# How to do Black Box UI Testing of Nodes?

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-to-do-black-box-ui-testing-of-nodes/100212>\
**Category:** Developing Nodes\
**Created:** [21 January 2026 19:40 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-to-do-black-box-ui-testing-of-nodes/100212 "2026-01-21T19:40:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 4

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**Author:** ![gregorius](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/gregorius/32/73816_2.png) [@gregorius](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/gregorius)\
**Post date:** [21 January 2026 22:04 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-to-do-black-box-ui-testing-of-nodes/100212/4 "2026-01-21T22:04:33Z")

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> [@TotallyInformation](#):
>
> use a script link to load it.

It's really a pity to see (pun intended), not only here but also in the [backup](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/backup-script-not-working/100189) thread, that folks seem to think in scripts and not flows.

To test the functionality of a visual tool, we use textual scripts instead of making the effort of creating a _visual_ solution.

My approach has been to explore visual approaches first and if that fails, to fall (fail?) back to an exec node i.e. script solution or worse case makefile. The advantage is that you _learn_ something about a new paradigm, instead of using the old and trusted textual approach. Plus a visual approach means I don't constantly switch between Node-RED and my Emacs editor - it's all done in NR.

At the end of the day, I don't really care what others do. If the trusted scripting solution plus a bit of AI is your thing, alright sounds lovely. I prefer to find a visual approach and challenge myself to think out-of-the-box, the scripting solution is always available.

Btw I also create my nodes using a [node development package](https://flows.nodered.org/node/@gregoriusrippenstein/node-red-contrib-nodedev). So the obvious interjection: _but its a node package with html + js code_ doesn't really apply since all my code is a flow anyway. I haven't tried adding unit tests to the flows that represent my node packages, but it wouldn't be rocket science.

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_[View the full topic](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/how-to-do-black-box-ui-testing-of-nodes/100212)._