# Custom UI node not visible in dashboard-sidebar

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666>\
**Category:** Developing Nodes\
**Created:** [1 April 2019 20:45 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666 "2019-04-01T20:45:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 11\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [1 April 2019 20:45 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/1 "2019-04-01T20:45:41Z")

</div>

Hi folks,

Got an issue on Github for my [node-red-contrib-ui-heatmap](https://github.com/bartbutenaers/node-red-contrib-ui-heatmap) node. After some discussions and digging into the code, it seems there are a few things incorrect in my node. ut I'm running out of ideas ...

This is the first problem:

The node needs to be added to some group (which in turn is located on some tab):  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/2X/9/9056d40f7be5e9ee1cf71480772d37f8225282ac.png)

But when you do that, my node doesn't become visible in the dashboard sidebar:  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/2X/e/ebb61f27cb1da239827fef017531b539a48cce0b.png)

P.S. In the dashboard itself, my node is nicely visible in the specified group (and tab)...

Thanks !!  
Bart

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![seth350](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/seth350/32/4617_2.png) [@seth350](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/seth350)\
**Post date:** [3 April 2019 02:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/2 "2019-04-03T02:49:32Z")

</div>

@BartButenaers,  
Try this...  
[Custom UI Node Not Appearing In Group In Dashboard SideTab](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-appearing-in-group-in-dashboard-sidetab/6347/3)

I had the same issue and the fix is not apparent.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [3 April 2019 11:08 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/3 "2019-04-03T11:08:57Z")

</div>

@seth350,  
Thanks a lot !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Will try it this evening. Have lost quite some hours already on this issue, but nothing found ...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [3 April 2019 14:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/4 "2019-04-03T14:11:04Z")

</div>

And if it works ... a Top Tip we need to make clear in the docs !!!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![seth350](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/seth350/32/4617_2.png) [@seth350](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/seth350)\
**Post date:** [3 April 2019 20:08 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/5 "2019-04-03T20:08:51Z")

</div>

Indeed @dceejay.

I already had that nugget of information in my little node.

Check out the first couple of sections.  
[https://github.com/node-red/node-red-ui-nodes/blob/master/node-red-ui-node-mylittleuinode/mylittleuinode.html](https://github.com/node-red/node-red-ui-nodes/blob/master/node-red-ui-node-mylittleuinode/mylittleuinode.html)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [4 April 2019 07:47 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/6 "2019-04-04T07:47:12Z")

</div>

🙂 - yes - Thanks - I have added to the other examples as well.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [4 April 2019 20:12 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/7 "2019-04-04T20:12:15Z")

</div>

@seth350, @dceejay,  
Some delay due to lack of time ...

Originally I had this:

```auto
RED.nodes.registerType('heat-map' ...);

```

Indeed when I change it to this:

```auto
RED.nodes.registerType('ui_heat_map' ...);

```

Then the UI node nicely appears in the dashboard tree:

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/2X/7/7756df176262892e5c7db82df35ddbdfe1773ba6.png)  
Cool... Thanks again !

The disadvantage is that users who have already used the heatmap node in their flow, now will run into troubles:

![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/2X/e/e8e27d36850e178f1966af575b9ad71e4b8ddc74.png)  
And seems that **824** users have downloaded this node last month. Damn ...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [4 April 2019 20:18 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/8 "2019-04-04T20:18:19Z")

</div>

Well you can bump the version to a major release... as it's a breaking change... but yeah... we're all moving slowly forward on the ui widgets so not found all the "obvious" pitfalls, that we ought to know... many apologies...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**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:** [4 April 2019 20:25 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/9 "2019-04-04T20:25:25Z")

</div>

> [@dceejay](#):
>
> many apologies...

Apologies not accepted 😉 The widget API is a huuuuuge step forward for contributors like me...

Had also been thinking about a major release, but not sure if the majority of users are aware what all the numbers in the version mean ... But that is the only thing I can do, and put a warning on the readme page (and info panel) so I can guide them around it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dceejay](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dceejay/32/38_2.png) [@dceejay](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dceejay)\
**Post date:** [4 April 2019 20:36 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/10 "2019-04-04T20:36:32Z")

</div>

Well if they used the palette manager to install things it will write the package.json so that major version changes won't install with npm update so they should stay working... until they force and update.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hotNipi](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/hotnipi/32/383_2.png) [@hotNipi](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/hotNipi)\
**Post date:** [4 April 2019 20:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/custom-ui-node-not-visible-in-dashboard-sidebar/9666/11 "2019-04-04T20:49:55Z")

</div>

I have analysed in my mind how users react on feature updates. What I found is that silently giving goodies works but mentioning reliability fails. Not always but somehow dominance can be noticed.

We need for sure more clearly explained starting point for custom ui-widget development but to do it, takes first to experiences of failures on the route. I happily gave some , so do you.

Main thing is not to keep them for ourselves but understanding them, collect and publish for community.