FlowHub.org

FlowHub.org is a web-based service for collaborative Node-RED development. Developers and Stakeholders work visually together, developers work collaboratively on flow development and knowledge is visually shared. For more details, check out the screencast introduction.

Seamless Node-RED integration

Using the FlowHub.org nodes, flows can be imported to, exported from and visually compared within Node-RED. Additionally dependent flows can be referenced within secondary flows creating a chain of dependency and enabling better flow management, reuse and deployment.

Node-RED seamless integration. — Visually comparing flow changes in Node-RED.

Webilisation

Webilisation provides the visualisation of flows within web pages. Using the oEmbed standard, FlowHub.org supports oEmbed discovery making visual sharing of flows within chats and forums simple.

Additionally flows can be interactively documented using highlight links incorporated in flow documentation. UML flow conversion provides a powerful communication medium between enterprise architects and developers. Next, previewing of flows in a server-less Node-RED instance provides a crossover for non-Node-RED developers is provided.

Finally webilisation provides a visual comparison of Node-RED code, giving Stakeholders the ability to track changes visually or textually outside of Node-RED. Visual code reviews are thus possible.

GitHub Integration

GitHub repositories provide version management of flow changes. Each change is captured as a git repository commit. This provides a good way to create backups of flows by cloning git repositories.

Multiple repositories and branches are supported, each FlowHub.org token represents a repository and branch with multiple tokens being supported using the FlowHub.org nodes.

Target Audience

As usage of Node-RED increases, the need to maintain an overview of many flows becomes essential. Additionally many folks face the challenges of providing a collaborative development process and visual version control of Node-RED code.

FlowHub.org is aimed at those that enjoy Node-RED visual development who are confronted by the confusion of maintaining a large repository of flow code. FlowHub.org addresses issues that arise with increased Node-RED development, many beginners will not face these challenges.

FlowHub.org does not aim to provide a development process rather FlowHub.org attempts to support existing processes by providing approaches to visual revision control, collaborative development and better organisation of large flow collections.

Tryout FlowHub.org

FlowHubs Node-RED nodes support personal tokens for interacting with your own GitHub repo - public or private. Generate your own FlowHub.org token to commit your flows to your GitHub git repositories. All functionality of the FlowHub.org will be available but using your own flows.

FlowHub.org token installation. — Tokens are managed in the FlowHub.org Push tab.

Alternatively try out FlowHub nodes in the server-less serverless client-only Node-RED installation. The serverless Node-RED installation provides a read-only example of the integration of FlowHub.org into Node-RED.

Also check out the screencasts for a short introduction to using FlowHub.org.

Core Principle: Node-RED First

FlowHub.org aims to make Node-RED a complete development environment for any and all forms of visual data-driven programming. Be it Web, ETL, LEDs, 3D, OSM, ANN or I2C.

In combination with the NodeDev package to make custom node development smoother and the introspection package that provides tools for faster development within Node-RED, a complete Node-RED centric development process can be defined.

Visual programming is inherently more understandable for non-developers. Algorithmic centric textual programming requires much more effort to understand because of the textual representation and mental models. Visual programming centric paradigm thus provides the basis for better communication amongst stakeholders, product owners and developers.

FlowHub.org: Unifying visual programming for improved inter-team communication.

Technology

FlowHub.org is written 100%, maintained 100% and deployed 100%: in, by and with Node-RED: FlowHub.org is dogfood technology.

To host FlowHub.org all that is needed is a Node-RED installation.

Contact

For more details or a demo, contact the author.