Ignition features several launchable runtimes: Vision Clients, the Designer, and Perspective Sessions. To help with managing these separate systems, Ignition Gateways provide several "launcher" programs for each runtime. These launchers are the main means of launching an Ignition runtime application. For the purposes of clarify, the following are considered "Launchers":
- Designer Launcher - launches the Designer against the configured Gateway.
- Vision Client Launcher - opens Vision Clients from an Ignition Gateway.
- Perspective Workstation - opens Perspective sessions from an Ignition Gateway, in a standalone desktop program.
The application launchers and Perspective Workstation mentioned above, all download, install and configure their property settings in the same way. Some property settings are unique to a specific launcher application and will be detailed on that specific launcher application's page.
This page describes the download and installation process common to the launcher applications and Perspective Workstation, as well as the common property settings.
What Is an Application?
To understand the purpose of a Launcher, we need to understand what an application is. An Application is a configuration in a launcher which is associated with a project.
Below we see the Designer Launcher, which is the launcher for the Designer. The launcher has two Applications configured: one titled "Local Gateway", and the other titled "Production Gateway". Selecting either application and clicking "Open Designer" will launch the Designer for the gateway selected.
The Vision Client Launcher and Perspective Workstation work under a similar pattern, except each application represents a project in a gateway. Multiple projects from a single gateway can be represented in a launcher. In the image below, there is a "Welcome Portal" application under the Production gateway, while the University gateway features two applications each leading to a different project.
Launcher Download and Installation
This section demonstrates the common download and installation steps for all the launcher applications. Each launcher application has an install wizard that will guide you through the installation process. The installation steps are common for all the launchers with a few exceptions depending on the operating system you're using.
For the sake of brevity, this section will focus on installing the Designer Launcher, but the steps for installing the Vision Client Launcher and Perspective Workstation are all very similar.
- Go to the Home tab of the Gateway webpage. You will see buttons that lead to separate download pages for each of the launchers. Click the desired button and you'll be redirected. We'll click on Download Designer Launcher.
- Your web browser will detect the operating system, and suggest the appropriate download for the Download button. Press the button to download the installer for the launcher.
- Locate the installer on your local system (web browser typically store downloaded files in a "Downloads" folder), and run it.
Work through the install wizard. There are only a handful of options in the installer:
Whether or not to create a desktop icon
The installation directory for the launcher.
If this is a first time install, the Designer Launcher wizard has an additional step. It will prompt you to select the install mode. Installing locally installs the launcher in the user's AppData\Roaming folder whereas 'all users' installs it in Program Files.
To install the Designer Launcher application, drag the Designer Launcher icon to the Applications folder.
At this point, if you're presented with an error stating that the system is unable to open the installer, take a look at our Knowledge Base Article.
Extract the contents of the 'tar.gz' file to your desired install location.
Navigate to your install folder, and click the 'designerlauncher.desktop' file. A message box may popup about the launcher application being an untrusted application. Click Trust and Launch.
Once the installation process reaches its end, click Finish.
- The Designer Launcher will open, allowing you to start adding applications.
Upgrading Launchers
Whenever an Application is launched from a Launcher, the Launcher will check to see if it needs an update. If the Gateway containing launched application is several revisions ahead of the Launcher, the Launcher will provide a popup notifying you that an update is available.
However manual upgrades can be performed. Simply download and run a new launcher installer from a more recent Ignition Gateway. During installation, simply set the installation directory to the same directory as the old launcher.
Adding Applications
The process for adding Applications/Designers to the Designer Launcher is very similar to adding Applications to the Vision Client Launcher and Perspective Workstation. This section demonstrates how to add new Applications.
The following Designer Launcher example is used to show how to add applications for the Designer and Vision Client Launchers and the Perspective Workstation.
- With the launcher open, click the Add Designer button.
- The launcher will browse and list all the available Gateways on your network. Select from any of the available gateways and press the Add Designer or Select Gateway button depending on which Launcher you are using.
If you don't see the Gateway you're looking for, but know the IP address, you can enter it manually. Click the Manual tab and enter the Gateway URL. It will inform you if you have a valid host name. If so, click Add Designer or Select Gateway depending what launcher application you are are using.
- If you're adding an Application to the Vision Client Launcher or Perspective Workstation, you'll have this extra step where you can select from any of the available projects on the Gateway. Select the desired projects, then click Add Application(s).
Once added, the new Applications will appear on the starting screen of the Launcher.
Launcher Settings
Each Launcher has its own settings. To access the settings on a Launcher, click Settings on the top right of any launcher window.
The Settings popup window will appear, listing settings for the Launcher to use. There are some shared settings, such as those under the General tab. 
Property Settings
The following tables represent common property settings in the Designer Launcher, Vision Client Launcher and Perspective Workstation. There are a few settings that are unique to each launcher application and are addressed on the specific application launcher page.
