The fourth and next final 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.
We had hoped beta.3 was going to be the last one before we got to the final release. But there were a few issues that were reported against it that we wanted to make sure were properly resolved before doing the final release. We've also happened to have a bit of a in rush of PRs from new contributors that brought some useful new features.
So here we have the next final beta with 24 PRs since the last beta.
If you haven't already, please read through the release notes for beta.1, beta.2 and beta.3.
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
- Importing flows via Import dialog (CTRL-I) fails with a pop up error
- PR raised to fix this
- will update the post with a workaround (if I can find a nice easy/friendly way)
- Editor fails to load if
settings.jsfile does not containeditorTheme.codeEditorproperty. The workaround is to add this property (which does exist in the default settings file):editorTheme: { ... codeEditor: { lib: 'monaco' } ... }
Stopping Flows without Stopping Node-RED
(Some how this feature didn't get mentioned in the ChangeLog...)
We've introduced the optional ability to run Node-RED without the flows themselves running. We already had Safe Mode that achieved a similar result, but with this new feature, you can stop and start the flows directly from the editor. The runtime will remember the state of the flows so when Node-RED starts up, the flows will stay in the same started/stopped state.
This feature is not enabled by default. To enable it, you need to add the following to your settings.js file:
runtimeState: {
enabled: true,
ui: true
}
(the exact details of that settings object may yet be tweaked before 3.0-final)
With that set, you get a new option in the Deploy menu:
Clicking that option will stop the flows running, but you can continue editing them and deploy changes. Whilst stopped, the Inject/Debug node buttons will be disabled.
When the flows are stopped, the menu shows a start option instead:
We're interested in feedback on the UX of this. There are some bits I think we can further refine - such as have a more obvious indicator in the workspace if the flows are stopped. There is also the existing 'Restart Flows' option - which is more technically a 'Reload Flows' as it does more than just stop/start.
Right-Click Menu
The Right-Click menu was introduced in beta.3. A few issues were raised around its behaviour on particular OS/browsers. We believe this release has addressed those issues.
Accessing previous welcome tours
We introduced the Welcome Tour back in 2.1.0 and it has been updated for each major release. With this release, we've added a way to access the tours of the previous releases in the Help sidebar:
Node Fixes
- CSV: Fix CSV node to handle when outputting text fields (#3716)
- Delay: Fix delay rate limit last timing when empty (#3709)
- Link: Ensure link-call cache is updated when link-in is modified (#3695)
- Join: Join node in reduce mode doesn't keep existing msg properties (#3670)
- Template: Add support for evalulating {{env.}} within a template node (#3690)
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've said with the last two three betas, this contains just about everything for the final release - but this time we mean it even even more.
There are a couple more minor PRs that I hope we can resolve for 3.0 which shouldn't require a whole new beta release. In terms of timing of the 3.0 release, the main challenge is scheduling the time it takes to do the final release. So rather than promise anything here, just know we want to get there as soon as time allows.
