LESSON

The Designer Launcher

Description

Learn how to launch Designer instances easily using the Designer Launcher.

Video recorded using: Ignition 8.1

Transcript

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[00:00] In Ignition, Designers are launched using the Ignition Designer Launcher, which can be downloaded and installed from the Gateway Webpage. In the upper right-hand corner of the webpage, there is a "Get Designer" button. Similarly, on the Home tab, there is a Download Ignition Designer Launcher button. Both avenues take us to a page where we can download the designer launcher itself. You'll notice that the gateway automatically detected that I'm on a Windows computer and in the upper right-hand corner provides a button for me to download the Designer Launcher for Windows. Alternatively, on the right-hand side, I can download Designer Launchers for other operating systems as well. I'm going to go ahead and download the Designer Launcher for Windows, and then run it to install the launcher. A setup wizard guides us through the installation process where we can choose an installation location. And whether we want to create a desktop shortcut for our Designer Launcher. When we hit the Install button, the setup wizard is going to go ahead and install. And once it's finished, we can go ahead and click the Finish button and it will automatically launch the Designer Launcher for me. Once it launches, I'm able to add a designer. It is important to understand that each ignition gateway will have a designer associated with it. The designer being the doorway to designing projects and an ignition gateway. When I select to add a designer, we see a list of gateways. Generally, the Designer Launcher will automatically detect gateways you can see in our network. In my case, I have two gateways listed, I will select my local gateway and press the Add Designer button. After I do this, my designer will be listed and I will have the chance to open it. Adding a new designer here simply allows me to have two designers that I can launch each from a separate gateway. Once the designer opens, I will be asked to authenticate against the identity provider configured for gateway authentication. I click on the Log In button, and I'm redirected to a web browser page for authentication. Once I authenticate, I will see some texts telling me that my authentication was successful. And to return to my designer, where I will now have access to all the projects hosted by this Ignition gateway. At this point, I can open whichever project I want, and I can begin making changes to it. As you can see, the Designer Launcher is not specific to one gateway, and can be used for every gateway within your network. Because the Designer Launcher is an application that's installed on your computer, there's no need to redownload it every time from the Ignition gateway. You simply need to run the Designer Launcher when you want to launch the designer. In the Settings tab, you can configure some basic settings about your Designer Launcher. Two of them in particular are really interesting. The default designer property allows you to select a designer that you want to launch when you first open the Designer Launcher. The launcher will then go ahead and open that designer automatically without you having to click on the Launch button. The other property Auto Exit on launch will automatically close the Designer Launcher whenever you launch a designer. Finally on the bottom, you have the ability to export or import launcher configurations. This makes it really easy to send out launcher configurations to someone else within your network.

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