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Ignition 8 32-bit Vision Clients

Posted by Paul Scott, Last modified by Paul Scott on 01/10/2020 02:55 PM
As of Ignition 8, 32-bit Vision Client support was dropped; the availability of 32-bit Java Runtime Environments (JRE) will diminish overtime as the technology is slowly deprecated.

However, in an effort to aid architectures making heavy use of 32-bit hardware, Ignition 8.0.3+ includes some batch and bash scripts that can be used to launch 32-bit clients. These launchers are unsupported, but are useful in cases where 32-bit Vision Clients are the only option.

Prerequisites

The following steps must be repeated on each piece of hardware that will run a 32-bit client. 
  1. Install a JRE
    The hardware that will run Vision client must have a 32-bit Java 11 JRE installed. Earlier versions of Java (e.g., Java 8, Java 9, etc) will not work. 
    You're free to use your vendor of choice, but as a suggestion, AdoptOpenJDK has some 32-bit versions (as of the time of this writing).

  2. Set JAVA_HOME to the JRE
    This step varies based on the operating system that will be running the client. A quick web search should show you how to do this: "debian set java_home" or "windows set java_home"

Legacy Launchers

Using the Legacy Launchers involves retrieving a "legacyClient" file via one of the means listed below (based on operating system of the computer that will run the client)

Linux & Mac

Download the legacy launcher
Run one of the following commands to download the legacyClient.sh file, replacing "localhost:8088" with the address of the gateway that's hosting the Vision project you wish to launch.
  • curl -o legacyClient.sh "http://localhost:8088/system/nativelaunch?type=legacy&os=linux"
  • wget -O legacyClient.sh "http://localhost:8088/system/nativelaunch?type=legacy&os=linux"

Run the LaunchClient file from terminal. The launcher will attempt to download a JAR from the gateway which will be used to run the Vision client.
legacyClient.sh address=GATEWAY_ADDRESS scope=SCOPE windowmode=WINDOW_MODE project=PROJECT certificate=CERTIFICATE
  • GATEWAY_ADDRESS: The full address to the gateway
  • SCOPE: The Scope to launch, 'D' for Designer, 'C' for Vision Client (Note: without single quote)
  • WINDOW_MODE: The Window Mode to use, 'W' for windowed, 'F' for fullscreen.
  • PROJECT: The Name of the Project to Launch. A project by the name specified here must exist on the gateway before attempting to launch the client. 
  • CERTIFICATE: The PEM certificate file to use with curl or wget. (curl is attempted first, wget if curl is not installed)
  • SKIP_CERT_CHECK: If this arg is supplied, certificate checking by curl or wget will not occur
  • JAVA ARGS: Any java args. (NOTE: No checking is done on validity before attempting to launch)

Example Launch Commands:
./legacyClient.sh address=http://localhost:8088 scope=D
./legacyClient.sh address=http://localhost:8088 scope=C project=testing windowmode=F -Djavaws.launchparams="LaunchTag;LaunchTag2" -Djavaws.launchparam.LaunchTag="AAA" -Djavaws.launchparam.LaunchTag2="ZZZ" -Xmx2048M
./legacyClient.sh address=https://Ignition:8043 scope=D certificate=mycert.pem
./legacyClient.sh address=https://Ignition:8043 scope=D skipcertcheck

Windows

Download the legacy launcher
Using a web-browser, visit the following address to download the legacyClient.bat file, replacing "localhost:8088" with the address of the gateway that's hosting the Vision project you wish to launch.
http://{gatewayAddress}:{gatewayPort}/system/nativelaunch?type=legacy&os=windows 

Usage

run the LaunchClient file from command line. Running it for the first time on a system will take a moment, as the launcher has to download some necessary files from the gateway first. 

launchClient.bat GATEWAY_ADDRESS SCOPE PROJECT WINDOW_MODE ARGUMENT_FILE

  • GATEWAY_ADDRESS: The full address to the gateway
  • SCOPE: The Scope to launch, 'D' for Designer, 'C' for Vision Client (Note: without single quote)
  • PROJECT: The Name of the Project to Launch ("myProject" in the examples below)
  • WINDOW_MODE: The Window Mode to use, 'W' for windowed, 'F' for fullscreen. (Note: Must be specified when including an argument file)
  • ARGUMENT_FILE: A File that contains additional Java arguments. Must be all on the first line with spaces between arguments. No formatting or validation is performed.
Example Launch Commands:
legacyClient.bat http://localhost:8088 D
legacyClient.bat http://localhost:8088 C myProject
legacyClient.bat http://localhost:8088 C myProject F
cmd.exe /c legacyClient.bat http://10.10.70.68:9500 C myProject W C:\Users\myUser\Desktop\args.txt

A Word on SSL/TLS

SSL/TLS support is only available on linux/mac OS X for these launchers. Should a user wants to enable this feature, they must modify the legacyclient.bat to not download the launchclient.jar each time.

To Convert cert to a PEM cert for curl or wget
openssl x509 -inform der -in certs.der -out certs.pem
NOTE: you still need to have the x509 certificate in the ~/.ignition/clientlauncher-data/certificates directory
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