Book Image

Practical Node-RED Programming

By : Taiji Hagino
5 (1)
Book Image

Practical Node-RED Programming

5 (1)
By: Taiji Hagino

Overview of this book

Node-RED is a free and open source flow-based programming tool used to handle IoT data that allows programmers of any level to interconnect physical I/O, cloud-based systems, databases, and APIs to build web applications without code. Practical Node-RED Programming is a comprehensive introduction for anyone looking to get up to speed with the Node-RED ecosystem in no time. Complete with hands-on tutorials, projects, and self-assessment questions, this easy-to-follow guide will help you to become well versed in the foundations of Node-RED. You’ll learn how to use Node-RED to handle IoT data and build web applications without having to write complex code. Once you’ve covered the basics, you’ll explore various visual programming techniques and find out how to make sample flows as you cover web development, IoT development, and cloud service connections, and finally build useful real-world applications. By the end of this book, you’ll have learned how to use Node-RED to develop a real-world application from scratch, which can then be implemented in your business.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1: Node-RED Basics
6
Section 2: Mastering Node-RED
11
Section 3: Practical Matters

Chapter 1: Introducing Node-RED and Flow-Based Programming

This chapter will help you grow from being a reader to being a Node-RED user. First, you'll learn about the history of Flow-based programming (FBP) tools, not just Node-RED. You will then gain a broad understanding of the entirety of Node-RED as a useful tool for building web applications and the Internet of Things (IoT) data handling, before learning what IoT and Node.js are in terms of Node-RED.

Providing technical content will help accelerate your software application development, but if you take a look at the history of the Node-RED tool itself, it will help you better understand why you need a FBP tool such as Node-RED. That is what we will be doing in this chapter.

More specifically, we'll be covering the following topics:

  • What is FBP?
  • What is Node-RED?
  • Node-RED benefits
  • Node-RED and IoT

Let's get started!