FlowHub.org is an experimental platform for visually sharing Node-RED code.
Node-RED is a visual development platform providing several textual alternatives for sharing code. Reusable Node-RED nodes are created using a mixture of HTML, JavaScript and JSON, uploaded to the NPM package sharing platform and then included in the Node-RED library.
This process of creating nodes is textual, no official supporting tooling for doing node creation visually exist to the best of the knowledge of the author. Yet within Node-RED these nodes can easily be installed and wired together - visually. A set of nodes thus wired together are called flows and it is these flows that can be shared via FlowHub.org.
Flows can be copied, downloaded or imported directly from FlowHub.org. Import flows directly into Node-RED using the FlowHub nodes. Flows can be uploaded using those nodes either with an API token or a valid email address.
Two articles are available that better describe my intentions in creating FlowHub.org:
In summary, the focus is on clarity of flow changes between revisions, on sharing of knowledge and collaboratively working on Node-RED flows.
Flow Based Programming has many useful features unfortunately FBP lacks the tooling around that exists around textual programming languages: testing (unit testing), development workflows (GitHub flow) and collaboration (code comparison). These features need to be recreated in a visual form for FBP to reach a broad audience.
FlowHub aims to promote visual programming by providing tools that every programmer would expect from a programming language. FlowHub.org explores what it means to apply concepts such as refactoring, design patterns, unit tests, code sharing and version control in the context of a visual programming environment such as Node-RED.
Years of textual-based programming has created a body of concepts, wisdoms and best-practices that must be transported and applied in a visual-based programming environment. Some of these ideas might prove to become redundant in a visual environment and new ideas will arise, the best fit remains to be found.
All flows found here are licensed under the don’t do evil license.
Usage of FlowHub.org implies an adherence to that license.
Last ten updates
Grasping Node-RED
Learning Node-RED
Using Node-RED
Advancing Node-RED
Applying Node-RED
Overflow: overview of available flows and a complete list of flows as RSS feed.
Copyright (C) FlowHub.org + OpenMindMap.org | Feedback | RSS