Thanks @knolleary and all contributors, what a massive update.
For the functionExternalModules - what is the reason for the typed input field (and not just a string) ?
How are the modules getting updated and/or can specific versions be specified ?
The TypedInput will be populated with a list of the modules already used by all Function nodes - so if you want to use the same module in multiple nodes, you don't have to type it in each time, you can just select it from the list.
You can specify a version using foo@1.2.3. However, we cannot handle the case if you have two function nodes that require different versions of the same module.
In this version, you'll need to fall back to the command-line to update modules. They get installed under ~/.node-red/externalModules/. There was original a plan to have lots of buttons in the UI to let you update/remove/install extra modules, but it needed more work to get the APIs right.
I checked the browser console for errors related to the issue I am having with functionExternalModules... there were no errors so this is still a mystery.
It returns false... but it is definitely set to true in the settings.js file as shown in one of my earlier posts?
I manually set it from the console and that makes it work correctly... but I have no idea why it isn't loading functionExternalModules from the settings.js file correctly.
I've now installed Node-RED v1.3 beta on 4 separate computers, updated the settings.js file with functionExternalModules: true,and it works as expected on all of them except my primary work computer?
Edit the line in settings.js so that it becomes invalid javascript and make sure the node-red will not start - that will confirm the line is being seen. If that seems ok then delete and retype the line in case there is an unprintable character causing confusion.
@knolleary the good news is that we can stop chasing this as I stumbled upon the issue and it had nothing to do with Node-RED (yeah)... but now I have a bizarre mystery for myself.
After @Colin suggested editing setting.js to make it invalid, I opened it with just the simple TextEdit app and I discovered the functionExternalModules: true, line wasn't in there at all. So I closed it and opened it with the BBEdit app that I often use for basic text editing and it was there????
I simply forced another save from BBEdit and then launched Node-RED again and it worked as expected.
I have no clue what bizarre state that file was in... but it is working now.
Bumping this thread to say, we'll be published Node-RED 1.3.0 in the next week. If you've been meaning to try out the beta, but not got there yet, you've not got long left.