Node-RED IBM Cloud Starter Application

Node-RED on IBM Cloud

This repository is an example Node-RED application that can be deployed into IBM Cloud with only a couple clicks. Try it out for yourself right now by clicking:

How does this work?

When you click the button, you are taken to IBM Cloud where you get a pick a name for your application at which point the platform takes over, grabs the code from this repository and gets it deployed.

It will automatically create an instance of the Cloudant service and bind it to your app. This is where your Node-RED instance will store its data.

When you first access the application, you'll be asked to set some security options to ensure your flow editor remains secure from unauthorised access.

It includes a set of default flows that are automatically deployed the first time Node-RED runs.

Customising Node-RED

This repository is here to be cloned, modified and re-used to allow anyone create their own Node-RED based application that can be quickly deployed to IBM Cloud.

The default flows are stored in the defaults directory in the file called flow.json. When the application is first started, this flow is copied to the attached Cloudant instance. When a change is deployed from the editor, the version in cloudant will be updated - not this file.

The web content you get when you go to the application's URL is stored under the public directory.

Additional nodes can be added to the package.json file and all other Node-RED configuration settings can be set in bluemix-settings.js.

If you do clone this repository, make sure you update this README.md file to point the Deploy to IBM Cloud button at your repository.

If you want to change the name of the Cloudant instance that gets created, the memory allocated to the application or other deploy-time options, have a look in manifest.yml.

Environment Variables

The following environment variables can be used to configure the application:

• NODE_RED_STORAGE_NAME - the Cloudant service name as exposed in VCAP_SERVICES
• NODE_RED_STORAGE_DB_NAME - the name of the database to use on Cloudant
• NODE_RED_STORAGE_APP_NAME - the prefix used in document names, allowing multiple instances to share the same database.
• NODE_RED_USERNAME, NODE_RED_PASSWORD - if set, used to secure the editor
• NODE_RED_GUEST_ACCESS - if the editor is secured, this will allow anonymous, read-only access
• NODE_RED_USE_APPMETRICS - enables the appmetrics dashboard