Ignition Vision vs Perspective: clients, screen building, security, licensing and which module to choose

Ignition has two modules for operator screens, and both run on the same Gateway. Vision Clients are Java programs that a PC starts with the Vision Client Launcher. Perspective Sessions run in a web browser, in the Ignition Perspective mobile app or in Perspective Workstation. The Ignition 8.3 user manual recommends Perspective for almost all new projects and keeps Vision for traditional plant-floor and desktop screens. This article compares the two from the 8.3 manual: clients, screen building, security, licensing and what each needs on the client side. For Ignition as a whole, see What is Ignition.

1. Two modules on one Gateway

The manual describes Perspective as an Ignition module on the same platform as Vision, with access to the same tags, database connections, reports and security. The Gateway holds what all projects share: device and database connections, tags and alarms. Projects hold the screens, Vision windows or Perspective views. A Gateway can hold any number of projects, but each Vision Client, Perspective Session or Designer works on one project at a time. The manual's own guidance speaks of choosing Perspective, Vision or both.

The two runtimes are built in a similar way. A Vision Client runs on a Java runtime on the user's computer; a Perspective Session runs in a web browser, which plays the same role of executing code, drawing the screen and talking to the Gateway. Perspective adds Android and iOS to the Windows, macOS and Linux that both support.

2. Vision: a desktop client started by a launcher

The Vision Client Launcher is downloaded from the Gateway webpage, under Home, Vision, Download. Installers exist for Windows (.exe and .msi), Linux and macOS. The .msi installers support transforms and Group Policy, and the Windows installers also run silently from the command line, which helps when many operator PCs are set up at once.

In the launcher, each application points to one project on one Gateway, with the Gateway address written as http or https, host and port. An application can open in a window or full screen, on a chosen monitor. Points the manual raises for the client PC:

• The Vision Client, the Designer and Perspective Workstation cannot run on ARM-based Linux machines.
• On Linux, the Vision Client Launcher needs an X11 session; the manual cites a known limitation between Swing, the toolkit it uses, and Wayland.
• By default the launcher's signature check refuses Gateways at version 8.1.33 or older.
• With a redundant Gateway pair, the launcher stores the backup address and tries it when the master does not answer.
• Local Client Fallback lets a Vision Client switch to a small project on a Gateway installed on the same PC when the central Gateway is lost. It needs port 6501 open on that PC and waits 60 seconds by default.

When a Vision Client loses the Gateway, it shows a Connection Lost message and keeps trying to reconnect. Client logs exist only at runtime, in the Diagnostics window under Help.

3. Perspective: browser, mobile app or Workstation

A Perspective Session is one instance of a project running in a browser or the mobile app. Like a website login, several browser tabs can share one session. A session can be started from the Designer, from the Gateway webpage, by typing the project address, from Perspective Workstation or from the mobile app. The project address has the form /data/perspective/client/ followed by the project name, on port 8088 for HTTP or 8043 for HTTPS.

For Ignition 8.3.0 the manual lists the minimum browsers it tests: Chrome 92, Firefox 90, Safari 15.4 and Edge 92. Other browsers may work but are not tested.

The Ignition Perspective Mobile App comes from the Google Play Store or the App Store. It can use the device camera, accelerometer and NFC scanner, and with Offline Mode enabled a project stays usable when the device loses the Gateway. Enterprise mobile management tools can push settings such as auto-launch and preventing exit.

Perspective Workstation is a desktop program that works as a launcher and a wrapper for sessions. It runs in Windowed mode or in full-screen Kiosk mode, which limits access to the operating system, and it can open a different page on each monitor. It launches sessions only from Gateways at 8.1 or newer, needs a 64-bit operating system and does not run on ARM. Like the Vision launcher, it tries the backup Gateway when the master is unavailable.

4. How screens are built

In Vision, the window is the building block. There is one window object; its properties make it a main window that fills the screen, a popup that floats on top, or a docked window fixed to one edge, often for navigation. Every window has a root container. Repeated graphics are built as templates: a change to the master template reaches every instance, and template parameters, for example a motor number or a UDT, point each instance to its own tags.

In Perspective, the view is the building block. Each view has exactly one root container, and its type is chosen when the view is created and cannot be changed later. The container types are Coordinate (the default), Flex, Column, Breakpoint, Split and Tab. A Coordinate container behaves much like a Vision window with X, Y, width and height; set to Percent mode it resembles Vision's relative layout. A Breakpoint container shows two different views depending on the session width. Navigation is by pages: a page has a URL, one primary view and any docked views, so the browser's back and forward buttons work.

The manual maps the concepts like this:

Perspective properties are JSON: values, arrays and objects. Any binding can pass through transforms, for example mapping 0 and 1 to green and red. The manual states there is no plan for one-to-one parity between Vision and Perspective components, so we treat moving a Vision project to Perspective as a screen redesign.

5. Security and sign-in

Ignition 8.3 offers two authentication strategies. The Classic strategy uses user sources (internal, SQL database or Active Directory) and applies to the Designer and Vision only. The Identity Provider strategy authenticates against a trusted third party through OpenID Connect or SAML, and Ignition can also act as an identity provider for isolated systems.

A Vision project selects its strategy in project properties. With Classic, Required Client Roles can block the whole client; with an identity provider, its security levels are converted into Vision roles and zones, which needs user attribute mapping. Security settings apply to single components or whole windows, and client permissions such as building database queries are disabled by default. The Vision security page reads the same in the 8.1 manual.

Perspective security is managed through identity providers. The provider is chosen per project, and security levels can then be required for the session, for individual views and for component event actions. Security levels are hierarchical, so a user with a more specific level inherits the more general one.

On two-factor authentication and federated identities, the 8.3 Perspective and Vision guidance says both modules support them, and the 8.3 Projects page recommends Perspective when they are needed.

6. Licensing, as the manual describes it

Ignition is licensed per server, with unlimited clients. The Vision module page says it includes unlimited clients per central server and mentions a limited Vision version for systems that need only a handful of clients. The Application Building Suite contains Perspective and Reporting. On Ignition Edge, only Edge Panel has visualisation, with a choice of Perspective (two sessions) or Vision (one local and one remote client). In the two-hour trial, Vision Clients must log out and back in after the timer is reset.

7. The two side by side

What TDL checks first

These are our working habits before choosing between Vision and Perspective, not Inductive Automation requirements:

• We check the operator stations: how many, which operating system and processor, how many monitors each, and whether they must run locked in full screen.
• We check whether anyone needs the screens on phones or tablets, with the camera or barcode scanning, or without a network.
• We check the size of an existing Vision project: windows, templates and client scripts that use files, serial ports or custom Java, which keep a project on Vision.
• We check the browser policy: which browsers and versions IT allows on plant PCs, and whether installing the launcher or Workstation is permitted.
• We check the network path: ports 8088 and 8043, the HTTPS certificate, any reverse proxy, which must pass Perspective's WebSocket connections, and port 6501 where local fallback is used.
• We check where users sign in today, which decides between a user source and an identity provider.

How TDL approaches it

TDL Industrial Automation is an Ignition Certified Integrator. Many plants we work in already run another HMI/SCADA, so the screen choice is made together with the migration path; see Legacy HMI/SCADA migration paths and, for the wider picture, What is SCADA. More on these services: Ignition SCADA integrator in Vietnam and SCADA and historian.