One of the core promises of Kanoa MES is flexibility.
We deliver a powerful out-of-the-box manufacturing platform — but we also know that every plant is different. Systems integrators and implementation teams need the ability to adapt workflows, extend functionality, override screens, and build custom logic on top of a strong foundation.
That openness is intentional. It’s what makes Kanoa MES a practical solution across discrete, batch, and continuous manufacturing environments.
But that same flexibility comes with a real-world engineering tradeoff:
When you customize software deeply, platform updates matter.
And sometimes, even with careful design, updates can impact overridden resources, custom scripts, or integrations.
That’s exactly why we introduced a new feature in Kanoa MES v1.14:
The Keyword Search Utility is a new upgrade-support tool designed specifically to help integrators and engineering teams:
identify potential upgrade risks early
locate impacted customizations quickly
avoid surprises in production
modernize implementations safely as the platform evolves
As Kanoa MES continues to expand to support broader manufacturing paradigms — including batch and continuous processes — we’ve had to make some important refactoring improvements in the core platform.
Most installations will upgrade seamlessly.
But if you’ve overridden certain views or written custom scripts using specific system functions, you may want to take a closer look before deploying an update.
The Keyword Search Utility helps you do exactly that.
Systems integrators live in the real world of manufacturing software deployment:
Custom dashboards
Plant-specific workflows
Specialized equipment integration
Modified operator experiences
Scripts written months (or years) ago
Production environments that cannot afford downtime
When platforms evolve, integrators need confidence that upgrades won’t unintentionally break critical functionality.
We always work hard to avoid introducing breaking changes.
But sometimes changes are necessary:
paying down technical debt
correcting long-standing bugs
improving consistency across APIs
enabling new manufacturing capabilities
keeping the platform modern, secure, and maintainable
The Keyword Search Utility exists because we recognize that reality.
It’s part of making Kanoa MES a platform you can build on long-term — not just install once.
The utility scans your Ignition environment for specific keywords that indicate:
a view override may be affected
a system function signature has changed
a customization may require attention after upgrading
It’s essentially a deep upgrade compatibility check across:
projects
scripts
overridden views
tags and resources in Designer
Instead of upgrading first and discovering issues later, you can proactively answer:
“Did we customize anything that might be impacted by this release?”
A great example from the v1.14 release involves a broader internal standard we’ve been adopting across Kanoa APIs:
Many Kanoa system functions now return tuples so they can provide both:
a result value
a failure or status message
This improves error handling and makes integrations more robust.
However, not every legacy function had been updated yet.
In v1.14, we corrected several functions, including:
system.kanoa.item.addItemUnit
system.kanoa.asset.addAssetType
system.kanoa.asset.updateAssetType
These functions now return tuples instead of single values.
Out of the box, the kanoaAPP project is already updated, so baseline functionality continues to work normally.
But imagine you’ve built a custom screen that includes code like:
result = system.kanoa.item.addItemUnit(...)
If your script expected a single return value, but now receives a tuple, that customization may throw an error after upgrading.
That’s the exact kind of subtle issue that can be difficult to catch manually — especially in large implementations.
Instead of discovering this change after deploying to production, the Keyword Search Utility allows you to scan for impacted references ahead of time.
For v1.14, the utility flags keywords such as:
'oeeType' → replaced with 'oeeEnabled'
system.kanoa.item.addItemUnit → now returns a tuple
system.kanoa.asset.addAssetType → now returns a tuple
system.kanoa.asset.updateAssetType → now returns a tuple
The goal is simple:
Find the customizations that might need adjustment before they become runtime failures.
As noted in the release announcement, this utility was introduced alongside the update itself, meaning it cannot be run prior to installing v1.14.
That’s why we strongly recommend:
upgrading a development or staging environment first
running the utility immediately after update
addressing flagged customizations
validating workflows before production deployment
If you are updating production directly (not recommended), you should manually review custom scripts and overrides inside Ignition Designer.
At Kanoa, we believe that a modern MES platform must do two things well:
Deliver immediate value out of the box
Remain open and composable for real-world manufacturing needs
That openness enables powerful customization — but it also means upgrades must be handled responsibly.
The Keyword Search Utility is one of the tools we’re building to make those transitions easier:
more transparency
fewer upgrade surprises
faster troubleshooting
safer deployments
Because continuous improvement is part of what you’re buying into with Kanoa MES.
If you're upgrading from a previous version and would like support reviewing your implementation, we’re happy to help.
Submit a support ticket and our team can assist with:
override validation
script updates
upgrade planning
best practices for dev/test/prod rollout
The Keyword Search Utility is a small feature with a big purpose:
helping integrators build confidently on a platform that continues to evolve.
We’re excited to keep delivering improvements — and even more excited to provide tools that make those improvements easier to adopt.