FR: Quick add multiple nodes (ready linked)

Core Development Feature Requests
1

Hi all, I'd love to see some time saving "quick add" nodes (kinda like macros or snippets)

@node-red-devs

  • is this on the road map / spec?
  • is it something you would consider for 2.2.x?

Below is a demo of what I mean - please let me know your thoughts on this (how it could be better presented? should user be asked for node names? should this feature be exposed to contrib node devs? is it not something you would use / waste of time? - any constructive feedback is good) ...

vpG2yUKfTf

3 Likes
2

Nice idea .. maybe the quick add can include in its list the locally saved flows ?
(since the functionality is there to export a selection)

image

3 Likes
3

Ah yes. Something I often forget about. Not sure why.

4

Interesting idea. Have you created a design doc for it ? Where/how would these be defined ? How would the menu entry get defined ? (The -> idea would get large pretty quick for anything non trivial)

5

Morning Dave.

Ah no, I'm just putting it out for consensus to see if it has legs :slight_smile:

Yeah, ATM it's just hard coded.

I think the design of this (if folk like it) is gonna be organic.

6

So what is the actual intention for these getting added ? Is it like text auto-complete in an editor - so you add (say) an http-in and it offers the other parts required ? Or like UnborN suggests, to make access to the saved library more accessible by adding all snippets ? Or a carefully curated set of "extended nodes" ? Or ready customised snippets from somewhere ? Would they be user extendable/definable ? Where would they be defined/stored ? Depending on the scope of this idea I think it needs some more definition/boundaries up front if the "organic" is not to be of the brown sticky kind.

7

User snippets would be great!
Might save me a headache like my whiteboard flow:

whiteboard
whiteboard1765Ă—1765 492 KB

8

Let's not fall into trying to design the feature here - we have a process for discussing the details of a proposal.

Step 1 is to float the idea/concept either here or on slack so we can assess if it fits in the big picture. It doesn't have to address every minute detail at this stage.
If we think its worth pursuing, we move to...

Step 2 is to put together the more detailed proposal as either a Design Note or Discussion on the node-red/designs repo.

@Steve-Mcl This is certainly the sort of thing I had in mind to explore adding to the Quick Add dialog. So yes, please do start a new discussion on the Designs repo. Outline the idea, list out open questions that need addressing, etc etc.

9

Hi Dave. All valid questions. I'll add them to the design note which I'll write up later.

10

No bother. Will write something up later & feedback the link. Cheers.

11

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13

Finally got around to this.

I have written up a basic design outline here: Quick add multiple nodes (like a macro to add a set of nodes) · Discussion #72 · node-red/designs · GitHub

Please feel free to comment on the design proposal.