I am working into create a large dashboard using Node-red ( not sure how hard would be that task for me having the fact I am not a html or java programmer, So I am limited a bit on some areas), I came from the industrial Automation world, machinery and industry controls PLC's, Vfd's etc I have some skill in C, a bit C++ this skills preview is just for you have an idea the best way to provide advice to me.
As I mentioned above I Just started to create just one dashboard section for only one device, but the main idea is to have dozens of devices sending data to nodered ( each devices could have around 10-15 variables to be displayed on dashboard) . So I decided that each industrial section would have a dashboard tab , that tab would have menu ( dashboard buttons with links ) to show/hide devices dashboards belonging to that specific section , I do that using the UI control to hide show the groups accordingly.
That is time consuming task so each dashboard node must be edited and linked individually, and also care must be taken of dashboard layout.
I am just wondering if there any way to export for example just a dashboard section or flow and then using a text editor or something else to be able to redefine the dashboard components , tab/groups names in more faster way ?
Could be that a new feature for node-red? or is something absurd?
Don´t feel intimidated for not having experience in front-end development (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). Surely Node-RED will allow you to create awesome dashboards. The most important you already have: a clear vision of what you want and how to get there.
Now, in regards to the main point, which is editing a large number of dashboard nodes. I have not developed extremely large dashboards but I concur that the task can become time-consuming as the amount of nodes increase. This is especially true if you are never satisfied with the result and always wants to improve something.
In line with your own suggestion: have you tried to export all the nodes to a text editor ? You can easily visualize the dashboard nodes as they have a standard naming convention (ui_xxxx). It will be much better of you export the text formatted as JSON. This is an option in the export dialog.
Once you edit what you want (tab/groups names , right ?) you can import the flow and check the results.
One thing to remember is that most of of the ‘ui’ nodes are being sent data or are sending data to other nodes. If you just export ‘ui’ nodes you won’t have the logic that deals with them.
Hi @Andrei thanks for pointing that option, I can't believe I didn't realized of that before. I use the flow export very often , but never noticed that option to exports the formatted flow , that way may facilitate a bit what I pretend to do. I will try, and provide feedback if that work for me.
regards,
