Module_SDK.zip (1.13 MB)
I have little to no programming experience. I started using Ignition regularly about 6 months ago and aside from that, the only ‘programming experience’ I have was with an arduino project 4 years ago in college. It looks like this is going to be a larger undertaking then I initially thought. 
Since you have no programming experience I would suggest learning Python. It’s the scripting language that Ignition uses and is probably the easiest programming language to learn.