Resolving Ignition Designer 7.8 Stuck in Window Editor

You click a script in the Project tree and the node highlights, but the Designer stays in the Window editor. The Script editor never comes up. Normally the layout changes the moment you click a script or window resource. When this fault hits, it keeps failing until you close and reopen the Designer.

Reported on Designer 7.8.0 (b2015101414) and on 7.9.0, across more than one system. It shows up intermittently, with no known trigger sequence. Updating to 7.9.2 cleared it for a user who had been restarting the Designer repeatedly on 7.9.0.

Skip these fixes: re-clicking, Un-float All, closing the floating frame

These are the usual first moves. Each one either does nothing or makes the session worse.

• Clicking the script again, or double-clicking harder. The tree selection already worked. The failure happens after selection, when the Designer should switch workspaces. Repeating the click fires the same failed switch.
• Using Un-float All to reset the layout. On 7.8.0, one user saw Un-float All do nothing. Unfloating a single tab only moved it to the end of the tab list, and did not restore normal switching. You cannot count on it to reset a broken layout.
• Closing the floating script frame with the X. This is the worst option. After a user closed a floated script editor window with the X, they could not open the Script editor again in that session. Now your workaround is gone as well.
• Searching for an existing bug ticket before you have repro steps. No open ticket matched this description when it was first raised. Development could not reproduce it on the 7.8.1 release candidate. A report with no repro steps gives nobody anything to act on.

What works right away is a Designer restart. Save first.

Why the workspace switch stalls after the tree selection

The Designer uses a separate workspace for each resource type. Windows open in the window editing workspace and scripts open in the script workspace. A click in the Project tree does two things:

1. It selects the resource node in the tree.
2. It tells the Designer to activate the workspace that owns that resource type, then load the resource into it.

This fault breaks step 2. The selection event completes, so the node highlights. The workspace activation never happens, so the main frame keeps showing the Window editor. Once the Designer's docking and layout state gets into that condition, it stays there. Every later script click fails the same way, because nothing in the running session resets that state.

That explains why a restart fixes it. Reopening the Designer rebuilds the workspace and docking layout from scratch. It also explains why a closed floating frame stays gone: once you close it, it is no longer in the live layout, and the broken session cannot recreate it.

The root trigger was never isolated. Two points narrow it down:

• A developer testing 7.8.1 RC on macOS could not get the Designer stuck in either floated or docked mode, and Un-float All worked as designed there. The affected users may have been on Windows. That makes OS-dependent layout behavior a live possibility.
• The fault reappeared in 7.9.0 and was gone after an update to 7.9.2. A fix or side-effect change landed somewhere in that range.

Match the Designer symptom to the cause

Recover the stuck session without losing script edits

Do these in order. Saving comes first, because closing the Designer throws away unsaved changes.

1. Check that the rest of the Designer still responds. The tree still takes clicks, so the UI thread is alive. It is a layout fault, not a hang.
2. Save the project. Commit any open window and script edits before you do anything else.
3. Write down the last few actions you took before the switch failed: which resource was open, whether any tabs were floated, whether you had closed a tab or frame. That list is your repro data (see the support section below).
4. Close the Designer completely and relaunch it from the Gateway or launcher.
5. Click a script in the Project tree. The Script editor should open right away. Then click a window and confirm the layout switches back to the Window editor.

Restarting fixes it most of the time. If it comes back within the same session, restart again. There is no in-session reset that works reliably.

Keep window and script editors open with Float All

The workaround the software team pointed to also covers the original feature request: seeing the Window editor and Script editor at the same time.

1. Open a script in the Script editor while the Designer is working normally (restart first if needed).
2. Right-click the tab of the script you are editing.
3. Select Float All. The script tabs move into a separate floating frame.
4. Go back to the Project tree and open your window. The Window editor fills the main area and the scripts stay editable in the floating frame.
5. Move the floating frame to a second monitor if you have one.

Follow these rules while you rely on it:

• Do not close the floating frame with its X button. On 7.8.0 that left the Script editor impossible to reopen until the next restart.
• Don't count on Un-float All to redock on the affected build. Plan to keep scripts floated until you close the Designer.
• If you can't find Float All (one 7.9.0 user couldn't), right-click directly on an open script's tab, not on the tree node or the editor body. If it isn't on the tab menu of your build either, upgrading is your remaining option.

Upgrade to 7.9.2 and confirm the switch holds

This is the only permanent fix on record. A user who restarted the Designer many times on 7.9.0 saw the problem stop after updating to 7.9.2. Before upgrading a production Gateway, check the release notes for your target version and your module compatibility against the manufacturer's documentation.

After the upgrade, confirm the fix under the same kind of workload that used to trigger it:

1. Launch the Designer and check the build in the About dialog, so you know you are not running a cached old client.
2. Switch back and forth several times between a window and a script in the Project tree. Each click should change the workspace right away.
3. Float the script tabs with Float All, then use Un-float All. The tabs should return to the main Designer workspace.
4. Work a normal editing session with the floated frame open and with it docked. Include whatever you were doing when the fault used to appear.
5. If the Designer stays in the Window editor even once after a script click, treat the upgrade as not having fixed it on this workstation and move on to repro capture.

Capture a repro that support can act on

What this bug needs is a repeatable sequence. The software team asked for exactly that: "after doing X, the editor sticks." Without it, the issue can't be isolated. Collect the following the next time it happens:

• Exact Designer version and build, e.g. 7.8.0 (b2015101414), from the About dialog.
• Operating system on the Designer workstation. The fault could not be reproduced on macOS, so Windows vs macOS is a key data point.
• Java runtime version the Designer is launched with.
• Layout state at the moment of failure: script tabs docked or floated, how many windows and scripts open, whether any frame was closed with X earlier in the session.
• The last 3-5 actions before the switch failed, in order.
• Designer console / log output captured before you restart. Look for exceptions logged at the moment the script click failed, since a thrown exception during workspace activation would produce exactly this symptom. Copy it out before closing, because a restart clears the live console.

Then try to repeat the sequence on purpose after a fresh restart. Once it fails twice from the same steps, you have a reproducible defect report.

FAQ