[ANNOUNCE] node-red-contrib-blockly : 2.0.0 betas (currently at beta 2)

Any news on when this will be available within NodeRed from the Palette? Currently only showing the 3 year old version?
Thanks

Hi @dougle03,
Normally in a couple of weeks from now. We hope that some people will test our beta, and that our translators have time to translate the texts.
P.S. There will also arrive at least one extra beta version, because I found a bug last night ...

Excellent, I'll look forward to it, thanks.

Note: I'm not a sufficiently competent user to evaluate Beta modules; I'd likely cause more confusion rather than help... lol

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Any user that can use the final release of our node afterwards and complain that something doesn't work, is also an awesome beta user :wink:

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One of the visually nicest new features is we can now change the appearance of the Blockly blocks

As a long time Scratcher, I've always disliked the default appearance but now I can switch to the Zelos theme via the config
Default

Zelos

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Hi Bart,
I want to return to the issue #34. Original idea was to support || <value> construction, for example:
var1 = (msg['payload']) || 'default';

In current version I can use variable or function but not value after default 'OR' block. Could you please implement dedicated || block.

I don't know if the existing and/or logic block can be modified to accept a value (as its a core Blocky block) but there is a simple workaround in 2.0.0


which generates
image

I sort of like the workaround as it signals that the code is diving into JS territory and so is the equivalent of having a sign saying "Beware the dragons beyond this point" :slight_smile:

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Indeed we haven't done something like that before. Perhaps it is even better if I ask the Blockly team to allow values as input, so we don't have start messing with their blocks. Because it seems like a useful feature...

Simon, it's finest solution with a Javascript block.

Absolutely agree with you.

But does that not step away from the point of blocky? i.e no code required? Is it not better to come up with a solution that does not step off the cliff into the JS syntax soup?

The use of the JS || as a shortcut in some cases to deal with default fallbacks is not obvious what it will do unless your a JS expert.

I think it's better to be explicit and write something along these lines

image

[edit]meant to stick "default" in the else :slight_smile:

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This is a better example of equivalent Blockly only method