# A new node that fascinates me

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/a-new-node-that-fascinates-me/24117>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [2 April 2020 21:52 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/a-new-node-that-fascinates-me/24117 "2020-04-02T21:52:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BartButenaers](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/bartbutenaers/32/10476_2.png) [@BartButenaers](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/BartButenaers)\
**Post date:** [2 April 2020 21:52 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/a-new-node-that-fascinates-me/24117/1 "2020-04-02T21:52:52Z")

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Hi folks,

From time to time I discover a new node that draws my attention. I discovered last week the [node-red-contrib-msg-tracer](https://gitlab.com/monogoto.io/node-red-contrib-msg-tracer) node, which I find very fascinating ...

Reason for my interest: a couple of years ago I wanted to develop a _flow debugger_ node. However there was already a [flow debugger](https://trello.com/c/MUEGnF6h/68-flow-debugger) item on the trello whiteboard, and a old stale [debugger branch](https://github.com/node-red/node-red/tree/debugger) on Github. Therefore I have never started developing, because it seemed to me that this was destined to become _ **core functionality** _ (in a far future)...

But seems the developer of the _node-red-contrib-msg-tracer_ has managed to implement some kind of flow debugging. I had no look at the code yet, so not sure if he had to use dirty (unsupported) hacks to get the job done ...

Is there anybody who has used it, and does anybody have thoughts about it?  
Very curious to hear opinions about this node ...

Bart

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**Author:** ![knolleary](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/knolleary/32/3_2.png) [@knolleary](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/knolleary)\
**Post date:** [2 April 2020 23:00 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/a-new-node-that-fascinates-me/24117/2 "2020-04-02T23:00:42Z")

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Well, there is simply no way they will have been able to implement that without using lots of internal APIs that **will** be changing release to release. They must realise that, so have either decided to take on the maintenance burden of keeping it working release to release as we change internals, or it gets abandoned as soon as we get the pluggable message routing feature done.

Adding it to the long list of missed opportunities to get effort directed at helping deliver the backlog, rather than just waiting for me to write the code.

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/1X/d073cd938eafa2e558d7c2cd59003b3ef4963033.png) [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)\
**Post date:** [1 June 2020 23:00 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/a-new-node-that-fascinates-me/24117/3 "2020-06-01T23:00:49Z")

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