The first public beta release of Node-RED 1.2.0 is now available.
This contains everything planned for the final release which, pending feedback on the beta, we plan to do next week.
The Change Log has the full list of changes in this release, but here are the highlights:
Note: if any issues are reported against the beta, we'll update this post to list them here. If you hit a problem, please do check back here before adding a comment.
Editor features
Importing duplicate nodes/subflows
When you import a flow that contains nodes/subflows you already have, the editor will now ask you what to do. In the case of Subflows/Config nodes, it gives you the option of replacing the instances you already have, rather than importing a copy.
Simplified Git Workflow
The projects feature now provides an option for a simplified git workflow. The option, under User Settings, lets you enable an 'automatic' mode where changes will be automatically committed with every deploy.
Other project enhancements include:
- the project settings dialog also now lets you edit the project's version string.
- the
flowFilePrettyoption is now automatically enabled for projects unless explicitly set tofalse
Handling 'lost' nodes
We've seen a very small number of instances where a node forgets what tab it is on and its z property is set to 0 - causing the node to disappear from the editor. We've never managed to recreate this issue to get to the bottom of it - something to do with deleting flows. But with this release, the editor will now help recover those lost nodes by added a 'recovery' tab to add them to.
Other editor features
- sidebar tabs can now be reordered (details)
- the palette manager has an option to upload a node module tgz file rather than install from the catalog. This can be disabled in the settings. (details)
- The ACE edit component has been updated to the latest version which brings much better support for ES6 JavaScript syntax
- Fixes issues around copy/paste of nodes within groups causing lockups.
- When merging groups, the style options of the first selected group is used for the combined group.
Runtime features
Splitting .config.json into multiple files
The runtime settings file, .config.json has been split in to four separate files to better organise the content and allow the user to be more selective over what they version control.
If you have a backup script that includes .config.json you will need to update it to backup these other files instead.
Introducing RED.hooks api
This is part of the pluggable message routing work. It is less relevant to end users at this point in time, but will underpin a lot of exciting features in the future, such as a proper flow debugger, distributed node-red runtimes and integrated flow testing.
Node Features
- The trigger node can now be configured to set its delay/repeat-interval by
msg.delay - The Function node's "setup" code can now log and send messages (details)
- More of the core nodes now implement the 'done' api so can be used with the Complete node - yaml, xml, json, html, http, template, range, link, status, catch , complete, inject. Work continues on the remain nodes.
Lots more...
Be sure to read through the Change Log to see what else is in there.
Installing the beta
If you want to try out the beta, you will need specify node-red@next when you use npm to update. Without the @next you'll still get 1.0.x.
So on a Pi you'd do:
sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red@next
Reporting problems
If you hit any problems, please report them either as a reply on this topic, or in the #dev slack channel. Please do not post new topics to the forum regarding the beta as that could confuse users who are not using the beta.
Outstanding work
The only outstanding work is to catch up on some translations for the new features. They won't warrant another beta release, so we plan to get the full release done next week.
