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

Using the standalone version of Node-RED

Now we will learn what the standalone version of Node-RED is and how it differs from other versions. We usually use the Node-RED flow editor as a standalone editor; however, we can also use the Node-RED flow editor on any cloud with container technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, or Cloud Foundry. We will explicitly demonstrate the use of the standalone version with relatively common use cases to learn how to use it.

Let's think about situations where Node-RED is used.

Node-RED is a tool for creating applications made with Node.js. It is also the execution environment. If you can write an application in Node.js, that's fine.

So, why build an application with Node-RED?

One answer is to black-box each individual unit of data processing. This makes the role of each process very clear and easy to build and maintain.

Another answer is to avoid human error. Since each process is modularized as a node, you only need to...