Developing a core node by making a trial contrib node

Core Development
1

Forking a node on Github and having a play is great but difficult for other users to dynamically try out any enhancements/changes

I want to dabble with MQTT node so I was planning on forking it -making some changes and then temporarily publish as a contrib node using a name like testa_cymplecy_temp so its obvious that its not a finished long-term node

What do people think?

2

What is so hard about using npm with a github link to install?

That way you can also get them to install different branches if need be.
You shouldn’t need to publish to npm if its not a finished long term node.

3

Ta for info

Its not as easy-peasy as using Manage Pallete but sounds like it could be the best solution

4

Yes. Please don’t publish unfinished nodes to the library if you can help it. Just remove the “node-red” keyword tag.

5

Can @ukmoose, @cymplecy or someone tell me how or point me to documentation on how to use forked github branches of a node instead of the master?

For example, how can I use this forked version of Mosca mqtt-broker:

instead of the original node-red-contrib-mosca?

6

I usually end up on this

when I google for it every few months which is a bit old but end result I end up using is

npm install https://github.com/{USER}/{REPO}#{BRANCH}

e.g. I just did

npm install https://github.com/bartbutenaers/node-red-contrib-blockly#release-1.2.0

and it installed the 1.2.0 branch

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image900Ă—139 5.7 KB

So if you fork a repo - you just use your user and repo name instead or original author
Sorry for the mistakes - should be ok now :slight_smile:

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7

Thank you much @cymplecy !

8

JFI - if replacing an existing nod, I remove the original one first just to avoid any name clashes - I don't know how npm handles such things but better safe than sorry :slight_smile:

1 Like
9

Provided you have kept the name of the node the same (so you have forked it and changed, for example, the code, but not changed the name of any nodes, then npm will overwrite the original one with the new one (just as if it were upgrading an existing node).

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