🎉 Node-RED 3.0.0-beta.2 released

News
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:tada: The second beta release of Node-RED 3.0 is now available.

Node-RED 3.x requires at least Node 14.x or later. We recommend the current Active LTS release, Node 16.x.

This release brings some fixes and improvements to the new Junction feature based on your feedback from the first beta.

If you haven't already, please read through the release notes for beta.1.

Here are the highlights for this release.

The Change Log has the full list of changes.

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.

Known Issues

  • The 'Welcome Tour' still calls it beta.1 - not beta.2. :man_facepalming:

Wire Junctions

Following some great feedback on the user experience with the new Wire Junctions, we've reworked them to be more consistent with regular nodes.

When you hover over a Junction, it now expands to show input and output ports. You can move the junction by dragging its body, or add a wire by click/dragging on one of its ports - just as you do with nodes.

In fact, this rework has allowed us to reuse a bunch of code between nodes and junctions - so a lot of the other feedback around inconsistent behaviour has also been addressed.

(This animated gif doesn't do it full justice... but you get the basic idea)

e3lxzRJuqo

Changed mouse actions

In Node-RED 2.x, if you held Ctrl whilst dragging with the right-hand mouse button, you could slice through wires to remove them.

In beta.1, we added Shift-Drag with the RH mouse button to insert Junctions into wires.

We got lots of feedback on this - as RH drag is not very accessible for touchpads and touchscreens. Plus, Shift-RH Click is reserved in Firefox to open up the context menu, and that cannot be overridden.

With this release, we have changed both of these actions to be driven by the Left mouse button:

  • Slice wires: Alt-Drag
  • Insert Junctions: Alt-Shift-Drag

Node Updates

One fix of note in this release is with the MQTT nodes - in particular around handling shutdown and disconnections. This should resolve some issues around hanging connections and inconsistent connection state being reported in the editor.

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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 2.2.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 #core-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

As we said with beta.1, this release contains pretty much everything we want to get into 3.0 - and depending on the feedback we get, this could pretty much be the shape of the final 3.0 release.

The next task is getting documentation done over the coming couple of weeks.

The goal is to release 3.0 at the end of this month.

11 Likes
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Definitely not - it is far sweeter in operation :slight_smile:

chrome_8CscotMrEi

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1st immediate impression - the animation to expand the junction is noticeably slow.

Full disclosure - this is VNCing into my Pi4 (which is my main use of NR) - but it falls into the treacle category - will test on native windows now

On main new(ish) Windows 11 speed is fine

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Alt-Shift-Drag worked straight away in my Vivaldi browser

Alt-Drag on Windows worked (as in it cut the wire) but it brings up this menu when the alt key is lifted that then needs dismissing
image

'Alt-Drag` in my Pi4 VNC session drags the whole frame around (does this in any frame not just browser_ - not a biggie for me as I just click on wires and hit delete key if I want to delete them - six and two threes as to which way is easier

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The junction is much easier to manage in Firefox on my laptop now, thanks!

One tiny (?) request: Is it appropriate to change the cursor: perhaps cursor:grab when shift alt is held down (gather wires together), cursor:sw-resize (cut through wires) when just alt.
Or even custom cursor: a bunch of lines in a fist, scissors.

I realise this may not be appropriate if there are other alt-something shortcuts.

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2nd impression - its slow, noticeably so, but not level of treacle :slight_smile:

But as a facility - it's fan-bloomin-tastic :slight_smile:

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As I only have two fingers on my left hand, this is impossible for me, as I cannot span that distance. A right click menu, as someone suggested in another thread would solve this for me.

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Curious as to what keyboard layout you have Garry?

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Steve, I have a normal keyboard, the problem is that my left hand is deformed.

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Hey Garry, not wanting to pry, or put my foot in my mouth, I jumped to the conclusion the alt+shift were on different sides of the keyboard when you said 2 fingers. (hope there was no offence)

We'll have to have a bit think.

Would you mind looking at the design doc & see if there is a happy medium?

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Ah, I understand! No offence taken. Is there a non keyboard method to insert a junction? I'm just getting into this.

1 Like
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Hmmm - actually, I dont think so.

There is the "quick add"

CTRL + Click

chrome_jGxYu18VAW

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That will do for me Steve, I forgot about that! This is an extreme edge case. I'd still love a right click drop down menu that I can customise :slight_smile:

3 Likes
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Docker containers in the same place as time (Docker Hub)

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Junctions again...

How does the shift-alt-drag process detect that it has crossed a wire?
Is this processing in the browser or on the NR server?

I notice that if I move the cursor too fast it misses some wires.
Animation2

This is Node-red running on a Raspberry Pi Zero Two, browser is Firefox on Windows 10.

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It is all done in the browser. Yes, the current implementation does mean it can miss wires if swiped too quickly. There isn't a quick fix for that.

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Thanks Nick.
I don't think it's a big problem; it's very obvious when a wire gets missed out, just have to CTRL Z and do it again, slower.

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Vivaldi issue maybe, doesn't happen with Edge.

This incarnation is much more robust and consistent. Many thanks for the work everyone, nice feature.

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Seeing the same as @jbudd even when swiping slowly.
newver

Node-red running on a Raspberry Pi 3B+, browser is Chrome (current ver) on Windows 10.

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Paul, I believe in your specific animation, the swipe is crossing right at the point where 2 wires cross -- and because in SVG one of the 2 has to be on top of the other, the bottom one never sees the mouse event... just an educated guess, but probably best to stay away from overlaps in the wires.

2 Likes