Good day,
I’m writing this message out of frustration regarding the current way project files are saved as encrypted XML and single-file format in CODESYS. I find this approach to be quite tedious for several reasons:
Limited Access to Structured Text: Not being able to access Structured Text (ST) externally makes it impossible to work with alternative editors like VSCode. Tools like VSCode are incredibly responsive and feature advanced systems such as GitHub Copilot, which would be a real game-changer when working with ST IEC. While CODESYS works well for small code snippets or debugging, when the codebase grows, switching to VSCode to boost productivity becomes essential, and copy-pasting between environments is a cumbersome workaround.
Poor Integration with Git: This file format also makes it very difficult to integrate effectively with Git. I have tested the internal demo, but for advanced merges, it is unusable. Without properly formatted plain text, it’s impossible to leverage the vast ecosystem of external tools around Git that allow smooth merges in heterogeneous teams.
File Corruption on Network Drives: I often work from multiple locations with shared network drives. When the development environment saves a file and something goes wrong midway (which can occasionally happen when using VPNs and network drives), the entire project becomes irrecoverable. There’s no way to cancel the save process, and the development environment freezes. This has happened to me at least four times over the past two weeks, and one of those incidents cost me an entire day of work.
All of this is particularly disappointing because I truly believe that the libraries, runtime, and overall work done by CODESYS are exceptional. I find it fantastic that there is a platform allowing development of PLCs and control systems using OOP, which is a huge advantage in modern control engineering.
I apologize for the rant, but this issue has been extremely frustrating.
Best regards.
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It will be an Add-On feature called "File Based Storage" for the professional developer edition. Structured text POUs will be stored as plain text. Other graphical languages will remain in an xml format. You will be able to switch the storage type for projects.
Certain workflows will become easier this way. Nevertheless restrictions will remain because of CODESYS specific storage logic (for example how methods below function blocks are stored as file). So merging using our Git Integration Add-On remains the recommended workflow. A workflow involving Visual Studio Code as the main IDE is not supported. Simply because many topics like library management, task configuration or fieldbus configurators are not available for VS Code. A PLC project is a lot more than just some ST POUs.
Best Regards
👍
1
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
Good day,
I’m writing this message out of frustration regarding the current way project files are saved as encrypted XML and single-file format in CODESYS. I find this approach to be quite tedious for several reasons:
Limited Access to Structured Text: Not being able to access Structured Text (ST) externally makes it impossible to work with alternative editors like VSCode. Tools like VSCode are incredibly responsive and feature advanced systems such as GitHub Copilot, which would be a real game-changer when working with ST IEC. While CODESYS works well for small code snippets or debugging, when the codebase grows, switching to VSCode to boost productivity becomes essential, and copy-pasting between environments is a cumbersome workaround.
Poor Integration with Git: This file format also makes it very difficult to integrate effectively with Git. I have tested the internal demo, but for advanced merges, it is unusable. Without properly formatted plain text, it’s impossible to leverage the vast ecosystem of external tools around Git that allow smooth merges in heterogeneous teams.
File Corruption on Network Drives: I often work from multiple locations with shared network drives. When the development environment saves a file and something goes wrong midway (which can occasionally happen when using VPNs and network drives), the entire project becomes irrecoverable. There’s no way to cancel the save process, and the development environment freezes. This has happened to me at least four times over the past two weeks, and one of those incidents cost me an entire day of work.
All of this is particularly disappointing because I truly believe that the libraries, runtime, and overall work done by CODESYS are exceptional. I find it fantastic that there is a platform allowing development of PLCs and control systems using OOP, which is a huge advantage in modern control engineering.
I apologize for the rant, but this issue has been extremely frustrating.
Best regards.
Hi,
supporting a text based storage format is on our roadmap, see https://www.codesys.com/the-system/releases-updates-lifecycle/release-plan-roadmap.html
It will be an Add-On feature called "File Based Storage" for the professional developer edition. Structured text POUs will be stored as plain text. Other graphical languages will remain in an xml format. You will be able to switch the storage type for projects.
Certain workflows will become easier this way. Nevertheless restrictions will remain because of CODESYS specific storage logic (for example how methods below function blocks are stored as file). So merging using our Git Integration Add-On remains the recommended workflow. A workflow involving Visual Studio Code as the main IDE is not supported. Simply because many topics like library management, task configuration or fieldbus configurators are not available for VS Code. A PLC project is a lot more than just some ST POUs.
Best Regards