HMI project broken via gitignore file on M172

[obscuresc]

Hi all,

I've been using Git for version control with EcoStruxure Machine Expert - HVAC for a while and I've been gradually integrated a good ignore file. However, I've recently run into an issue with a fresh clone that won't open any of the HMI project in the Display tab i.e no project details appear.

Below is the ignore details for the project in question.

Spoiler

# build files
**/Build
**/*.bin
**/*.a
**/*.CFN

# download files
**/Download

# doc images
*/HMI/docImages

# previous versions
**/PreviousVersions

# workspace file
**/*.wkpx

# USB files
USBCWDXHybrid_28IO
USBCWDXHybrid_42IO

# backups
**/Backup
**/ChangeTargetBackup

# simulation files
**/*.imgx.simul
**/*.WKSX

What have I ignored that would have caused this?

Also, are there any other files I can safely ignore?

Cheers,

Jack

[Anonymous user]

I'm sorry not answering you instead asking, but I really want to know more for what reason and how you ignore something in the project?

[obscuresc]

Hi @Anonymous user 

Git allows you to specify an ignore file ".gitignore", documentation is below.

https://git-scm.com/docs/gitignore

EcoStruxure builds a significant amount of build files during its compilation and also maintains a backup process. Many of these files are recognised as binaries and cannot use the standard diff process; typically storing file changes as being a completely new file. This results in huge commits and I think generally recognised as being bad practice to commit build files.

Cheers,

Jack

[Anonymous user]

Hi @obscuresc ,

Thank you for the exploration! This is very interesting, I'll go through this topic at my leisure.

[obscuresc · Accepted solution]

Hi all,

I solved this issue.

On load of the project, the HMI output tab indicated that one of the PLK files for a bitmap was missing.

While the PLK was not ignored, it also was not tracked by Git.

On retrieval of this file, the project would load correctly.

Thanks.

[Bastian_Schmitz]

Thanks for the additional information. That will help other people which would work with GIThub a lot. I think in that case you have always to look that you update your files in the case you work with image files. Every imported image file will be saved as seperate *.PLK file. That is the internal Image format of ESME HVAC - Display.

[obscuresc]

Hi @Bastian_Schmitz 

No worries. I can't recall if I specifically didn't stage the files or if I had, at one point, ignored them.

Are there any other files that I've missed that I can safely ignore?

In particular, the *.RSM file is quite large and is treated as a binary blob.

Thanks,

Jack

[obscuresc]

There is an additional cause for projects to fail to open.

On update of EcoStruxure, new BIOS versions will release new HMI files *.tgt, and *.def, for example

FreeAdvance_HMI_596p9.def

vs

FreeAdvance_HMI_596p11.def

If the new BIOS tgt, def are not tracked. The project cannot be functionally cloned to an alternate system; you can download the repo, but the project won't open.