General Property Settings
| General Settings - for the Design Launcher, Vision Client Launcher and Perspective Workstation | ||
|---|---|---|
| Property Setting | Description | JSON Name |
| Default Application | When set, the Launcher will attempt to automatically launch the specified Application on Launcher startup. If left blank/null, an Application will not automatically start | default.application |
| Logging Level | Level of logging that will be used for the launcher. Useful for our support team, but can be used to help troubleshoot problems with the launcher. | logger.level |
| Multicast Address | The address that will be used to listen for multicast broadcasts from Gateways. | multicast.address |
| Multicast Port | The port that will be used to listen for multicast broadcasts from Gateways. | multicast.receive.port |
| Auto Exit on Launch | Automatically close the launcher window when an Application is started. | autoexit |
Default Property Settings
| Default Settings - for the Designer Launcher and Vision Client Launcher | ||
|---|---|---|
| Property Setting | Description | JSON Name |
| Timeout | Maximum number of seconds allowed for any Gateway communication. Any communication that exceeds this amount will cause the Launcher to abort and try again (if multiple retries are configured). | timeout |
| Retries | The number of times the Launcher will to attempt to contact a gateway when launching an application. Available values are:
| retries |
| Initial Heap | Amount of heap memory to be allocated to the application on startup. | init.heap |
| Max Heap | Maximum amount of heap memory allocated to the application. | max.heap |
| JVM Arguments | Arguments to append to client startup. These should start with a '-D' and be separated by semi-colons. Mostly used by our support teams to aid with troubleshooting. | jvm.arguments |
Security Certificates
The launchers are able to trust certificates from each Gateway. Normally this is an automated process: if you launch an application from a host Gateway that requires the use of Security Certificates, the launcher will attempt to retrieve the certificate details, and ask you to trust the certificates. If you have certificates from the gateway, you can manually add them to to the launcher from the Trusted Certificates tab of the Launcher's settings by clicking the Add 
icon.
When the launcher is aware of security certificates, you can use the Trusted Certificates screen to delete or export the certificates with the Delete 
icon and click the Export
icon, respectively.
The directory where the Trusted Certificates are stored is under:
|
Certificates Signed by a Certified Authority
When the Gateway's SSL certificates are signed by a recognized Certificate Authority, no additional configuration is required on the launcher.
Options Menu
There is a "three dot menu" on the applications in each of the launchers and Perspective Workstation. When you click on the three dots, a dropdown list appears. There are five options available.
Launcher Options Table
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Manage | Allows you to configure/update property settings for your application. These properties are unique to each launcher application. |
| Create Shortcut | Creates a shortcut of the application and shows up as an icon on your desktop. |
| Add to Favorites | Creates a Favorite in your application and puts it under the Favorites tab located in the upper right corner. Your application is marked with a star icon denoting a Favorite. |
| Export | Exports the application launcher and configuration settings to a JSON file. It defaults to the application name and you provide the folder path. |
| Delete | Deletes/removes the application name from the launcher application. |
To view the property settings under the Manage option, refer to the specific launcher application: Designer Launcher, Vision Client Launcher, and Perspective Workstation. |
Windows Silent Installations
The Designer Launcher, Vision Client Launcher and Perspective Workstation can be installed on Windows systems from command Iine without any user prompts.
# Shows a simplified user interface C:\Users\user\Downloads\VisionClientLauncherSetup.exe /CURRENTUSER /SILENT # Shows no user interface at all. C:\Users\user\Downloads\VisionClientLauncherSetup.exe /CURRENTUSER /VERYSILENT # The following option installs silently without installing a desktop shortcut C:\Users\user\Downloads\VisionClientLauncherSetup.exe /CURRENTUSER /VERYSILENT /MERGETASKS="!desktopicon" |
Commands above are taken from: https://jrsoftware.org/ishelp/index.php?topic=setupcmdline |
Using ALLUSERS may trigger a check from User Account Controls, so you may need administrator access for the following command to offer a truly silent installation:
|
Hosted Launcher Installers
Normally, each Ignition Gateway includes files for the various launchers. When you download a launcher from a Gateway, it simply streams its local launcher files. However, you can override this behavior, causing the Gateway to ignore it's local launcher files and instead download launchers from the internet. For more information, see the Gateway Configuration File Reference page.
If you simply wanted to download one of our hosted launchers, without modifying your Gateway's configuration file, you can download them directly from your web browser:
https://files.inductiveautomation.com/launchers/VERSION/LAUNCHER |
Where VERSION is the Ignition version (i.e., 8.1.0), and LAUNCHER is the name of the launcher. Launcher names are listed below.
| Launcher | Operating System | Launcher Name |
|---|---|---|
| Vision Client | Windows | visionclientlauncher.exe |
| Vision Client | Linux | visionclientlauncher.tar.gz |
| Vision Client | macOS | visionclientlauncher.dmg |
| Perspective Workstation | Windows | perspectiveworkstation.exe |
| Perspective Workstation | Linux | perspectiveworkstation.tar.gz |
| Perspective Workstation | macOS | perspectiveworkstation.dmg |
| Designer | Windows | designerlauncher.exe |
| Designer | Linux | designerlauncher.tar.gz |
| Designer | macOS | designerlauncher.dmg |
For example, the following would download an 8.1.0 version of Perspective Workstation for Windows:
https://files.inductiveautomation.com/launchers/8.1.0/perspectiveworkstation.exe |