node-red-contrib-multi-flows-storage
v0.3.1
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A Node-RED storage plugin that organize flows and subflows in folders as YAML or JSON for readability
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node-red-contrib-multi-flows-storage
A Node-RED storage plugin that organize flows and subflows in folders as YAML or JSON for readability
The problem
Node-RED stores flow files as JSON documents. While JSON is lightweight and universal, it is not the most human readable format. Node-RED stores various forms of code in function, comment and template nodes such as JavaScript, HTML, CSS, Markdown, etc. These code blocks are reprensented as a single line in a JSON structure which makes it hard to debug when reading the flow file and it makes diffs very difficult to read.
The solution
This storage module reads and saves flows and subflows as YAML or JSON files and organize they in multiple directories.
The main advantage is readability and less merge conflicts since every tab/subflow is saved as individual file.
Also, if you use the same Node-RED configuration/repository for a parametrized flowFile
path in Node-RED settings this module organize each one in its own directory structure.
Installation
npm install node-red-contrib-multi-flows-storage
You will also need to modify your settings.js
file and add the following:
storageModule: require("node-red-contrib-multi-flows-storage");
JSON or YAML
By default all the flows are saved in .yaml
to change this behavior is possible to create a options file in yours Node-RED user dir.
- Create a file named: multiflows-options.json
{
"fileFormat": "json" | "yaml"
}
Example Directory Structure
Here is a comparation of directories structure.
Imagine you have a multi instance Node-RED that might use a different flow file parametrized on Node environment.
- Instance 1: flows-app.json
- Instance 2: flows-app2.json
export default {
flowFile: process.env.NODERED_FLOW_FILE || 'flows-app.json'
}
Default repository structure:
--src
--nodered
flows-app.json
flows-app2.json
Your new repository structure will be like this.
--src
--nodered
--flows-app
--flows
<<tab name>>.yaml
my tab name.yaml
--subflows
<<subflow name>>.yaml
my other subflow.yaml
config-nodes.yaml
--flows-app2
--flows
<<tab name>>.yaml
my tab name.yaml
--subflows
<<subflow name>>.yaml
my other subflow.yaml
config-nodes.yaml