ION basics - ION Manual

The basics every ION user needs

The basics every ION user needs before diving into their role’s workflows: where you land after signing in, how to find anything, personal setup, and where to get help.

The dashboard

When you sign in, ION opens the dashboard. This is the landing page for your account. It shows a Factory Dashboard header with two controls:

• ION Marketplace: opens the ION Marketplace in a new tab.
• Refresh: reloads the dashboard.

You can return here at any time from Dashboard in the sidebar. To move into your work, use Search or the sidebar.

The dashboard shows a placeholder in place of factory metrics.

Browser and device compatibility

Supported devices

ION is tested and supported on:

• iPads (up to two major iOS versions before the latest release)
• Microsoft Surface Pro
• Mac computers (laptops and desktops)
• Windows computers (laptops and desktops)

ION is built for tablets and desktop-sized monitors. Some areas may work on mobile, but the full application is not supported on mobile devices.

Supported browsers

ION is tested primarily on Google Chrome. Edge, Firefox, and Safari are also supported.

Search

ION Search lets you navigate and find records from anywhere in ION. Open it from any page with Ctrl+K (Windows/Linux) or ⌘+K (Mac), or click the magnifying glass in the sidebar. Navigate the bar with the arrow keys and press Enter to select. Close it by clicking outside the popup, pressing the same key combination, or pressing Escape. You can find main pages, help documents, and specific records within ION.

Command list

When you open the search bar, it shows a list of commands. Click See More in the top right to see the full list, and navigate it with the mouse or keyboard.

The key combinations shown on each command are keyboard shortcuts. You can run them without opening the search bar.

Search records

Search also does keyword search of ION records like runs, procedures, issues, locations, purchases, and parts. It runs automatically as you type.

Help docs

Scroll to the Help section of the command bar to browse the manual. You can also search the manual directly by typing your query into the command bar.

Chat support and tickets

The chat bubble at the bottom right of ION connects you to the support team, and every conversation becomes a tracked ticket.

Start a chat

1. Click the chat bubble icon at the bottom right of your ION environment.
2. Select Start New Chat.
3. Type the details of your issue and send the message.

ION creates a support ticket from the conversation automatically.

Track your company’s tickets

To see the tickets reported by your company’s team, go to the support portal:

1. Enter your email address to receive a login code. The code scopes the portal to your company’s tickets only.
2. Enter the code and click Continue.

You land on a page listing every conversation started by ION users at your company. Click a ticket to open the conversation; you can continue a ticket started by someone else.

Personal settings

Personal settings apply only to your own account: your profile details, your account-level switches, and how ION looks to you.

Edit your profile

1. In ION, go to Settings > My Profile.
2. Click Edit profile.
3. Change your Name, or click your profile picture to set a new image by URL.
4. Click Save changes, or Cancel to discard.

The page also lists the teams and roles you belong to. Those are managed by an admin; see Manage team members and Manage user roles.

Account switches

Under Settings on the My Profile page, two toggles control your account:

• Enforce MFA: require multi-factor authentication for this account.
• Email notifications: also receive your notifications by email. You always receive them in the app; this switch adds email delivery, per user. Which objects notify you is driven by your subscriptions, see Subscribe to notifications.

Choose a theme

1. In ION, go to Settings > Appearance.
2. Under Theme, pick one of the cards:
   • Light: bright, high-contrast.
   • Dark: the classic dark theme.
   • Slate: cool blue-gray, with depth.
   • Graphite: warm neutral, easy on the eyes.
   • System: match your device.

The theme applies immediately and only affects your own account.

Practice in the sandbox

ION offers a sandbox environment where you can practice your workflows and try out features without affecting your production environment. Sandbox access is provisioned separately from production and uses its own credentials, so your production login won’t work there. To set up a sandbox for your team, contact support. Once your sandbox is provisioned, sign in at the sandbox URL that matches your production URL:

For building and testing integrations against the ION API in a sandbox, see Sandbox and dev environments.