Clarify - time to update @clarify/node-red-contrib-clarify

[Paul-Reed]

In February 2022, the @searis/node-red-contrib-clarify node was published and described in this post as an opportunity to store, display & analyse time series data, with a free tier kindly provided by Bernt-Johan (@bbergshaven) and his team at Clarify, for node-RED users.

Recently a number of updates have been made to the node to improve usability, and also stability, and it's current version is v2.2.0. However, the node's name has been changed from @searis/node-red-contrib-clarify to @clarify/node-red-contrib-clarify which makes updating not as simple as using the palette, however @bbergshaven has posted below how to upgrade the node, and without losing your current data.

[Colin]

Did you try uninstalling the old one using the cli, installing the new, and restarting node red? After backing up the flows file of course.

[Paul-Reed]

@Colin

Did you try uninstalling the old one using the cli, installing the new, and restarting node red?

Yes, and didn't work out!
~ flows stopped due to missing node - @searis/node-red-contrib-clarify

There are probably lots of ways to do this, I've just documented what worked for me, without losing the meta links between the node, and the clarify account.

I didn't suggest backing up the flows file because it would be difficult to restore, as @searis/node-red-contrib-clarify has been depreciated.

[bbergshaven]

Hello @Paul-Reed and thanks for the nice words and the detailed explanation of your upgrade prosess.

With the fixes we published yesterday the update process can be done easier. There is actually no need to back up the clarify-db, as the only thing this database does is prevent the writing of static meta-data on every write. If you delete the clarify-db a new one will be created and the signal meta data will be written to Clarify again. Since your insertId (msg.topic) stays the same, it will just update the signals in Clarify and recreate the database in Node-Red.

I just verified that I could remove all old clarify-nodes, including config-nodes, from my flows, delete the old version from the palette, restart node-red and install the new version found in the palette.
This worked flawlessly on a fresh install of Node-Red where I forced the install of the old nodes via npm install.

Hoping to see more of you using Clarify and please let your businesses know, we are always looking for new customers to help us keep a free version for DIY and personal use

[Paul-Reed]

Thanks @bbergshaven. I upgraded using v2.1.0 and after the timout error was fixed I updated to v2.2.0, but it's good to hear that the upgrade process can be done easier now, and I'll amend my first post accordingly to avoid confusion.

@bbergshaven

With the fixes we published yesterday the update process can be done easier. There is actually no need to back up the clarify-db

The node readme probably needs amending, as it still says;
"If you are moving your node-red instance or creating backups, be sure to include the folder clarify-db/"

@bbergshaven

I just verified that I could remove all old clarify-nodes, including config-nodes, from my flows, delete the old version from the palette, restart node-red and install the new version found in the palette.

I assume users will then need to create a new configuration for the node, by uploading their 'saved' json credential file (or obtaining new credentials via Clarify's website).

[bbergshaven]

@Paul-Reed

The node readme probably needs amending, as it still says;
"If you are moving your node-red instance or creating backups, be sure to include the folder clarify-db/"

I'll make sure we update the readme in the next release. It's always nice to backup the database as it will prevent a lot of unnecessary traffic to our apis, but nothing will be lost if you don't.

@Paul-Reed

I assume users will then need to create a new configuration for the node, by uploading their 'saved' json credential file (or obtaining new credentials via Clarify's website).

That's correct. Since the nodes are new it won't be able to use the old configuration node.

[Paul-Reed]

@bbergshaven

It's always nice to backup the database as it will prevent a lot of unnecessary traffic to our apis

Just to be clear, didn't you say that it would be recreated?

@bbergshaven

There is actually no need to back up the clarify-db

@bbergshaven

If you delete the clarify-db a new one will be created and the signal meta data will be written to Clarify again

[bbergshaven]

@Paul-Reed

Just to be clear, didn't you say that it would be recreated?

It won't be recreated, but the API calls will happen, but since the data hasn't changed no update will happen. If there are changes the metadata for the signals in Clarify will be updated.

The only reason for us to have a local database is to check if there are any changes to the incoming meta-data in the flow and only send an API request when that is the case.

Hope this makes sense.